No pastor goes to bed in love with Jesus and in love with his wife and then goes out and commits adultery the next day. Adultery is the end of a long process of internal lines crossed, walls broken down, improper thoughts entertained, and compromises justified. This devolutionary process takes months and months, if not years and years, of small steps that eventually bring a man to the edge of moral failure. We often hear, “It just happened.” No, it didn’t. It wasn’t the passion of the moment; it was the fruition of a plan pursued for some time. If a man is intimate with a woman who is not his wife, he has played it out in his head before he has laid a hand on her. Lust precedes adultery. The inner dam overflows before the outer dam bursts.
Have you noticed that a lot of dams have burst lately? Charismatic pastors and non-charismatic pastors. Pentecostal pastors and Baptist pastors. Three-piece suit pastors and Levis and t-shirt pastors. Preachers with sneakers and preachers with wingtips. Calvinist pastors and Arminian pastors. Pastors who yell and pastors who speak quietly. Pastors have theological differences, denominational distinctions, and stylistic variations between them – but they share a common humanity. Theological orthodoxy, denominational affiliation, and personal style of ministry are no defense against unholiness of heart. And this is where adultery begins.
Adultery begins as a sin of the heart. The sin of the heart becomes the rationalization of the head which becomes the transgression of the hand. Before he has her in his hands, he has had her in his head. Yet before he has had her in his head, his heart has wandered from the path of holiness. And this is the crux of the matter.
Why did King David request that another man’s wife come into his bedroom whereas Joseph rejected the invitation of another man’s wife to come into her bedroom? King David saw a woman bathing and desired her and immediately planned to get her into his bed. A woman tried to seduce Joseph day by day, but he resisted her advances – day after day.
When the wife of his master tried to seduce him, did Joseph just stoically turn away as if he were made of stone? I don’t think so. Joseph was a man – he could have been aroused and he could have desired her – but he desired God more. When his master’s wife propositioned him, he said to her in Genesis 39:9, “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” There it is. Did you catch it? Joseph had a heart for God. A holy God filled his heart and there wasn’t room for anything unholy. The holiness of God filled his heart, guided his head, and kept his hands from sin. And even though King David was very well acquainted with a holy God, at this time in his life, God was on the back burner and David had no inner resistance to taking another man’s wife to his bed. King David basically ran to another man’s wife and Joseph fled from another man’s wife.
May all pastors and all men (and all women, for that matter) pursue a holy God and have a passion for holiness of life. Neither theological orthodoxy, denominational affiliation, nor personal style of ministry will keep you from sin. A heart filled with God and a passion for the holiness of God will keep a man or a woman from sin. May the Church overflow with men and women who are after the heart and holiness of God. The pleasures of this earth are so fleeting. They are a vapor that vanishes so easily. There is not a pastor who has committed adultery who doesn’t regret it every single day for the rest of his life. Holiness of heart and holiness of life could have saved so much heartache and damage.
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23
More than what’s in your hands; more than what’s in your head – life flows from what’s in your heart. May a holy God fill your heart with a love for and a pursuit of the holiness of God.
Very good reminder. May the Lord remind of these sort of lessons often