I am the chiefest of sinners

I know of a pastor, who made no attempt to disguise who he was talking about in his sermon illustrations. In fact he would even use their real name! The facts may be correct, but the action is very wrong. And part of why it is, is that when this sort of thing happens, church ceases to become a safe place. In fact it becomes toxic.

A verse that comes back to me over and over is James 5:16. It says “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another that you may be healed.” Confession does need to be to one to another, and it needs to be in a safe place. It is not healing if it is me me confessing your faults, or you confessing mine. So we need to be very careful if we are going to use this kind of experience to make a point, be it in sermons or in our conversations. If we are not careful it can become gossip! So we need to change the names to protect both the innocent and guilty. But it’s not just the names we need to change. The Lord prompted me to take down a post this morning, because although I did not mention any names, I may have revealed enough information for someone to know exactly who I was talking about. And if even one person could guess....

This is not the first time that this sort of thing has been brought to my attention, and I was feeling bad about it this morning. In particular the declaration in the title of this post from 1 Timothy 1:15, is hitting home with me. In fact, I realized early on, that as a teacher what I said, what my attitude towards a student was, could deeply impact them in either a positive or negative way.

This sort of thing is part of why James tells us not to be many teachers (James 3:2). The point is that what many would consider a little sin in this area, can have a ripple effect rather like what happens when you drop a pebble in a glassy smooth pond. The effects can go on, and on, and on. So I found myself beating myself up this morning, feeling that I should have known better.

This beating up on ourselves, seems to be very common, but it is part of the fretting that causes harm (Psalm 37:8). Sometimes, the hardest person to forgive is yourself. So I told myself this morning “I give myself a gift I do not deserve, the gift of forgiveness. And I accept Your forgiveness Lord, and Your cleansing.” I was wrong, and I apologize for any harm I may have caused! Please forgive me.