WHAT IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF A LEADER?
Most people look at this subject and say the transgression of a leader is falling into sin and becoming a discredit to the body. I disagree. Although this is a transgression there are many other transgressions that are just as serious. Any significant transgression of a leader will result in damage to the Body of Christ or its members. When I was supervising a programming group one of my people came to me with a situation he had created by making a mistake. He was genuinely sorry, it was not carelessness, just one of those things we sometimes miss. He sat at my desk and said, "I cost the company money." It was all of a couple hundred dollars, real money but not really that terribly significant. I related that I have made some mistakes too and asked if he knew the difference between his mistakes and mine. He asked, "What?" I responded, "I have the opportunity to make bigger mistakes, mine usually cost the company more." He laughed and headed back to his desk with a renewed confidence that he could do better. The mistakes in business and in ministry impact lives. Some significant transgressions of leaders include the normal sins like idolatry, favoritism, spiritual blindness and pride. Generally these are in blind spots and what is worst, out of love, respect and fear of loss those who surround them to protect them fail. The hedge that God gave them is rent aside and the enemy has the opportunity to enter and destroy. Often the damage is done so silently by the thief in the night that nobody knows about it till the wounded die before help is offered.
Probably two of the most frequent transgressions of leaders can be seen when Peter decides to side with those who are trying to place the weight of circumcision on the new Gentile Christians. Paul rebukes him PUBLICALLY for siding with the circumcision faction. But there are three scriptures I consider relevant. First, Peter is siding to please the “in crowd.” He is doing this to preserve “religious purity”. And he is making a portion of the law more important and significantly more important than what Jesus said were the weighter matters of the law. Admittedly Jesus did not mention circumcision but he compared the outer and inner matters, with the inner being more important, and he looked at the legal and the relational, and chose the relational as more important.
Matt 23:23-24
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
(KJV)
Matt 23:2-11
2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
(KJV)
SATAN'S PRICE FOR LEADERS
I think of Satan's way every time I think of an auction. When I go to an auction I try to offer as little as possible to buy what I want. But Satan's auction is a slave auction because the result of taking his bid is slavery.
Satan has a price. He sets it at an auction. And he will raise the bid to see if you will take it. The objects on sale: your integrity, your worth, your ministry, and your soul. And he starts low, because he only has to be right ONCE. He has to only get you to take the bid once. He raised the bid for Jesus and was turned down and he only retreated when he had nothing bigger to offer! He offered Jesus power, influence, and wealth. And Jesus turned down the highest bid.
But as usual, God has a higher way. He made an offer for each of us. The offer was like a sealed bid. You know how sealed bids are handled? When you want an object on sealed bids you offer as high as you can go because you don't want someone to take the item for a penny more than you offered. And God made the best offer for our lives that He could, He gave Jesus.
But to take God's higher price we must be like the Marine Corps. They say Eternal Vigilance it the Price of Liberty. God's liberty is only for those who have eternal vigilance. They will not take the offer at Satan's slave auction. They stand ever ready to “fight, be brave against all evil.” That song also says, “Never run or even lag behind.” I have seen running as succumbing to the forces of Satan but lagging behind is allowing someone else to take the heat of the battle alone, without help. And in a dog-fight in the sky, in a foxhole on a dark night, and in the battle with our enemy, the one alone is the one who is vulnerable. And we can be left alone by those who “run or lag behind” or we can cause ourselves to be left alone by walking away from those who care about us.
