THE MAN OF GOD

Karl Marx was clearly a godless man. However, he made a poignant remark that religion is the opium of the masses. You hated him for saying that but after watching people behave as though they have no thought in their head on account of religion, you silently, regrettably and embarrassingly agree with the man. Everywhere you turn, you find religion blindfolding and beclouding people’s reasoning just as opium would numb them making them oblivious of realities.

This is very evident in the church. No thanks to the ‘men of God’ who have mastered the skill of administering this medication. These men make us dependent on them as though they were God. They pose as the custodians of the mercy and wrath of God to perpetuate this blackmail. They like to have the ascendency over everyone else. They are “Jesus Junior”. They are the Lord’s brothers while the rest of us are his cousins, nieces, nephews, admirers and fans. The point is that they pose to be related to God in ways the rest of us are not. Definitely all men of God are not like this. There are those who do their best to make sure their people are not so drugged...

Considering how terrified people often are about the “man of God”, the question to ask becomes: who really is a man of God? What makes someone a man of God? Is it self-acclamation where someone decides that he is one? Is it a dramatic spiritual experience? Is it going to a school of ministry or obtaining a degree from a Bible College? Is it being anointed and declared man of God by another more anointed man of God? Can a person fulfil all the above rites and yet not be a man of God?

I think that any man that is born of God (born again) is a man of God. The person is born into the family of God and immediately receives the status. In God’s family, everyone is equal. The Book says we are not only members of the same body but “members one of another”, Rom. 12.5. This means that whatever anyone is, everyone is. We are all equally called chosen generation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Besides being a man of God by virtue of born of God, a man is also a man of God if he is on a mission for God. Again, that makes all of us. Has God not call each of us to carry out one responsibility or another in his kingdom. Our responsibilities are not the same but they are equally important.

What is amazing in our claim of supremacy over one another in the church is that the Lord Jesus whom we claim to follow does not claim supremacy over his people. He calls them brethren and friends. He says he is one with them. He calls himself son of man (while we emphasize how we are men of God). He says he came not to be served but to be a servant of all. The closest we come to calling ourselves servants is to call ourselves, like Rick Warren observes, “servant leaders”, never just servants.

To be liberated from the opium of religion, it may be important for us to develop a healthy view of our ‘men of God’. We are to honour and respect anyone that God uses to minister to us but by all means we must know that he like the rest of us is child of God. He is human and subject to all that comes with that nature.