(A note to regular readers: this article is just the collection of all the shorter articles I’ve written about the topic. I’m posting it for those who want to read the full discussion in a single location).
The Christian community continues to lose prominent figures in America. As each year goes by, more men and women are compromising, sometimes even completely losing, ministries that God has used in the lives of individuals and even entire churches. The most recent, and perhaps one of the most surprising in recent memory, is the late Ravi Zacharias. Although his ministry had been tarnished after an online affair was revealed several years ago, it wasn’t until his death that we’ve seen a horrible side to what was happening while Ravi traveled the world and defended the truth of God. The purpose of this article isn’t to examine a specific person, but to instead discuss the things we can learn and apply in our own lives.
(If you aren’t familiar with Ravi Zacharias, I’d encourage you to read on anyway. Little of what I’ll say after this next section requires you to be familiar with his work.)
The who and what happened
Ravi Zacharias was a prominent apologist, someone who was dedicated to taking part in formal debates and showing why the Christian faith is founded on truth. While I haven’t heard more than a few hours of his speaking, many would agree that Ravi’s greatest appeal was how accessible he was. His style of teaching, storytelling, and debating were easy for anyone to listen to, which makes it unsurprising that God used him in the lives of so many people.
After his passing, events took place that required those in charge of his ministry to launch an investigation into claims of adultery that extended far beyond what Ravi repented of years ago. A 12-page report was recently released that reveals the double life being led by someone who, by all appearances, was a man of deep faith and conviction. I’ll caution you that the report isn’t graphic, but it’s blunt about what occurred between Ravi Zacharias and a number of women, most of whom worked at massage parlors.
In short, we see that Ravi used his fame, position, and money to coerce or manipulate women into a number of sexual favors, including intercourse, along with at least one other woman he had an intense and extended relationship with. One woman with a Christian background was even led to believe that a sexual relationship with him was somehow honoring to God.
There is a lot going on in this story, and it’s possible we haven’t even heard from the last of the victims. So what should we do about this? How do we process the hurt of these women, the rightful destruction of Ravi’s legacy, and the many Christians who are confused and possibly filled with doubt?
I’d like to share a few conclusions that may be helpful to others as we use a biblical worldview to think through such a difficult topic.
The danger of celebrity culture
This is the most obvious problem we see, and it’s the one most people are talking about. It’s not that Ravi’s sexual sin was somehow worse than another man who frequently commits adultery, although one could argue it was more frequent because his position of authority and access to money allowed him to be more aggressive about it. Instead, his fall is so shocking to the average person because of the high pedestal he was placed on.
When we look at pastors and teachers, we see them as something other and beyond ourselves. We know they’re sinners, but surely they aren’t sinners like us. We assume they’ve somehow “arrived” at a point in their walk with Christ that they no longer fight against their flesh with the same intensity and regularity as the rest of us. We assume the very best and grant them an extraordinary level of trust and hope that makes their sin feel like even more of a betrayal.
If we look at our culture, this isn’t terribly surprising. We are constantly seeking truth from big names, often giving them more authority in our lives than our local pastor whom God has charged to care for us. Many of us can go to our bookshelves or YouTube watch history and see a few fairly prominent names show up over and over again, and even our conversations often use the phrase “Well, I heard [big name Christian] say…”
There are a number of reasons we’re all guilty of this. Idolatry is often at the heart of it, even if we don’t realize it. We often elevate individuals because it’s simply what we’ve been conditioned to do. Just as those outside the church will follow the lives and political opinion of their favorite celebrity, we wrap that same form of celebrity worship in Christian clothes and devour everything produced by certain people, buying all their books, accepting whatever they teach, or traveling across the country to hear them perform.
And when we take a Christian and elevate them to the degree that we think they’re special, it shouldn’t surprise us when they believe it as well. As soon as they take their eyes off Christ, it’s easy to start listening to everyone who says they’re an amazing and genuine servant of Christ. When our love of sin starts mixing with how people view us, no one is immune from the temptation to keep up appearances while hiding sin. And the more a person can get away with sin, the more they want to pursue it, all while feeling justified because people keep are still following them. Ravi’s sin is his responsibility, but we should use this opportunity to reflect on whether we gave a man more power and authority than a sinner in constant need of Christ’s grace could manage.
