May 8, 2026

Business by the Book

Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Followship is a prerequisite for leadership. When Jesus surveyed the population for men that He would train to carry on His work on earth he began by inviting them to follow Him. The Lord used that phrase several times in Scripture; some did follow Him, but not all. He could have invited many others to follow Him that were not included in the Bible. We do not know exactly how many He invited to follow him, but we do know that the two to whom He spoke in the above verse did choose to follow Him (Peter and Andrew).

Throughout the Bible there are st0ries of individuals who learned to follow their leader and then became a wonderful leader in their own right. Aaron followed Moses and became the first Jewish High Priest. Elisha followed Elijah and followed in Elijah’s office as a major prophet. Solomon followed David his father and was promoted to King in David’s stead. Timothy followed Paul, and the disciples followed Jesus and continued on after the Lord’s ascension to do the work of building churches, propagating the Gospel, and training their replacements.

Great and successful people are good followers, which in time forms them into good leaders. Put about ten people in a group, have the leader of the group give instructions about that which each person should be doing, and the future leader of the group will probably be the best follower. They know how to take instruction and complete the task to the satisfaction of the leader. When occasion demands that a new leader be appointed, the best follower will be heavily considered for job. That is unless the manager is poor at his job and allows friendship, family, or other non-job related considerations to influence his decision. Why does the good follower make a good leader? Because if they can follow in the least of things, they can be trusted to follow in the more important things (tomorrow we will deal with a verse that proves this).

Think about this, every person no matter how high they are in an organization is to be a follower. I’m a pastor; technically I have no earthly supervisor, manager, or boss. But I still must be a follower. I am to follow the Lord and His Word, I am to follow the constitution of our church, I am to follow my schedule, and I am to be a servant follower of the flock which God has entrusted to me. CEO’s have the board of directors, investors, and even customers that, if they are wise, they follow.

The person who does not know how to follow will have a difficult time earning long term success and stability. By the way, in the New Testament believers in Christ are told to “follow after” three things: peace, charity, and righteousness. If you have achieved the position in life in which you have no immediate superior, spend your days following after those three things. Make them your boss and it will be well, not only with your soul, but also with your efforts in business.

Dr. William Howe