What’s going on? Why are some Christian leaders falling into the lowest pits of sin (and this includes those in Christian media and also many pulpits in the land)? What are the lessons God is trying to teach His Church? And while avoiding a condemning attitude toward those who fall, what is the equal danger of making forgiveness too “easy” and restoration to the ministry a speeded-up process with deadly ramifications?

I offer this teaching in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 2:3, “weakness, fear and much trembling” and with the terrible awareness of 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” But I also offer it with an honest heart, knowing that God’s grace is sufficient for every test (II Corinthians 12:9) and that He who has begun a good work in you and me will perform it as we yield to Him one day at a time (Philippians 1:6).

Certain facts need to be taught. These journeys into immorality and many other sins must not merely be attributed to a “last days” scenario, as if Christians are suddenly snagged by the devil with no warning or power to resist. Such is not the case. The dirtier the world gets and the more sin abounds, the more powerfully the ever-living God has caused His grace to abound in those who are willing to experience it (Romans 5:20).

Christ’s resurrection power leaves us with no excuse in any age, so the Holy Spirit must have many lessons that He is urgently attempting to teach His Church –and especially those who call ourselves Christian leaders. Let me cover this chapter in seven simple but profound and dynamic principles. The truth is that no Christian leader need fall into sin. God has provided a way to avoid every fatal trap of Satan, as we are about to discover.

Caring Christians rightfully ache when revelations of sin in the lives of Christian leaders are made public. But to blame these revelations on Satan is to be scripturally incorrect. Obviously, the world—especially the media—is happy over Christian scandal. There is no doubt that the cause of Christ and even the name of God is blasphemed when those who name His name and preach His gospel are revealed as first class hypocrites (Romans 2:21-24), but God Himself never changes and is never tarnished.

In fact, it is God who is ordering the shaking. Hebrews 12:27 indicates that He is shaking everything that is loose and that does not stick to His standards of purity, power and principle.

That’s the good news out of bad. When Christians in high places, greatly used of God, suddenly fall from the heights, many of us rightly tremble with, “But for the grace of God, there go I.” We begin to search our hearts more thoroughly (Psalm 139:23,24) to see if spiritual termites have invaded our own infrastructure. We see our own human willingness to live a pure life as inadequate to stand the assaults of today’s temptations and we cry out to a sovereign God for supernatural grace to carry us through (Hebrews 12:28, 4:14-16). We also recognize that an avalanche of sin doesn’t just happen in a moment – but accumulates over a period of time with one flake of compromise at a time. The deadly progression of sin mentioned in James 1:13-16 begins with appetites that are allowed to creep in and then rage out of control before a final, full bite into sin.

Another lesson that the Church is getting is that God will allow no “superstars” in genuine Christianity. There are no superstars among human beings – only a super God. He will share the credit and the glory with no man, declaring “My glory will I not give to another” (Isaiah 42:8) and will not tolerate His Church being molded into the world’s behavior and its principles of performance.

When sin in the camp rises to certain unacceptable heights, even a long-suffering God, who has promised to bring everything out at the judgement seat of Christ, doesn’t wait for eternity but comes as a consuming fire, revealing sin publicly for all to see. Fact is, no man wants a prostitute for a bride—and God won’t stand for His bride playing the adulteress or allowing the seeming “success” of spiritual leaders to blind us to the fact that we are to “know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16)—not by their performance or crowd numbers.

Something else that is good is coming out of the shaking. It’s easy for people in smaller and humbler churches to be enthralled with the Christian media “giants” –even to the point of unconsciously subjecting their own pastors to the “little faith” category. But along comes a horrifying scandal and suddenly their pastor’s worth goes up. He is seen as the real spiritual giant, by the grace of God, because of his long-term faithfulness to Christ, his mate, his family and his ministry. Some Christians even begin to spend more hours using their talents in their own church vineyard.

And a mocking world, while laughing on the outside at Christian scandals, often trembles and begins to fear, because the same sins they themselves are committing have just been exposed in the Christian leader as something ugly and unacceptable. And since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7), some in the secular world become wise enough to confess their own hidden sins and meet Jesus Christ, who alone measures up as the “true hero.”

(TO BE CONTINUED)