For when one person says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not ordinary people? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Corinthians 3:4-8)
As Christians, the fall of such a prominent name is a wake-up call. It shows us how much faith and trust we placed in a person who likely doesn’t even know us, nor are they necessarily responsible for the health of our souls. It reveals to us that we’ve put our trust in the teachings of a man or woman, rather than letting them be nothing more than a tool God uses to lead us to Jesus Christ.
If you’re someone who feels like their faith has been challenged because of all the good Ravi did in your life, take comfort. God uses imperfect, broken people to accomplish His perfect plans. If God used a sinful person in your life, nothing that sinful person does can erase what God has done. Ravi’s public work may be unusable now, but that doesn’t make the good God did through him a total waste. Turn your eyes to Christ, pray for the grace to forgive Ravi’s sin and betrayal, and continue growing in your faith and love for Jesus Christ.
The toxic desire for “yes men”
In the last decade, a number of celebrity pastors and teachers have either fallen into sin or have adopted such strange theology that they’re almost impossible to listen to. By the time we notice it, we are confronted with something major like adultery or a really “out there” sermon clip. However, we all know that sin and bad teaching isn’t an instant moment, but a long series of steps and compromises. We see their destination, but we also know they went on a journey to get to the point where they’ve disqualified themselves from representing Christ.
While we may never fully understand how each person reaches this point, I suspect it often boils down to one thing: they never listened to someone telling them “no.”
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. (Proverbs 27:6)
As sinners, we’re all like kites. We want to soar away, being tossed around by every desire or weird idea that pops into our heads. In this metaphor, Christ is the one on the ground who should be controlling where we go – He is the one who keeps us grounded in truth. But how do we, as wayward kites, stay connected to our Savior? By a string.
There are many things in our lives God uses to correct our wanderings from Christ. God’s word, the Holy Spirit, and our consciences often play major roles in keeping us from wandering. However, another important “string” in our lives are the faithful followers of Jesus Christ who surround us. They can offer us wisdom from their own experience, challenge us in our error, and lovingly show us the truth when we need it most.
For most of us, God keeps us humble enough to accept the corrections we need and keep returning us to Christ. But what happens when we don’t want that pesky string to keep us from flying away? What do we so often see in our own lives when we want to wallow in our sin and not have our wickedness exposed by Christ?
We flee from anything that would tell us “no.”
And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)
for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), as you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the useless deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5:8-13)
When we want to follow after our Savior and pursue holiness through Him, we want to surround ourselves with people who will push us in that direction, and we want to remove anything that would stand in the way of our desire for Christ.
When we want to follow after our sin and pursue the pleasure it promises, we want to surround ourselves with people who will push us in that direction, and we want to remove anything that would stand in the way of our desire for sin.
Reading the report of Ravi Zacharias shows similar signs of what we see in other teachers and pastors because it’s so similar to our own pursuit of sin. When we want to live in sin, we will cut ourselves off from God’s word, suppress the Holy Spirit as He fans the flame of our conscience, and distance ourselves from other Christians who might tell us no.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (Romans 13:14)
The pattern is the same because the pursuit of sin is predictable. If we want darkness, we hide from the light. We cut ourselves off from those who would tell us “no,” and instead only listen to those who will tell us exactly what we want to hear. We set ourselves up for success in our sin by creating an environment that doesn’t stop us.
This is why Christian fellowship is so important for our spiritual health. In love, we are meant to challenge and encourage one another. We are meant to set aside our pride by listening to the words of those who love us. It doesn’t mean we must always agree with that correction, but the difficult words of a friend should cause us to reflect on what we’re pursuing and whether we’re staying grounded in Jesus Christ.
So often, when pastors and teachers fall into sin and error, we can find that they distanced themselves from the Bible, their conscience, and anyone who would tell them “no.”
The centrality of the local church
In reading and listening to other commentators on this subject, *I read an interesting point: Ravi Zacharias may have been in ministry around the world, but from what we can tell he didn’t have a home church. If he did, it doesn’t appear that he served a single body of local believers, nor was he under the regular authority of a pastor. Many were blessed by his ministry, but he didn’t seem to have a home church that he focused on.
