Dear Trekker,
When I was a leader in youth ministry, often on trips to visit and encourage staff around the world, I would pull together male staff for the special “Jim talk”. I would begin with words similar to the following: “Each of you is only twenty minutes away from destroying your life.” (A little dramatic by intention!) Then I would add, “If you commit sexual sin outside of your marriage or with someone who is not your wife, I will immediately remove you from your position of leadership! I will not “drop” you personally or relationally. I will help you to recover. But you will have compromised your moral authority to lead and such action demands your relief from leadership.”
In leadership, there are few things (if any) more important than moral authority. When Jesus said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18), I believe he was expressing both moral and formal authority. In purely human dimension, the art of leadership is expressed from the solid base of moral and formal authority granted. Notice the words, “has been given to me”. The grantor was God the Father to His only begotten Son. So leadership (and authority to exercise it) is conferred or cast or appointed and also earned, maintained and expressed. Christ lived a sinless life and this sealed the authority granted by the Father. (It is interesting how the Evil One seeks to destroy such Truth, given the temptation of Christ recorded in Scripture, and down through history to the recent fictional novel, The Da Vinci Code.)
Generally, moral authority is assumed and taken for granted. When it is compromised by outward actions, there is always a price to pay. Ordained ministers resign from pulpits, priests and religious leaders slink into the background of shame, military commanders are relieved, and Presidents may be impeached. Nothing is more devastating to moral authority than sexual sin, even when “everybody is doing it”. Down deep, we expect more from our leaders, again underscoring the practical value of moral authority. We expect our leaders to be people of character, integrity, humility and decency.
Why is “good conduct” so important in the personal life of a leader and “bad conduct” (i.e. sexual sin) so devastating? In some of the challenging and perplexing issues of life, we should always go back to creation and determine what was intended as the noted, late British leader, John Stott, was known often to say. The question is, “what did God intend when he made man with a body, a soul and a spirit?” Three distinct elements… yet one person! I believe God wanted harmony, relational unity and purposeful wholeness, as is the nature of the Trinity. Hence, there were boundaries for the body in which he breathed the breathe of life from the dust of the ground. Do “whatever”, but do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for then you will die, physically, spiritually and socially. God’s laws are essential guides for man, instituted to preserve wholeness and purposefulness in life. (Trekker, re-read thoughtfully the Genesis account of creation to capture anew God’s intent.)
If man is made for wholeness and, in the theological terms of the shorter Westminster Catechism, “to know God and enjoy Him forever”, parameters are an amazingly helpful gift from God. The “do nots” prevent us from destroying ourselves. A man (or woman) that does not learn to say “no” internally, based upon inner strength, will do things he would not otherwise do, see things he should not see, and feel things he should not feel. The breakdown of moral character can be devastating! No wonder the Rabbi said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Little wonder, “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8)
Make no mistake, trekker, “sex” is good, very good. It is God’s incredible invention to bring pleasure and properly populate the world. He is the architect. It is intended as a beautiful expression of the deepest love between a man and a woman united as one (for that reason, “the marriage bed is undefiled”) and it was created out of His heart of love. But only in a covenant of intimacy can it be fully enjoyed to the depth it was created ((Hebrews 13:4). How intriguing… the more beautiful, unique and ubiquitous something is, such as our sexual nature, the more power it may hold over our lives. Hence, sexual relations, so natural and pleasurable, are so easily corrupted by the Evil One, prone to destroy insidiously a most precious gift. When we become more in love with a gift of God than with Him the Giver, that which is designed to bless, destroys instead. God cares immensely about our bodies! Our bodies are His temple, where he desires to reign and reside permanently. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
All sexual failure begins with a thought. This was the essence of the teaching by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5:28). A lustful thought (quite normal for us, trekker), not taken captive with a “No, I won’t go there… this is not who I am”, can lead to other perversions, e.g. viewing pornography. Sin always reproduces itself in increasingly greater measure, just like goodness blossoms and reproduces itself. The maturation process is in the DNA of life. If we do not “just say no” to sexual urges, they likely will take root and become deep seated in our hearts.
Trekker, God is concerned with our thought life; the heart of man, in a practical sense, is inseparable from it. Hence, the work of the Spirit is about purging a deleterious thought life and replacing it with His mind. “Let this mind be in you” must be our attitude. (Philippians 2) “Think on these things”, Paul says in Philippines 4:7-9, when he exhorts us to choose the pure, the lovely, the admirable, the praiseworthy.
“Don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, Romans 12:2.
Seeking to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16), let’s walk together.
Your friend,
Jim Meredith
