How should I respond to a church leader’s moral failure? Do I leave the church? Do I take it personally and get upset that they let me down? Do I never speak to them again?
Or is there another way?
If you have kids, think about how you respond to them when they get into trouble. You would not leave your house and refuse to come back. You should not take it personally and feel embarrassed by their actions. You definitely would not shun them for the rest of their life.
No, you would continue to love them. Why? Because we all sin every single day.
Just like we should respond to our kids’ sins with grace, truth, and love, we should have the same attitude toward others.
Grace keeps me humble because it reminds me that I am a sinner deserving of punishment yet God chooses to show me mercy every time I fail.
The truth is that we will face the consequences of our actions but that’s why it’s stuck between grace and love.
Love reminds us that our Heavenly Father never leaves us or forsakes us. Rather He took on our sin so that we could be with Him.
People are going to fail and let us down but these are opportunities for us to show the love of God to them.
“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 4:6