This small point actually has major implications.
In our advanced age, things like travel and technology allow us to reach people around the world in ways our ancestors couldn’t have imagined. We’ve grown so used to it that we simply assume if we can reach the world, we should reach the world.
And while that’s an incredible thing, especially when we think about what it means for the gospel, we can often get so focused on the width of our reach that we forget God’s primary calling for all believers.
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
We are called to love and serve the Christians in our local body. We are to stir them to good works, use our gifts to grow them, and in turn allow them to serve Christ by using their own gifts for our own growth and encouragement.
There’s a certain assumption that authors and speakers should travel the world, holding conferences or speaking at other churches. And that’s certainly a good thing to do. However, a ministry to the world isn’t meant to come at the expense of our ministry to the local body of believers God places us in.
By traveling the world and serving others, teachers become out of sync with how God has designed us to function. They lose access to the strengths and weaknesses of those in their church, and instead only surround themselves with paid staff. They don’t submit to the authority of an elder (as commanded in Hebrews 13:17) and instead must answer to those in charge of public relations. They serve the universal body of Christ but aren’t really invested in any particular individuals.
In any ministry, we must never forget our calling to serve those God has placed directly in our lives. This calling is on all believers, even those without a ministry. We can’t obey God’s call to serve the body if we aren’t part of a body. Our local church, with all its imperfections, is key to our lives, our spiritual health, and our service to God.
*I’ve tried to find the source of this, but can’t remember who said it. If you know, please contact me so I can properly attribute them.
The depravity of our leaders and teachers
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority (John Dalberg-Acton, 1887)
Why do those with the most power or authority seem to inevitably abuse it? Why does it seem so true that absolute power really, truly, corrupts people far beyond the normal person? It’s tempting to think that power itself is a problem – that something about it leads us into greater sinfulness than we thought we were capable of. But when we think about it biblically, the sinful ways we use power always come back to us.
But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)
We don’t sin because of power, Satan, or our past. We sin because, in that moment, we believe sin will bring us the greatest satisfaction. Despite how destructive we know it is, we convince ourselves that the risk, and the pain, is worth it in the end. It’s our desires that lead us toward sin.
For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.“For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. (Luke 6:43-45)
Power, whether as a famous teacher or even as a manager of a small office, doesn’t create sin. Instead, it simply reveals what’s already in our hearts, often amplifying it by allowing a person in power to give in to their desires without much risk to themselves. Small dips into sin eventually turn into total immersion, and the desire to pursue even more sin grows alongside their ability to indulge in it.
as it is written: “There is no righteous person, not even one; There is no one who understands, There is no one who seeks out God; They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, There is not even one.” (Romans 3:9-12)
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
When we reflect on why any of us give in to sin, we compromise the necessity of the gospel by ignoring the depth of how sinful we truly are. We aren’t basically good people other than this pesky sin problem. We aren’t just sinners because we sin – we sin because we are born sinners. And it’s that total lack of any goodness within us that makes Jesus Christ so necessary.
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? (Galatians 4:8-9)
Before Christ, we could only sin. We loved sin and its promises of satisfaction, happiness, and salvation from our problems. We were slaves to sin by our own choice, because we wanted everything it offered.
Through His death on the cross, Christ set His people free from the shackles of sin and its necessary punishment for death. He lifted the blinders from our eyes and showed us what sin truly was, and where it was leading us. We cried out to Him for salvation because we realized that Jesus Christ is truly the only one who can offer us salvation and satisfaction. Christ, alone, is the only thing worth pursuing.
Yet so often, and so easily, we turn back to those things that can only bring death. We surrender ourselves to the slavery that Christ’s blood freed us from. Yet no matter how much we foolishly give in to our sinful desires, God’s grace continues to cover us.
… that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
The reality of how depraved we are isn’t just something for the average Christian. No one who follows Christ, no matter how intelligent, mature, or famous is beyond the risk of falling into sin. Putting on Christ isn’t a one-time thing, but a daily decision to reject who we were and instead be who God calls us to be in Jesus Christ.
