Black American Idols- Does your popularity condemn you?

No, Brothers and Sisters, we are not going back to high school.  Perish the thought.  However, High School may be a great place to begin this post. 

I know high school.  I should. I went to 4 different schools between 9th and 12th grade.  If there was one thing that I understood, it was this---the overwhelming majority of people wanted to be popular.  We all wanted in some way to be accepted by the peers we attended class with everyday.  As such, we were all sheep when it came to our taste in clothing, music, and other people.  Unfortunately, things have not changed much since high school.  Why do you think Facebook has a 'friends' counter on it.  Because it tells us how popular we are.  I've even heard grown people lamenting the fact that someone had ceased to be thier friend on Facebook.  

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Let's examine this through a biblical lens.  First, the word church means 'called out.'  Those of us who make up the body of Christ are 'called out' of the culture to be set apart for God.  Peter says it this way:

1 Peter 2:9-10 - 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called
you out of darkness into his wonderful light. NIV

If this is true, why do we as Black Christians seek the approval of the Black culture at large when we know the standards of the black culture are very different from those of God?  If we belong to God, why do we seek mans approval?  What are we doing getting our ideas from various media outlets that are spewing out unchristian ideas that sound good to the unsaved, but should be shunned by the Christian. 

Being popular means we must put aside Christ and embrace the world, because the word says the world will hate us like they hated Christ.

 John 15:19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

  So if we are popular with the world, then the world is seeing us and not Christ in us.  We are called to deny ourselves, and our selfish desires to be like the world so Christ can be glorified. 

 Matt 16:24-26 - "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a
man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

The danger is that our desire to be popular will cause us to sin.  It will lead us to do things so we can 'look' like the culture we so desperately want to be accepted by.  Your desire to be popular will cause you to compromise your relationship with Christ in favor of a union with this world.

But our Bible teaches this:

Eph 4:17-24 - 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no
longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are
darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all
sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every
kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 20 You, however, did not come
to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in
accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to
your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by
its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and
to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness. NIV

I will end with this thought.  More is not always better. If you have a plethora of worldly friends and worldly relationships, you may want to question your commitment to Christ.  If your friends have not turned on you because of Christ, then you may not be showing enough of Christ in your daily walk.  If the Bible is true, then people will hate you because of Him.  You will not be popular.  You will not be beloved.  You will walk the narrow road which does not allow many to walk with you.