YOU ARE FIRST A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST…

You are first a follower of Christ: every other thing comes after that

The seduction of power begins not with a blatant ethical violation, but with a quiet, seismic shift in self-perception. The honorifics, the corner office, the influence—these are not merely roles you play; they become layers of identity that threaten to encase and redefine your core. You introduce yourself by your title, your mind is preoccupied with its preservation, and your faith risks becoming a respectable accessory to this primary project, a source of moral language for speeches or private comfort for doubts. This is the foundational peril. To counter it, you must daily perform the spiritual discipline of re-ordering your allegiances, consciously affirming that your most fundamental identity was conferred not by any board or ballot, but on the day you were united with Christ. Before you are a leader in any earthly domain, you are a citizen of a Kingdom where the last are first, the servants are greatest, and the King wore a crown of thorns. This citizenship defines your ultimate loyalty, your source of wisdom, and the metric by which all your decisions must be secretly weighed.

History and scripture provide the stark models for this hierarchy of identity. Consider Daniel, a man who rose to the pinnacle of political power in two successive pagan empires, Babylon and Persia. He was addressed as “chief of the magicians” and “one of the three satraps,” titles of immense prestige. Yet, when these titles conflicted with his primary identity as a servant of the God of Israel, his choice was instant and clear. He did not cease to be an excellent administrator; he continued to serve the king with distinction. But he famously “went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem” to pray, knowingly violating a royal decree. For Daniel, his political office was a platform for his faithfulness, not the other way around. His primary identity dictated the limits and the mission of his secondary one, even at the risk of his life.

In the contemporary arena, we see the tension—and often the failure—of this principle. Many leaders begin with a public profession of faith, only to have it gradually subsumed by partisan ideology or corporate dogma. Their policy positions or business strategies become indistinguishable from their secular counterparts, with faith reduced to a personal sentiment. Contrast this with the example of leaders like the late Czech playwright and president, Václav Havel. While not a traditionally evangelical Christian, Havel’s entire dissident philosophy was built on the concept of “living in truth,” a radical commitment to a moral order beyond the oppressive political system. This primary commitment to truth, which for the Christian is embodied in Christ, dictated all his actions and ultimately made him a transformative figure. It was his core, non-negotiable identity that shaped his exercise of power, not the power that reshaped his identity. Therefore, your first task each day is not governance or strategy, but worship. You must consciously kneel, in spirit if not in body, and reaffirm that you belong to Another. This is the only anchor that will hold in the storm of pressures you face. It will allow you to receive criticism without being destroyed, to wield authority without being intoxicated by it, and to engage in necessary compromise on tactics without surrendering core convictions. When the system demands your soul in exchange for success, this ordered identity grants you the clarity to refuse. It allows you to work within the system not as a captive, but as a missionary of a different order, using the tools of power for purposes that transcend it. Everything you do—every deal, every vote, every hire, every fire—flows from this source. If that spring is contaminated with the brine of ambition or fear, everything downstream will be poisoned. Guard the spring. You are, first and forever, a follower of Christ.