You followers of men claiming authority, should consider taking caution. No leader, obtains true followers by their position, but by their faith in a vision and their actions that back it up. Their words, regardless of how righteous they may sound, are only backed up by their actions. 

Jesus led by example. His actions proved his righteousness. Not his words. I, a mere mortal, cannot predict the future, but if I had to try, I would say that Christianity never would have spread the world over if it were not for the actions of Jesus. Rather than “his writings”.

Those who have been engaged in leading people know that it is not our title that makes people follow us. It is our vision for the future, and our actions that prove that not only do we believe, but that we are willing to seek out its fulfillment, even in the absence of the belief from others.

At the risk of sounding heretical, or an atheist, none of which is true, I posit this controversial statement.

There are some that are satisfied with following the will of God simply because that is what God wills. They say that “because it is God” that is sufficient reason to follow the LORD. I kindly disagree and suggest, that is the kind of weak foundation that produces weak belief. Perhaps there is a stronger argument here. Jesus said it best:

“A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.”

The fruit of God is life and more. We should believe and trust in God, not because they are words from “the all mighty”, but rather simply because God has proven, through actions, that God is good.

The same should be said of Jesus. Jesus’ actions, and not just his words, are why Jesus should be followed. Jesus was blameless, and yet persecuted none-the-less. Not only was persecuted, he knew that he would be persecuted for saying words that offended the authorities, and yet said them anyway. And never once, failing in his actions.

This is far from what we could say about ourselves, but we are asked to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. 

This is the origin of leadership. This is the true origin of the authority to request others to follow us. Not our titles. Any man, who tries to get you to follow them and uses their title as a justification is saying that you should follow the organization, for its organizational sake and NOT because of their belief in “the cause”.

Would they follow the vision even if they didn’t have the title? Would they try to get others to do as they are requesting, even without the title?

If they were righteous, they would appeal to the righteousness of the activity, and not appeal to the magical influence of their title. I am thankful that people are willing to use their title, because it is the easiest test, to not follow them. At least not now.