The Subtle Drift from Respect to Worship
When Honour Becomes Idolatry
Hello to my 20 subscribers and those who will be joining us soon.
It has been almost two months since I last wrote. In my last post, I started a series that I plan to complete by God’s grace, but I want to pause to address an issue in the body of Christ.
I was on my way to dispose of the bin, and I overheard my parents’ conversation. I joined in, and during the conversation, I had an epiphany: When does a person become an idol to people, and what is the thin line between honouring a pastor and speaking out about what they are doing wrong? Many believers today have made their pastors the centre of faith rather than Christ. They no longer measure the words of their pastor through the lens of the bible; rather, they take whatever the pastor says as the bible. Before you decide to stop reading, please keep an open mind and continue.
The role of a pastor is to lead and care for God’s people, guiding them like a shepherd (1 Peter 5:2-3). They equip the church for ministry, teach God’s word, help the church learn to serve, and provide spiritual support to those in need (Titus 1:9, Ephesians 4:11-12). Above all, the role of the pastor is to point people to Jesus. Unfortunately, some people have made their pastors into idols without realising it. A person becomes an idol when the loyalty, trust and dependency they have for God alone suddenly transfers to another person.
The painful truth is that this shift can be very subtle; it begins when a person carries more weight than the word of God (the Bible) or when defending them becomes more important than standing for the truth. Idolatry begins when devotion to a person starts to replace our devotion to Christ. According to A.W. Tozer in the book The Pursuit of God, “Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”
The bible warns in Jeremiah 17:5 (NLT):“ This is what the Lord says: Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.” Pastors are a gift from God (Ephesians 4:11), but they are not God, so our loyalty to God must outweigh our loyalty to any human leader. The bible commands us to honour spiritual leaders (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13), but not blindly. Paul, who was an apostle, commended the Bereans because they examined the scriptures every day to see if what he and Silas were teaching was the truth (Acts 17:11).
The thin line between honouring a pastor and speaking out about their wrongs is: respect, prayer and support, but also willingness to test every teaching against the word of God. The bible says in 1 Timothy 5:17 NLT, “Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching.” In the same vein, the bible instructs us to rebuke those who persist in sin (1 Timothy 5:20). Honour is not blind loyalty but love for the person and loyalty to God above all. The line is crossed when correction turns into slander, or when silence allows sin to grow because of fear.
Some believers quote “Touch not my anointed” as if it means, “Never question a pastor.” But in Psalm 105:15, God was speaking of protecting His covenant people from physical harm by foreign nations. It wasn’t a ban on accountability. The Hebrew word for “touch” (nāgaʿ) means to strike or harm physically. The same God who anoints leaders also commands His church to rebuke those who persist in sin (1 Timothy 5:20) and to test every teaching against His Word (Acts 17:11). Honour protects a leader from harm, but it also protects them from falling into sin unchecked. Silence in the name of honour is not faithfulness; it’s fear.
In conclusion, honouring pastors is important because they are chosen to lead God’s people; however, it doesn’t mean placing them above the word of God and allowing sin to go unchallenged. I hope this has blessed you, and if it did, please share it with someone you know who might need it and also subscribe. Till I write again, God bless you.