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
We need to realize that the Christians we look up to the most are just as easily swayed toward sin as the rest of us. Spiritual maturity and wisdom offer great protection against such things, but no one will arrive at a place where they don’t need to constantly be on the lookout for their sinful desires. Being in a ministry isn’t a protection from those temptations – if anything, the affirmation and admiration of others should cause leaders to cling to the cross even tighter because that amount of power and prestige is going to remove our barriers for sin and allow us to pursue our desires like never before.
Power doesn’t corrupt pure hearts. Instead, it gives corrupted hearts the ability to pursue what they desire most. No one, not even great men and women of God, is immune to our sin nature. And without an abundance of caution, the power to indulge in more sin will soon lead to the act of indulging in more sin.
The terrifying responsibility of teaching
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. (James 3:1)
Whenever I think about how a teacher falls into sin so completely that it destroys their ministry, this verse always runs through my mind. Even in my own small ministry of creating blog articles and podcast episodes, my greatest fear isn’t looking foolish or being unpopular. My greatest fear is that I’ll reach Heaven and discover that something I’ve said led Christ’s followers astray. I don’t pretend I have the power to affect their eternal destiny, but I nevertheless take the words of James seriously with every piece of content I create.
I think that sort of fear is healthy. I also think it’s something easily forgotten as someone gets into the “groove” of their ministry and forgets why they started serving God in the first place. Things that were once exciting or terrifying are now just another day at the office. What once occupied every thought is now a separate area of their lives.
While it seems baffling that prominent teachers could live such double lives, those who commit adultery usually make sense. Understanding a leader’s depravity, it shouldn’t surprise us that someone who has been serving for years can compartmentalize different aspects of their lives – ministry takes up one area of their brain, family another, and their adulterous sin lives somewhere else in their minds. These things don’t touch one another, and thoughts of “ministry” and “family” get pushed back in the midst of adultery, while “adultery” doesn’t enter their mind as they stand up to proclaim the truth of God and His word.
It’s not an excuse, but it makes sense.
However, the longer someone is involved in sin, the more areas of their lives have to be compromised to maintain the sin. Things need to be hidden, lies must be told, and a vicious cycle grows more and more out of control.
When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality failed as with the dry heat of summer.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And I did not hide my guilt;
I said, “I will confess my wrongdoings to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:3-5)
Many of us know what that’s like. We understand the oppression we feel as we keep trying to feed a sin that is slowly killing us. I hope many of us also understand the freedom that comes from repenting to God and those we’ve hurt by exposing our darkness to the light. For many of us, that moment allows us to go on and serve God with great passion because there’s nothing standing in the way of our relationship with Him.
And while teachers and pastors may be just as depraved as everyone else, God promises that they are held to stricter standards. So while they may experience the same repentance and forgiveness, the cost to teachers is often far greater than it is for other followers of Christ. Their sins are often known to the public, the good work they’ve done is often stained beyond future usefulness, and their future often has no hope of publicly serving in a teaching position again.
And that’s saying nothing of what it will be like to stand before a holy God and give an account for how they weren’t good stewards of the ministries He gave them.
But how do teachers avoid such strict judgment? What is common throughout the lives of everyone who loses their ministry and hurts hundreds or thousands of people because of their sin?
You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. (Deuteronomy 10:20)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)
Any ministry can be about one of two things: us or Christ. When we fall into sin, it’s because we love our sin more than we fear the Lord. We cannot live a life of sin while regularly going before the holy throne of God, knowing we can only approach the Father in the name of Christ, and pray to Him. We can’t open His word and desire to let the Holy Spirit teach and guide us while also using the authority of a teacher to coerce or manipulate others to do our bidding.
When a teacher’s sin is exposed, we can trust that they have one thing in common with everyone else: They didn’t fear the Lord, and as a result they lose their ministry, lose the ability to serve others, and must answer to the God they spent years defying.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a person sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. (Galatians 6:7-8)
This is worth remembering as we consider our roles as teachers, whether to thousands of people or a handful of people at our church. Teachers don’t have to be clever or eloquent – they must, above all else, fear God. Nothing else will protect us from going astray than to know our God well enough that we understand the weight of His holiness and our utter inability to do any good apart from Him. God is good and merciful and loving, but He is still God. We must never forget that as we serve Him and His people.
