Like many, I was heartbroken over the news that highly respected Christian author Philip Yancey, now 76 years old, was involved in an 8-year adulterous relationship. Every time this happens it stings, but it stings worse with the many I have known personally.
Phil and I are not close, but I appreciated tremendously much he wrote over the years, from the time I was a very young Christian. I well remember Nanci and I spending time with him many years ago in an airport and then on a plane headed to the Christian booksellers event. I told him how much his books had meant to me, including The Jesus I Never Knew and What’s So Amazing about Grace.
When I read his wife’s response of shock and trauma to this adulterous relationship, it further broke my heart. I am profoundly grateful (“proud” is not the right term) that though our marriage was far from perfect, and took a lot of work on both of our parts, Nanci and I stayed faithful to our marriage vows. That was by His grace for sure, yet it also required taking definite and careful steps to guard our purity.
See Ed Stetzer’s article in response to this situation, as well as a past blog I shared answering the question: How Should We Understand Moral Failings in the Church and Prevent Future Ones? Most of the series I wrote on Ravi Zacharias is sadly just as relevant now as it was then.
News like this should be taken as a warning shot fired across the bow of our lives. Anyone who thinks “this would never happen to me” is an absolute fool, in the Proverbs sense of the term. In recent years, many of these cases of immoral relationships of Christian leaders, including those I have spoken with at various events, have happened with men in their seventies. Since I am 71, I take that very seriously. It should make all of us carefully examine our lives and take heed to Paul’s warning, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). And Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
God help us all to guard our hearts and minds and be on alert because the devil desires to destroy us. (I encourage you to read my booklet written for Christian leaders, full time and lay leaders both: Sexual Temptation: Establishing Guardrails and Winning the Battle, also available as a free download.)
Below are some thoughts I shared a few years ago in response to the fall of yet another Christian leader:
- Let’s be quick to confess and repent. Most Christian leaders I know are like me, sinners saved by grace and growing in Christlikeness, but nonetheless prone to sometimes dishonor God. That’s why quick and sincere confession and repentance before God and others needs to be a regular part of our lives. If we postpone repentance we will be dragged deeper into sin.
- Let’s “finish well.” My friends and I often encourage each other to do this, especially as we get closer to that finish line, which each of us do every day. This is part of why the moral falls of men in their seventies is so disheartening. How many books and how much online Bible teaching, which God once used in lives, will now not be read by people who could have been helped in their faith?
- Let’s not trust ourselves too much by putting ourselves into temptation: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3).
- Let’s not act as if we are spiritually or morally stronger than we are: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12).
- Let’s decisively run away from sexual temptation: “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18).
- Let’s realize Satan has targeted us for destruction. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
- Let’s lean on each other for moral strength and support. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).
- Let's remember we can’t keep dark secrets from God, the Audience of One. And we can keep them from people only a short time, even if that short time is decades. “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs” (Luke 12:2-3).
When asked about one fallen leader, I said of that person, who I considered a friend, “All the books and messages and debates he ever engaged in, all the good he may have done at one time, cannot begin to compensate for his disobedience to Jesus and his violation of his marriage vows.” Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
God, I pray you will convict us, your children, of our sins and our unwise choices that expose us to temptations that overwhelm us. Help us to confess and repent freely and often. Help us to stop ignoring the lessons you want us to learn from moral tragedies. Empower us to follow you wholeheartedly and to realize we—and our churches and ministries—will never change until we take seriously what your Word reveals about our responsibility to live righteously by the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask this in the name of Jesus, King of Kings.
