What Sins Disqualify a Pastor for Life?
00:00:00.000 | What sins disqualify a pastor for life?
00:00:09.780 | Are there any?
00:00:10.780 | It's a great question I've wondered about for a long time and today it's a question
00:00:14.480 | from a young woman we get to address now on the podcast.
00:00:17.760 | She writes in to ask this, "Hello Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast.
00:00:20.960 | My church is currently discussing hiring a man to join our church staff full-time.
00:00:24.520 | However, this man recently left another church because of adultery.
00:00:29.080 | He was caught, repented, and asked for forgiveness.
00:00:31.240 | I certainly believe Christ forgives adultery.
00:00:34.200 | But from reading the passages on church leaders in the pastoral epistles, I don't see how
00:00:37.760 | it could be God's will for him to continue pastoring."
00:00:41.760 | What are your thoughts?
00:00:42.880 | Is repentance enough to make this man a leader in another church?
00:00:46.040 | And more generally, what sins, if any, disqualify a pastor for life?
00:00:52.680 | What I can give here is my considered opinion, informed, I hope, I believe, by 50 years of
00:01:02.880 | watching ministry and being in ministry and 50 years of soaking in the Bible.
00:01:09.000 | But I can't give you a word that I think has the absolute backing of God's authority behind
00:01:16.520 | it with regard to any specified amount of time that might need to elapse before somebody
00:01:23.920 | could prove himself a new person and thus able after adultery to serve again.
00:01:31.440 | Because I don't think the Bible gives a clear instruction about how a disqualified pastor
00:01:39.880 | can become qualified again.
00:01:43.000 | I'll try to unpack that as we go.
00:01:45.240 | I don't think this is the kind of issue where the church as a whole will ever have agreement.
00:01:53.760 | And that's not simply owing to the fact that the Bible doesn't give pointers.
00:01:58.000 | It does, I think, and I'll try to share those.
00:02:01.520 | It's owing to how incredibly diverse our minds and hearts are when it comes to prioritizing,
00:02:08.760 | one, the protection of the flock and the honor of the gospel on the one hand, and two, on
00:02:17.040 | the other hand, acknowledging the preciousness of God's patience and compassion and forgiveness.
00:02:24.920 | People assess relationship between these two, severity that says, "You will never touch
00:02:32.440 | this flock again.
00:02:33.960 | This flock is too precious and the gospel too precious for the way you have dishonored
00:02:39.120 | it."
00:02:40.120 | That's kind of one mindset.
00:02:41.120 | And the other says, "No, no, no.
00:02:42.320 | We must exalt in God's patience and compassion and forgiveness."
00:02:46.680 | And even this restored pastor can model that.
00:02:49.560 | You hear the two poles that we feel, and both are real.
00:02:53.960 | They're both biblically rooted and genuine.
00:02:58.200 | And the question is, how do you bring them together in making decisions like this?
00:03:03.440 | I don't think that means that each local church or each denomination shouldn't come to one
00:03:10.280 | mind about how they will, in fact, function in the calling and the keeping or not of elders
00:03:17.820 | and pastors.
00:03:18.920 | I think every local church should pray and think and study their way through the Scriptures
00:03:25.280 | into a position from which the elders can work in unity with regard to these kinds of
00:03:31.580 | things.
00:03:33.440 | The fact that it may be different from some other churches, I think, is almost inevitable,
00:03:39.260 | but I think a church has to function, and so there needs to be a biblical effort to
00:03:45.760 | say, "Well, here's where we stand, and we're not going to elevate this to absolute law
00:03:49.240 | for all churches, but we must function.
00:03:51.160 | Here's what we see in the Bible."
00:03:53.360 | So having said all that, let me give you my opinion and a few biblical pointers.
00:03:59.520 | The very fact that in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 there are criteria for eldership, pastorate,
00:04:07.120 | shows that churches are to put in the necessary and difficult effort.
00:04:15.080 | We're put in a position that's necessary because of those texts and difficult regarding
00:04:22.680 | the fact that some men are suitable and others are not for the role of pastor.
00:04:30.120 | That's what qualifications mean.
00:04:33.280 | This necessarily means that you can be a completely forgiven sinner walking in a way that is pleasing
00:04:42.200 | to the Lord and not be qualified to be an elder, and not just because you don't have
00:04:47.280 | the gift of teaching or the wisdom of governance or leadership.
00:04:52.080 | So the first thing to say is that churches and Christian leaders in particular need to
00:04:58.240 | have the emotional backbone to live with the blowback of making difficult decisions like
00:05:07.180 | this, because there will be, especially in our day where we don't like the idea of saying
00:05:14.300 | that some Christians qualify for this and some don't.
00:05:18.140 | That's the first thing to say.
00:05:19.880 | Emotional backbone is going to be essential.
00:05:22.320 | Second thing to say is that there is a vast difference between being forgiven and being
00:05:28.160 | trusted.
00:05:30.400 | Forgiveness is based on the blood of Christ and can be granted and received instantaneously
00:05:37.240 | upon genuine repentance.
00:05:40.320 | But being trusted is not based merely on the blood of Christ.
00:05:47.720 | It is based also on proven trustworthiness in life.
00:05:54.440 | Adultery committed against one's wife is just about as bad a blow against a man's trustworthiness
00:06:03.520 | as could be delivered.