The lifelong need for purity
What’s the point of the life we live? What direction do we point our feet when we take steps towards our greatest desire in life? Between now and our eternity with God, what are we moving towards?
Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
At a certain point in our walk with Christ, we will have that “Aha!” moment. Those who are saved later in life often have this at the moment of salvation, while those who were saved at a young age may not get it until they’re teens or adults.
That moment is when we look around at everything we’ve been pursuing in life and realize it’s worth nothing. Relationships, money, pleasure, power… all these things the world says will bring us satisfaction end up failing us time and again. That’s when the Holy Spirit reveals an incredible truth that peels away the lies of the world and shows us who God truly is and what our lives in Christ are all about.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
These two verses were part of my own “Aha!” moment. It’s when I realized I was taking my life in Christ and trying to shoehorn it into the secular worldview I’d spent my life building. I was trying to find pleasure in the same things as God’s enemies, and then trying to make God somehow fit into that quest for satisfaction.
We all love that moment, because we glimpse the true majesty of God and feel the weight of His holiness. Our lives get on a fast-track to radical transformation as we seek to let go of everything holding us back from truly pursuing Jesus Christ.
But if we aren’t careful, we can lose that passion for Christ without realizing it. Those things that once seemed new and exciting eventually become commonplace in our lives. The refreshing experience of serving Christ becomes part of our day-to-day lives, and we forget the foolishness that God brought us out of. Eventually, we may find ourselves settling for “good enough” in our walk with Christ.
This point of settling varies between individuals. Some may settle for reading their Bible or teaching a Sunday school class, and their growth slows to a crawl or stagnates altogether. Others may find this point much later, perhaps when they’re a pastor or a Christian celebrity. Whatever it is that causes us to lose focus, the God who was once front-and-center in everything we did eventually gets slowly moved to the back.
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4-5)
The stories of pastors and teachers who are held in high esteem, only to reveal that they’ve been faking it for years, are heartbreaking. We see people who may have once had a passion for the truth of God’s word, but through circumstances and compromises their service to Christ becomes hollow. They say the right things and seem to live the right life, but deep down they have the wrong motivations.
These public figures who fall so far from what they once loved are a warning to us. They remind us that all of us are so easily swept away by our emotions or finding truth anywhere other than God’s word. They show us that even those who think have reached the pinnacle of the Christian life can lose sight of what truly matters while still keeping up appearances. They show how crucial it is to not just settle into the habit of the Christian life, but to always desire to keep moving onward in our faith.
Ultimately, there’s only one way to avoid falling away from our God. The Christian life doesn’t have an idle state – either we’re moving forward or falling away. Consider the contrast Paul gives us as he points out that we can’t take the world with us as we pursue Christ. Instead, we must put to death those very things that we once turned to for satisfaction:
Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
Christ didn’t just save us from the penalty of our sin. He brought us into a new life that is free from going in the same direction as the world. We are no longer to dirty ourselves with temporary and imperfect things, but instead we are to keep ourselves mentally, spiritually, and emotionally pure by setting our desire on Jesus Christ alone. The life He calls us to isn’t stationary, but a daily pursuit of our perfect, pure, and holy God.
The need for “bottom-up” discipleship
If there’s one thing that’s consistent about everything I’ve discussed in this series, it’s this: there’s a fundamental flaw with how we desire to have a small group of celebrities be our primary source of teaching, encouragement, and growth. When someone is looking for ways to grow, we tell them “Go read books by this person” or “Search YouTube for this name and watch whatever interests you.” We spend so much time and energy becoming disciples of someone we can only have a one-way relationship with.
Make no mistake, many well-known men and women of the faith are incredible blessings to the church. Some are gifted with words, others have wisdom or understanding of topics that we may be unable to find locally. They are great tools for our walk when we use them correctly.
However, it’s too easy for us to have a top-down view of discipleship. We want to look to well-known people to be the primary instruction and influence for thousands of Christians. We let them frame our beliefs, and without them realizing it we make them the primary caretaker of our spiritual growth. We become the disciples of someone who doesn’t even know our name. And while it makes sense with our culture, it may not be the biblical model.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Of course we’re all familiar with this verse, but we may not realize how much it goes against how we typically think about discipleship. So often, we view discipleship as one of two things: either we convert someone to Christianity, or we are disciples who are learning more about Christ.
