I was reading the news and found an article about the inappropriate text messages sent by a person working at a Christian ministry. This person had targeted young girls and now the girls were speaking out about this. It was appalling to read, but sadly it is a very familiar story of our days. I spoke to a few friends who said that as parents they’re struggling to explain the reality to their teenagers and pre-teens.
It is a hard conversation to have, particularly when you don’t want to seem like you’re bashing Christians. As Christians we’ve been taught that we must not talk ill of the anointed of God and this makes it extremely difficult for us to talk about what is going on- for fear of repercussion, both supernaturally as well as earthly.
I think there’s been a fundamental shift of the perception of God men due to the nature of these horrendous allegations, sadly more are true than not.
The questions that mostly get asked are, “how can a ‘man of God’ do that?” “How could he sin like that?”
We need to explore the answers to these questions from the Bible. We all know the verse in Romans 3:23, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. I think we need to delve a little deeper into that chapter. It goes on to say that people are made right in God through Jesus (v25-26) and that God judges people fairly.
I found verse 27 onwards to be the most intriguing. It translates that ‘being a person of faith is no reason to boast’ which indirectly means that we as Christians have no reason to uphold a so-called ‘man of faith’ in any greater position to ourselves. Verse 31 says that by our faith we actually uphold the laws of the land- which means that by no means is a Christian pastor or preacher or someone who ‘speaks to God’ or ‘prophesies’ above the laws in force by our governments.
Too often Christian leaders accused of horrendous atrocities believe that they have power over the common man because they in close communion with God. This is again contradictory to the Word of God. 1 John 1:8 says that if anyone believes that they are without sin then the truth is not in them. If we flip that around it means that if we believe any man is sinless, we are deceiving ourselves.
We, as believers need to find the truth in God’s word. We need to as parents also be able to have honest discussions with our children about the risks that come with trusting people. We need to allow our children to come tell us when they have experienced something that they feel is inappropriate.
I have experienced and witnessed parents who diminish the impact of what has happened to their children and make excuses for the actions of the ‘man of God.’
Let’s take the very same example that prompted me to write this blog. If a teenage girl tells her parents that she has received inappropriate texts from her local youth pastor, her parents might have one of two reactions.
One- they tell their child that the pastor didn’t mean anything by it and that he or she was trying to talk or behave like the ‘youngsters’ of this generation or two, the parents would yell at the child and either blame them for instigating the text message exchange or say that God will punish them for falsely blaming a ‘man of God.’
Do you see how neither response is helpful?
How can you blame your child who has mustered up so much courage to tell you that they don’t feel safe? Your children know how you would react and yet choose to tell you something that is deeply embarrassing and hurtful, and if we don’t trust or acknowledge their pain, then you have lost their trust forever.
If this was any other person not using the church or God as their shield and had sent inappropriate texts, then would we have immediately reacted differently. Why?
Is it because we allow these ‘men of God’ to have that power over our children?
No man is holy. Only God is Holy.
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We cannot expect man to leave the sin that he is born with because temptation surrounds all of us in some shape or form.
We must teach our children these fundamental Christian values. Even the man after God’s own heart fell to carnal sin, so how can we behave as if this sin doesn’t exist in so called ‘holy’ men.
Our children must surround themselves with Christian company to increase their faith, but that alone will do nothing for their faith. They must surround themselves with the Word of God- because nothing else can set them free (John 8:32).
It has been a challenging post to write, but we must allow our children to come talk to us freely without the fear of condemnation, because as parents we are put on earth to protect them and be their defence in this world.
Our foundation as Christians must lie in Romans 3:10 “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one…”
1 Samuel 2:2 “There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”
There are no God-men, there is but one Holy God.
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