Moral failure

 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall! 1 Corinthians 10:12, ESV

Your phone rings or you meet someone in the parking lot of the church and you are asked, “Have you heard about [the name of a popular Christian leader]?” Your friend begins to relate a sordid story of moral failure and your immediate reac­tion is, “I never thought it could happen to that person! I just saw a feature on his leadership and accomplishments in a leading periodical. I can’t believe he would do that!” You are shocked and stunned. Yes, you know that the best of men are but men at their best, but you always felt that this person was a cut above the moral failures that brought shame and reproach to a broken-hearted wife and family.

Is any person, yourself included, above the terrible disgrace of moral failure? Paul’s strong words of exhortation are just as needed today as when he directed them to the Corinthians long ago: “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12, NLT).

It should be crystal clear that Satan delights in tripping God’s children, and the higher the profile the greater damage he inflicts – not only to the person and his family – but to the entire cause of Christ. “Aha!” people say, “Look at him; he’s no different from anyone else – bald-faced hypocrite!”

Never forget that the world remembers its own for their greatest accomplish­ment, but they remember God’s own for their greatest failure. In a rather remote area of China I was chatting with a group of young people when I was asked, “What about . . . ” and the name of well-known Christian leader whose marital fail­ure had just been in the news was mentioned. I was shocked that they even knew his name. “How did you hear about this?” I asked, and they quickly responded, “Oh, we read Time magazine.”

 Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit www. guidelines.org.