Biblical Ethics, Part 3 - Church Leaders

5^th May 2023

As we've seen over the past two weeks, the English nation (as well as many other nations) have turned our backs on Biblical ethics. We've also seen that many in the church are following the example of the non-believers around us. Biblical ethics are, of course, God's ethics and therefore perfect. I urge you to hold to what the Bible - God's holy, inerrant word - says about morality. I'd like this week to consider what the Bible says about Christian leaders in this situation. We finished last time with this quote from the prophet Isaiah, which applies to Christian leaders even more than to the rest of us:

Isaiah 5v20-21
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

Those of us who are privileged to speak in God's name, teaching the Bible to God's people and standing up for God in the public sphere, should be very careful to teach God's wisdom, not our own. When God's people faced imminent disaster is the 5th century B.C. God spoke to them through the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 23v16-22
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.
They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The Lord says: You will have peace.'
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, 'No harm will come to you.'
But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word?
Who has listened and heard his word?
See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath,
a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart.
In days to come you will understand it clearly.
I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.

Many churches leaders today are like those false prophets. Many churches and denominations are being judged by God because their leaders teach what is in accordance with human ideas, and so reject parts of God's holy word, and their members live as if their teachers were reliable. It is a terrible sin to pretend God has said what He has not said. James wrote:

James 3v1
… we who teach will be judged more strictly.

Jesus said:

Matthew 18v6
"If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Many church leaders in our generation are like the useless leaders of Israel in the days of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah10v21
The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the Lord; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.

Jeremiah23v1
"Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!" declares the Lord.

Jeremiah50v6a
My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray.

How dare we pervert the holy Bible! May our leaders return to God's word, heeding the proverb:

Proverbs 3v5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

In 1 Chronicles Chapter 21, we read of the time when King David sinned against God, commanding a thing be done that should not have been done. I won't go into the details here, but God sent a plague on the people of Israel and 70,000 people died. David prayed, "Was it not I who [gave the order]. I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? O Lord my God, let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people."

It's a terrible thing for a leader of God's people to instruct them to do wrong, to call good evil and evil good. He is responsible (at least in part) for their wrong-doing. It's time for some Christian leaders to follow David's example, and confess to God that they have lead God's people astray.

Next time, I'll write about what I believe the Bible is saying to those of us, and especially to those of our leaders, who are determined to hold true to the Bible, as understood for 2,000 years.