TITLES ARE LEAVES
By Akin Ojumu
“Instead of
giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they
package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem
to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think
of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows,
embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to
sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent
positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary
degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend…’ Matthew 23:4-7 (Message)
The
Christian Church is filled with men who are enamored with titles, the Body of
Christ is packed with women who wear titles like jewelries. There are the Apostle
so and so, Pastor this and that, Archbishop lagbaja, Evangelist temedu.
Paul, who is,
arguably, the most spiritual man that ever lived and who has done more for the kingdom
of God than any other man, introduced himself in all his letters with a simple,
“Paul…” None of the men who walked with Jesus and were closest to Him called
themselves by any title. It was always, “Peter” or “John” or “James”.
We can easily measure the spiritual depth of a man of God by the title(s) he attaches to his name.
Obsession with
titles is a demonstration of spiritual immaturity. Those who clamor for titles are
like Adam and Eve who, after the fall and broken fellowship with God, cover themselves
up with leaves. The title a man calls himself, or craves to be called, is nothing more than affirmation of his spirituality in the eyes of men. Titles amount to nothing in the eyes of God.
Paul says in
1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ”
All those who are so fixated on titles do need urgent re-immersion in the Bible. Perhaps, they
can learn to follow the example of Paul.
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