There’s a temptation that applies to pastors and other Christians with a public profile, and it’s the temptation to look righteous and holy in public, but to be content to be unrighteous and unholy in private. It’s the temptation to be an “inflatable tank,” someone that can pass a cursory glance even if he would fail a close inspection, someone that has the appearance of strength or power even if he is actually empty and weak.

It’s one of my favorite tales from a war that was packed full of stranger-than-fiction moments. During the Second World War, the Allied forces created a dummy army. Eager to deceive the Germans into thinking they were stronger than they actually were, the Allies hired a team of artists and designers to create a fake army—one that would look just real enough to deceive spies snooping around nearby or surveillance flights flying far overhead. So they built planes that were no more than wooden shells and tanks that were merely inflatable rubber. These were units that were meant to be seen, but not to fight. They were meant to give the appearance of an army, even while they exacted none of the costs of an army. What’s amazing is that it worked. The Germans were deceived—a deception that had a profound effect on the outcome of the war.

There’s a temptation that applies to pastors and other Christians with a public profile, and it’s the temptation to look righteous and holy in public, but to be content to be unrighteous and unholy in private. It’s the temptation to be an “inflatable tank,” someone that can pass a cursory glance even if he would fail a close inspection, someone that has the appearance of strength or power even if he is actually empty and weak.

Over the past few years we have seen quite a number of once-prominent Christian figures fall away from the faith or, at the least, fall into disqualifying sin. More often than not, their fall has been met with shock by those who once admired them—those who attended their churches or bought their books or attended their conferences. Yet I expect, and in some cases know, that there was far less shock among those who knew them well.

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