00:06:05.900 | She may, I pray she would, have the grace to forgive him if he is repentant.
00:06:14.440 | But the restoration of trust with her, with others, with a church, may take years, and
00:06:24.320 | he should be in no hurry to expect it or demand it.
00:06:31.200 | His whole bent should be toward winning it by an absolutely trustworthy behavior that
00:06:40.040 | goes the extra mile to demonstrate his self-control, his radical devotion to Jesus, his willingness
00:06:47.140 | to gouge out his eye rather than lust, and his deep, heartfelt commitment to his marriage
00:06:53.640 | vows and his wife no matter what.
00:06:56.240 | Here's the third thing I would say.
00:07:00.160 | Adultery and other sins committed after one's conversion and well into one's Christian life
00:07:07.480 | are more serious indications of unfitness for ministry than are sins prior to the new
00:07:14.420 | birth and the new creation in Christ.
00:07:18.600 | Adultery committed after conversion is a sin not only against a wife and against God, but
00:07:26.640 | against our new nature and against the indwelling Holy Spirit and against the whole drift of
00:07:32.080 | Scripture in describing the new person as a new creation in Christ.
00:07:37.520 | Adultery after conversion is sinning against the glory of the light of Christ, whereas
00:07:44.000 | before conversion we were all in spiritual darkness.
00:07:48.280 | We were acting according to our nature.
00:07:50.600 | And when a pastor commits adultery—a pastor now, not just a believer, a pastor commits
00:07:57.000 | adultery—he's sinning not only against God, not only against his wife, not only against
00:08:04.480 | the light of the biblical witness of the new creation in Christ, he is also sinning against
00:08:10.520 | the glory of the gospel ministry and sinning against the trust of a people of God and against
00:08:17.800 | the reputation of the gospel in the community.
00:08:21.700 | And for these reasons, the issue of restoration is not an issue of forgiveness.
00:08:29.240 | That's a given.
00:08:30.240 | That's just not the issue.
00:08:32.120 | The issue is that the offense has been compounded by its deeply multilayered betrayal of God,
00:08:43.160 | wife, Christian newness, the Holy Spirit, the people of God, the gospel, the reputation
00:08:49.760 | of the gospel in the Christian ministry.
00:08:52.120 | I find in talking to some fallen pastors, they're just oblivious of how serious this
00:08:58.800 | is.
00:09:00.880 | The fact that these things did not suffice to keep this man out of bed is evidence of
00:09:08.600 | such profound unfitness for gospel ministry that the time and process by which he might
00:09:18.640 | prove himself a radically different man is long and painful.
00:09:25.160 | The final thing I would say is what I wrote on this question 10 years ago, it was in response
00:09:32.020 | to how quickly some men have been put back in and really how quickly some men put themselves
00:09:39.440 | forward—unbelievable—how quickly they put themselves forward to be back in ministry
00:09:45.480 | after adultery.
00:09:46.480 | It's still valid.
00:09:48.240 | What I wrote then is still valid.
00:09:49.520 | I was looking at it just the other day.
00:09:52.160 | What I've seen is this.
00:09:54.200 | Men who have lived in deception and immorality and hypocrisy for a significant time and then
00:10:03.160 | are caught have hardened their hearts and dulled their capacities to repent for so long
00:10:12.720 | that their ability to see things for what they really are is profoundly impaired.
00:10:18.480 | Their ability to see that they're calling themselves repentant, but they can't see.
00:10:23.400 | They don't have the sensibilities that they've been deadened for so long, and so they are
00:10:28.120 | in no position—now mark this, this is really important—they are in no position soon after
00:10:35.680 | their discovery, they are in no position to make any good judgments about their fitness
00:10:41.520 | for ministry and what is good for the flock and the glory of Christ.
00:10:46.240 | So here's what I wrote, and I'll end with this.
00:10:49.120 | Here's what I wrote.
00:10:50.120 | I said, "A man who commits adultery in the ministry should immediately resign and look
00:10:55.680 | for other work, and he should make no claim on the church at all.
00:11:02.680 | He should get another kind of job and go about his life humbly receiving the discipline and
00:11:09.400 | the regular ministries of the church, whether in his former church or in another church.
00:11:15.240 | If he returns to ministry, it should be after a long time of humble, contented acceptance
00:11:25.240 | of a new way of life outside the official ministry of the church."
00:11:31.640 | Sobering counsel, very relevant for the church today.
00:11:35.120 | Thank you, Pastor John, for walking us through that.
00:11:37.520 | And thank you for listening.
00:11:38.680 | If you haven't done so, you can get the latest episodes by subscribing to Ask Pastor John
00:11:42.320 | in your favorite podcast app in Spotify or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel.
00:11:47.360 | And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question of your own, go online
00:11:50.880 | to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:56.320 | Well is the Christian's heart deceitfully wicked?
00:12:00.040 | You've heard that phrase, "deceitfully wicked," probably in the Old Testament from the prophet
00:12:04.080 | Jeremiah, but does such an indictment apply to the regenerated Christian heart?
00:12:10.400 | It's a great question, and it's up next time on Monday.
00:12:14.440 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:12:16.200 | We'll see you then.
00:12:16.760 | [END]
00:12:18.760 | 1. What is the Christian's heart deceitfully wicked?
00:12:20.760 | 2. What is the Christian's heart deceitfully wicked?
00:12:22.760 | [BLANK_AUDIO]