Steven Lawson's fall should teach us something
News recently broke of well-known preacher and author Steven Lawson disqualifying himself from pastoral ministry through an adulterous relationship. Such failures always provoke innumerable questions, but one question that seems to have hit people the hardest is: If someone like Steve Lawson could sin so catastrophically and make shipwreck of his ministry, how can I have any confidence that I will finish my race well? Whenever someone who has stood as a hero of faith for so many collapses into disobedience, their failure unsettles those who learned from and looked up to them.
How can we defeat the fear that our faith will fail? And, more importantly, how can we live to prevent our faith from failing? Here are five steps every believer can take to prevent a failing faith.
First, don’t confuse giftedness with godliness. We live in a culture that prizes giftedness, while godliness is often overlooked and ignored. In our results-driven culture, this inverted value system makes sense. Giftedness produces immediate results. People are drawn to those who are gifted. Giftedness is outwardly noticeable and impressive. Godliness is less noticeable. People who are godly but not extraordinarily gifted are often ignored. The church has a tendency to follow our culture in prizing giftedness over godliness. That is one reason why people have been stunned to see Lawson’s sin. He was without question highly gifted, but that giftedness has no connection to whether he was godly.
We see Jesus highlight the irrelevance of giftedness to godliness in Matthew 7:22-23. He warned His hearers that on the day of judgment, many would say to Him, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?” The abilities of prophecy, exorcism, and miracle-working are extraordinary gifts, and people who can do such remarkable feats are extraordinarily gifted. Jesus, however, tells these gifted individuals, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Their giftedness was not combined with godliness; therefore, it brought them no spiritual or eternal benefit. Jesus was not concerned with how gifted they were but how godly they were.
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We can judge ourselves or others by the wrong standard, evaluating giftedness rather than godliness. We thank God for the people He has given the Church who have immense gifts, but we must be careful not to assume that because we or someone else is highly gifted that we are necessarily godly.
Second, to prevent a failing faith we must cultivate a humble heart. In 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, Paul warned the Corinthians about the possibility of falling into sin. Those who think they stand in their own strength or by their own power should consider how close they are to spiritual disaster. Spiritual pride creeps in when we believe we are stronger than we are. If we believe we are able to resist temptation in our own strength, we are setting ourselves up to be devoured by the enemy. The humble heart recognizes its own propensity to sin and its continual need of divine power to walk in obedience.
The other danger that arises from a prideful heart is thinking that our struggles are unique or special, as verse 13 highlights. Whatever temptation we are facing, we need to realize that many others have gone through the same thing, and many others are battling that same temptation alongside us. Paul reminds us that we are not special. Satan is not doing something unique when he brings temptation into our lives. We might easily excuse sin by special pleading. We might say things like, “You don’t understand how hard this is,” as if to justify our spiritual failures. Paul removes excuses like that, reminding us that whatever temptations we face have been faced by others, and while we do not have the power to overcome them in our flesh, God is powerful and will provide the way of escape to give us endurance.
Creating structures of accountability in our lives is also essential to remaining faithful over a lifetime. We often hear about accountability partners, and having someone who helps keep you accountable can provide great spiritual benefit. But rather than describe accountability in terms of partnership, it is more biblical to think of accountability in terms of systems and structures.
In our Christian lives, we need to think of accountability in terms of these kinds of multiple layers. We need to have key individuals who know us and can speak into our lives when they see something is amiss. These individuals are traditional accountability partners and might include a close friend or a spouse. We also need a smaller group of people that we know well who can speak into our lives. This could be a small group at your church, or a close group of friends, family members, or others who know you and love you enough to say something if they see you drifting away from Christ. Finally, we need the larger structure of the church to hold us accountable. We need to be under elders who are true shepherds, caring for our souls, contacting us if they see spiritual drift. We need to be among a church family that will reach out to us if we suddenly are absent weeks at a time.
All of these layers of accountability help keep us from drifting into spiritual disaster, and they are most effective when we seek out accountability at these levels rather than just hoping someone will notice.
A fourth mechanism to help us persevere in faith is practicing spiritual disciplines. When former Dallas Theological Seminary professor Howard Hendricks did a study of pastors who had disqualified themselves from ministry, he discovered that nearly all of them had ceased daily devotions. It’s especially easy for pastors to think that sermon prep and praying with other church leaders is sufficient for spiritual nourishment. Yet experience and Scripture both make clear that we need to spend time alone with the Lord for the simple purpose of drawing near to Him and knowing Him more.
In these times with the Lord, we must wrestle with God with our doubts, our fears, our struggles, our worries, our temptations, and our burdens. Spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible and prayer are not to be done to check them off the to-do list. We must engage with the Lord during these times. We need to pour out our hearts before Him. We need to sit at His feet until He has lifted our burden, satisfied our questions, erased our doubts, calmed our fears, and strengthened our hearts. We all have areas we struggle. We all face temptations. We all face worries and fears. We all have things about God we do not understand. We must take time with the Lord to deal with our hearts if we would persevere in faith.
Finally, we all need to seek help when we are weak in faith. Asking for help and counsel when you are struggling is not a sign of failure but a mark of honesty. Everyone has moments in life when help is needed.
Many people experience spiritual disasters because they refuse to seek help when they need it. That is tragic because those failures are all avoidable if we would simply humble ourselves to seek help when we are weak.
When we see Christian leaders collapse into unthinkable sin, we do not need to have troubled hearts about our own faith. Instead, we need to examine if we are using the means God has given us to persevere in faith. Are we focused on godliness rather than giftedness? Are we cultivating a humble heart and creating systems of accountability? Do we maintain regular times with God in His Word and in prayer, and do we seek help when we know we need it?
When we avail ourselves of these safeguards God has provided for us, we can have confidence that His Spirit will strengthen our faith so that it perseveres to the end.
Dr. Robb Brunansky is the Pastor-Teacher of Desert Hills Bible Church in Glendale, Arizona. Follow him on Twitter at @RobbBrunansky.
