“ LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.
— Psalm 130:3-4 (NLT)”
Response
A good friend of mine, who is not a Christian, said to me over dinner the other day that he believed leaders of the church (e.g. priests and ministers) should not be permitted to commit sin. This means no sex, no drinking, no cursing, no piercings, no dancing downtown on a Saturday night, no listening to Madonna… Nada.
My response was that I think he's forgetting something very fundamental about human beings. There are going to be a lot of people who disagree with me on this one, but ever since the garden — the first two humans on earth — we have all been sinners by nature. God created us in His image, perfect, and we ruined it. Thanks, Eve.
So we're all sinners; does that mean our luck has run out? No! Don't forget that we're not running the show… Our luck doesn't run out until God says it does. And lucky for us, he doesn't keep a record of our sins. Remember Moses? He was a murderer! Remember Peter? He was a betrayer! And these people are so loved by God that they were written into the biggest best seller the world has ever known. Maybe we would think that they didn't "deserve" it, but do we really deserve every blessing God has allowed into our lives?
King David spoke of this, describing the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared to be righteous: "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose sin is no longer counted against them by the Lord."
— Romans 4:6-8 (NLT)
I agree that church leaders should live righteously, love the Lord, and be instruments of Christ's love, but I don't think they need to be as pure as God Himself. First, it's not possible. I don't believe in trying to force someone to be someone other than who they are — forcing a human, who is sinful by nature, into a life of apparent sinlessness is akin to putting a square peg through a circular hole. It's just not who we are designed to be.
More importantly, God doesn't keep a record of our sins. He's the Amelia Bedelia of record keepers, making bank errors in your favor when your account balance is in the red and your house note is due. He asks so little in return, only that we maintain an account with His bank!
So no, I don't think it's necessary for church leaders to be 100% squeaky clean. I can't identify with that. It's not who I am, and I'd argue it's not who they are either. Break out the wine and give your wife a kiss. Praise God!
Sorry if the last two posts seemed like digs at the Catholic Church. They weren't.