Personal confession of sin cannot avoid such words. But of course, when others have been wronged in the sin, then they too need to be mentioned. First and foremost when we sin, God is the aggrieved party. But we hurt so many other people when we sin as well.

We need to be careful in dealing with the sins of others:

When a public church figure sins, it is always a tragic situation. Then again, when ANY Christian sins it is always a tragic situation. But when pastors and church leaders sin, it impacts them, their families, their followers, and the public as a whole. It drags the name of Christ in the mud of course, and it casts yet another slur on the church, which is meant to be the bride of Christ, without spot or blemish (Ephesians 5:27).

How we deal with these fallen leaders is crucial. One wrong way is to pretend it is no big deal, and to act as if the person’s ministry can just keep on going as if nothing happened. Another wrong way to react is to look down on the one who fell, arrogantly thinking that WE would never do such a thing, never sin such a sin.

The truth is, we are all capable of falling into sin in so many ways. It really is the grace of God alone that has kept us from going off the rails big time. We all have our dark issues that we are good at keeping hidden from others. As we read in 1 Timothy 5:24: “The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.”

And now in the internet and social media age, it is getting easier and easier to have some sin found out and advertised to the whole world. Just as there are now many ‘heresy-hunting’ ministries which delight in calling out others who do not believe in the exact way that the hunters prefer (and yes, there is real heresy, and it does need to be called out), so too we now have some ministries that exist to expose various failures, sins and the like.

These too can have a place, but like the hunters, they really need great care, wisdom and humility. Too often it seems that the ones exposing private or public sins in Christians – especially Christian leaders and pastors – almost seem to take a real delight in doing so: ‘Ha, we caught another one!’

The truth is, such a ministry should only be done while on our knees and with tears in our eyes. We should not delight in the fall of fellow believers. It should sadden us, and it should make us want to even more carefully examine our own hearts and souls. That is the proper attitude to have here.

And as I have said so often, the general biblical principle goes like this: private sin, private rebuke; public sin, public rebuke.

Lessons from Saul and David

Given that I am again reading through 1 and 2 Samuel, I am finding a lot of biblical truths that we can apply to this matter of when leaders fall. Not every question raised concerning the lives of these two kings of Israel can be dealt with here. For example, why would God choose both men, knowing that both would fall so spectacularly?

As I discuss the pair, I will provide some words from just one commentator, David Toshio Tsumura, and his two books in the NICOT series: 1 Samuel (Eerdmans, 2007), and 2 Samuel (Eerdmans, 2019).

As to Saul, we know he had issues early on, including his longstanding enmity against young David, his unlawful sacrifice (1 Sam. 13), his rash vow (1 Sam. 14), and his consultation with the witch of Endor (1 Sam. 28). So we read back in 1 Samuel 15 how the Lord rejects Saul. But note how the prophet Samuel views all this: not with glee but with great concern. Consider these verses:

The word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. (1 Sam. 15:10-11)

Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. (1 Sam. 15:34-35)

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