Perhaps little has done more to hinder the credibility of Christianity in the West over the past few decades than the scandalous behavior of church leaders, pastors and priests who have betrayed the public trust and brought shame upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the massive Roman Catholic sex scandal and subsequent cover-up by church officials has captured most of the media attention in recent years, many examples of sexual sin and financial indescretion have come to light in Evangelical circles to our own shame. Public scandal and media attention, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. I remember reading an article in Leadership Journal several years ago that gave truly shocking statistics on how many active pastors are addicted to pornography or have crossed a sexual or emotional boundary of some kind in their ministry with one of their parishoners. Pastors are clearly not exempt from sexual sin and financial scandal, but the consequences of sin in the life of the pastor can be absolutely devestating on a number of levels.
It is to this very important subject, that Richard Baxter devotes his attention in the next section of the Reformed Pastor: "Take heed to yourselves, for you have a depraved nature, and sinful inclinations, as well as others. If innocent Adam had need of heed, and lost himself and us for want of it, how much more need have such as we! Sin dwelleth in us, when we have preached ever so much against it; and one degree prepareth the heart for another, and one sin inclineth the mind to more." (73) Baxter warns us that Satan takes particular pleasure in attacking the officers in God's army so that he might scatter the entire battalion: "Take heed to yourselves, because the tempter will more ply you with his temptations than other men...He beareth the greatest malice to those that are engaged to do him the greatest mischief. As he hateth Christ more than any of us, because he is the General of the field, teh Captain of our salvation, and doth more than all the world besides against his kingdom; so doth he hate the leaders that are under him, more than the common soldiers: he knows what a rout he may make among them, if the leaders fall before their eyes...Take heed, therefore, brethren, for the enemy hath a special eye upon you." (74)
Sin that causes leaders to fall into disgraceful scandals is particuarly dangerous for pastors for a number of reasons which Baxter highlights. First, the pastor is a role model for the flock and is under close observation for better or for worse: "The eclipses of the sun by day are seldom without witnesses. As you take yourselves for the lights of the churches, you may expect that men's eyes will be upon you. If other men may sin without observation, so cannot you. And you should thankfully consider how great a mercy this is, that you have so many eyes to watch over you, and so many ready to tell you of your faults; and thus have greater helps than others, at least for restraining you from sin." (75-76)
Second, a pastor who knows God's Word does not sin in ignorance and thus heaps judgment upon his own head: "You are more likely than others to sin against knowledge becasue you have more than they; at least you sin against more light light, or means of knowledge." (76)
Third, hypocrisy in a pastor brings public disgrace on Christ in a greater measure than sin among the laity: "O what a heinous thing is it in us, to study how to disgrace sin to the utmost, and make it as odious in the eyes of our people as we can, and when we have done, to live in it, and secretly cherish that which we publically disgrace! What vile hypocrisy is it to make it our daily work to cry it down, and yet to keep to it; to call it publically all naught, and privately to make it our bed-fellow and companion; to bind heavy burdens on others and not to touch them ourselves with a finger!" (76-77)
Fourth, public disgrace among Christian pastors brings disgrace on all Christians generally and attacks the credibility of the Church's witness for Christ in the world: "Would it not wound you to the heart to hear the name and truth of God reproached for your sakes; to see men point to you, and say, 'There goes a covetous priest, a secret tippler, a scandalous man; these are they that preach for strictness, while they themselves can live as loose as others; they condemn us by their sermons, and condemn themselves by their lives; nothwithstanding all their talk, they are as bad as we.' O brethren, could your hearts endure to hear men cast the dung of your iniquities in the face of the holy God, and in the face of the gospel, and of all that desire to fear the Lord? Would it not bread your hearts to think tthat all the godly Christians about you should suffer reproach for your misdoings?" (79)
Baxter points out the wickedness and deception that lurks within the human heart - even in the heart of many pastors who preach every sunday but are not truly born again by the Spirit of God: "I know indeed, that a wicked man may be more willing of the reformation of others than of his own, and hence may show a kind of earnestness in dissuading them from their evil ways; becasue he can preach against sin at an easier rate than he can forsake it, and another man's reformation may consist with his own enjoyment of his lusts." (83)
These are very heavy words to read, but words that all of us in public, gospel ministry must take very seriously. To whom much is given much will be required!
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