"It takes years to build your reputation, and seconds for it to be destroyed"
This was a quote that I heard last Friday, where I had the privilege of attending a friends' admission ceremony. The quote itself is fairly ordinary, but what made it more difficult to hear was because this was very shortly after news broke out about a high-profile pastors' moral failure. His teachings had been pulled from various sites, and he has since stepped down from his preaching roles and responsibilities.
Our intention is not to further antagonize or harp on what has happened, but I couldn't help to think back to this quote. I've seen comments online asking why would someone squander many years (even decades) of service, loyalty and work over one sin? It doesn't seem to be worth it, there is no logical reason that could justify it. But that is like asking why would a nation saved by God build and worship a golden calf. The allure of sin and the deceitfulness of our hearts can easily lead us to do terrible things, with great and dire consequences.
Do not underestimate the power of sin. Pray for your pastors, elders, church and family, and for yourself to not think that they are above the temptations of sin. Read what Paul has to say about how we accomplish the putting to death of our sins, not through our flesh, but purely by the finished work of Christ:
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
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