I was reading a JulieRoys.com story this morning about Bruxy Cavey, a megachurch pastor near Toronto who has been involved in a multi-year affair with a church member he had counseled. He was able to keep his affair private for years, but God recently revealed his private sin and he was forced to step down.
In reading this story, I was reminded of all the various scandals that God is revealing in order to clean out his church. We are reminded of the Southern Baptist sexual abuse stories, the abuse of power and lack of accountability, Catholic priests who abused thousands over the years, the fall of James MacDonald, the fall of Ravi Zacharias and his ministry, and going back a few years, the fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker which landed Jim Bakker in Federal prison.
Scandals are nothing new. But when we engage in private sin, we fail to remember is that God is always present and is always watching. Proverbs 15.3 says “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (ESV) In all of these scandals, there was a cover-up before there was a revealing. God reveals because he loves us too much to let our private sin continue in private. The revealing sheds light on our sin and we’re forced to either confess and repent or we double down on our sin.
We all sin in private. This is not to say that all sin is private, but all of us have sin that is private. God doesn’t need to reveal that sin when we understand our sin and repent of it. But when we enjoy it and then portray a different or inconsistent persona to the church, then God, after losing patience, will reveal our sin so that our lives can be cleaned out. Yes, it’s painful and often highly embarrassing. The reveal may cost us our reputation and our ministry, but from an eternal perspective, the reveal and embarrassment are all worth it.
I’m not Bruxy Cavey or Ravi Zacharias or King David. But I have the same capacity to sin as any of these ministers. I am tempted by wealth, power, and the sensualities of life. You are too. If you claim you’re not, then you’re a liar. In my role as a Christian business owner, I can never lose sight of the fact that I am just as capable of sin as anyone else.
When I stand back and take a long look at the scandals God is revealing, my heart reaction is one of gratitude for his mercy in not revealing all of my private sins to others. Closely after that is the feeling that I want to walk more closely with God so that my sin is less and less while my intimacy with God grows more and more. I want to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Even in my private times.
Let’s be ministers in the marketplace with authentic lives. Let’s be the same in private as we are in public. Let’s be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ who has nothing to hide because we are not harboring private sin.
Bill English, Publisher
Bible and Business
