Who do you follow

Who do you follow?

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.  
My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.  
What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas’”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?  
I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name.  
(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.)  
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” 
                                                       1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Here in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 is something I hear today even within the small church I attend.
I hear people say I listen to (translation follow) such and such a preacher or evangelists teachings, I like what he says. Others say they follow other ministers and evangelist. This should not be so. We must follow Christ.
In our city there was a fair sized church that had eight or nine hundred people at it’s peak it was a breakaway church from a much larger one. This church even opened it’s own Bible school.
Many at the church hung on every word of the pastor. They trusted him implicitly. They never questioned him or his teaching.
Sadly he fell into sin not only that, when he’d originally started the church he placed most of the assets, the equipment the church used in his name. Almost everything except the building itself.
Thus when he left, he left the church in a great deal of trouble.
Not only that many who had followed him fell away from the church and they didn’t go to another church. They simply left the fellowship of believers all together.
They had followed the man and when he fell they were devastated and fell also.
We are never to follow “a man” we are to follow Christ.
At Corinth the believers were following the teachings of various men and obviously debating the teachings of those men to the point it seemed to be dividing them. Paul warned them not to do this. To get rid of the divisions among them.
Just because we are baptized by someone or saved through the ministry of a particular pastor does not mean we have to follow that pastor blindly. We should be following Christ.
The church who’s pastor went off the rails I mentioned earlier is an example of how people follow blindly someone’s teaching.
As Christians we are called to follow the teaching of Jesus.
Yes various men and women and Christian groups vary somewhat in the way they interpret scripture but that I think is human nature.
The key is that despite the various interpretations. These interpretations should neither add to or take away from the teaching of Christ.
The Apostles Creed while not written by the apostles summerize what the basic believes of all Christians are in a simple concise way.
The Apostles Creed
1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:
3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:
4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:
5. The third day he rose again from the dead:
6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:
8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:
9. I believe in the holy catholic* church: the communion of saints:
10. The forgiveness of sins:
11. The resurrection of the body:
12. And the life everlasting. Amen.
(*Note in this case Catholic means, the true Christian church of all times and all places.)
We are called to let Christ and His teachings be the centre of our lives. As a result we should be reading scripture, as well as sitting under the teachings of good pastors, Christian leaders and teachers.
Think about it.