From the earliest days of adolescence, almost everyone aspires to be popular. I never met anyone when I was younger who told me they wanted to be unpopular. As beings created in the image of God, we all desire relationship and communion with others. (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:18) Some personality types desire this more than others, but we all need it. In our formative years, popularity is something we crave. We all want to fit in, to be liked, and to have others respect our opinions.
Such desires don’t vanish when we finish school. It continues to resonate with us as we enter the workforce, move into neighborhoods, and develop social relationships. Even in our church communities, no one wants to be unpopular. When everyone desires something, it should set off warning bells in our minds. (Romans 12:2)
It’s easy to think Jesus was popular. Enormous crowds followed Him wherever He went. (Matthew 4:25; Mark 1:33) Everyone wanted to speak to Him, see Him, even touch the tassels on His robe. (Mark 5:27–28) As with popularity today, people are popular because of what others perceive they can do for them. The vast majority of the crowds following Jesus didn’t follow Him because they believed Him to be the Messiah (John 6:26). They followed Him because He could heal their diseases and provide food for them at no charge. (John 6:2; John 6:11) Jesus became unpopular in a hurry when it became obvious He wasn’t going to be who they wanted Him to be. (John 6:66)
Recent surveys reveal that a third of 12-15-year-olds and over half of 8-12-year-olds want to grow up to be social media influencers. That’s a career that didn’t even exist when most of this audience was growing up. Kids no longer only want to be popular, but to make a living at it. The popularity bug isn’t diminishing; it’s spreading at an insatiable rate. (2 Timothy 3:1–2)
What did Jesus have to say about being popular? In a nutshell, He said it wasn’t a path anyone following Him could pursue. In plain language, Jesus taught that if we love Him, the world will hate us. (John 15:18–19) Following Jesus is the quickest way to become unpopular in this life. (Luke 6:22) How many popular celebrities and public figures have you seen tank their careers by declaring their love for Jesus? We’ve all seen it happen, but not very often because professing Christians in the public sphere know declaring their love for Jesus is career suicide. Of course, refusing to proclaim the name of Jesus is suicide of a far deadlier kind. (Matthew 10:32–33; Mark 8:38)
If Jesus is your Lord, get comfortable with being unpopular. Popularity only brings glory to yourself, and that’s never the desire of a follower of Christ. (Galatians 1:10) The reason we breathe is to bring glory to Him alone. (1 Corinthians 10:31) I don’t care if anyone else in this world ever knows my name, only that they come to know Jesus. In my life, I’ve had periods of popularity and periods of being so unpopular as to be borderline anonymous. I can say without reservation that anonymity is better by far. Anonymity lets you do the work God calls you to do, to get out of the way so all anyone can see is Jesus. (2 Corinthians 4:5) When you choose Christ, this world will hate you. (John 15:19) You will be unpopular. It’s okay, Jesus was hated and unpopular too. (Isaiah 53:3; John 1:11)