Following pastors and teachers outside our local body of believers is a one-way relationship. They pour their wisdom and knowledge into us, and that’s the end of the transaction. They don’t have to know us, nor do we have to commit to them in any way. And if the “church” was simply the worldwide body of believers, then it would make sense for us to have a consumer mentality. However, the New Testament pattern for church shows us our responsibility to one another.
Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. But we ask you, brothers and sisters, to recognize those who diligently labor among you and are in leadership over you in the Lord, and give you instruction, and that you regard them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. We urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. (1 Thessalonians 5:11-14)
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13)
and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)
Others are called to invest in us, yes, but in return we are called to invest in them as well. Instead of church, or even the Christian life, being all about what we get out of it, we instead see a circular pattern in our relationships. We are called to encourage one another, share in the lives of one another, and to do so under the watchful guidance of our leaders.
In addition, we’re also called to call one another out of sin and in to holiness, for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, even if a person is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you are not tempted as well. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)
In establishing the universal church, Christ also set us up to exist in a personal community. We aren’t called to be faceless students of a big-name celebrity, but instead we’re called to get our hands dirty as we live life alongside other followers of Christ. We’re called to submit to a particular pastor who is responsible for our spiritual health, and as we mature we are likewise called to disciple others.
Up until now, we’ve always assumed a top-down form of growth was natural. Using a single person as the primary source of growth and encouragement for thousands makes sense in our culture, but it’s not how we are designed to grow and flourish.
Instead, it’s important to focus our efforts on a “bottom up” view of discipleship. Those who have the ability to know us, encourage us, and even call us out of sin are meant to be our main, exterior sources of growth and teaching. Those believers God places in our lives are there for a reason, and in being faithful to Christ we should desire to encourage their growth as they do the same to us.
In short, we need to be disciples who make disciples, not fans of a particular celebrity who make other people fans as well.
Obviously, the “big names” in our Christian circles have their place. They can be a wonderful resource for a local body of believers to use as they grow together in their spiritual walk. However, the main focus for us needs to be the same as it’s always been.
It’s easy to be discontent with the people within our church. Our local pastor may not be as intelligent, entertaining, or engaging as someone who has written a dozen books. Someone teaching a Sunday-evening glass may not have studied at a prestigious Bible university. We may think we’d be stronger if only we had someone like _____ in our lives.
However, God has called us to be exactly where we are, with the imperfect people we have. It’s not about making the best of a bad situation. Rather, it’s a biblical mindset as we focus our growth, and the growth of those around us, around the people we know and who can know us in return. We aren’t called to a one-way relationship with someone we may shake hands with one time at an event, but instead into a day-to-day community with the people who can encourage and challenge us as we do the same to them.
Final thoughts
The sin of any Christian causes us to mourn. When a secret life is revealed, and a Christian leader has been found to be abusing others, it causes us outrage. When the whole world is given an opportunity to mock Christianity because of that gross sin, we may not know how to react. Do we make excuses? Hide it? Lessen the sting by saying we’re all sinners who need God’s grace?
The goal of this discussion hasn’t been to examine the sin of a single person. The years Ravi Zacharias spent making a mockery of Christ was the catalyst to writing these articles, but the topics I’ve discussed are meant to give individuals a way to think through everything through a biblical worldview, and hopefully challenge a few people to examine their own thinking. Above all, I didn’t want such a shocking revelation to be wasted on our outrage at an individual when there is so much that the fall of a Christian celebrity can teach us in our own lives.
Remember everything we’ve discussed:
- The danger of celebrity culture
- The toxic desire for “yes men”
- The centrality of the local church
- The depravity of our leaders and teachers
- The terrifying responsibility of teaching
- The lifelong need for purity
- The need for “bottom-up” discipleship
If there’s one thing to take away from this, it’s been my prayer that readers will see the absolute need to put Christ first in everything we do. The truth He’s given us through His word isn’t just important, but central to everything we do. Whenever anyone finds themselves living in sin, the one thing that will always be true is that they’ve taken their eyes off the cross. Let us learn from this so that we can make God’s glory our greatest desire in life.
