2Cr 6:3 Giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:
when i first read this, the thought that came rushin in was of the great scandals that our faith has endured through the years. prostitutes, homosexual relationships, drugs and fornication, as well as major financial scandals within the Christian leadership. when the world looks in at such things they do not blame man kind, or the depraved nature of man. they point to the Christian ministry and say it's all this way. and so the offense is made and the ministry gets the blame. a solid Christian testimony is more to be protected then any other point of your walk (other then your relati0nship with God, which always comes first!)it can take a life time to earn the trust of people and one mistake to lose it forever. people tend toward remembering the bad that people do and not the Good. they assume the worst.
the very next thing i thought:
what was the one thing that takes place in churches that brings offense, and blame to the ministry? hypocrisy! i know that most of the so called hypocrisy that the world slaps on the Church is misunderstandings gone bad. but my friends... not all. i am guilty of reading this text and thinking about major sin and the cataclysmic falls of high profile preachers. and as i do so there is strife and divisions among us. they see it, and sometimes get caught up in it. nothing stumbles a new Christian (or a potential convert) more then to find out that the people they are going to for help, are no better then they are. and when they see us as Christians who are no better then lost men the ministry takes the blame!
let us not spend to much time worrying about the pastors who are on a direct path toward disaster. they have been and always will be there. but we can make a major difference in the way the world see's the Church by being Christ to them. by Loving sacrificially. And when they come into the Church by being what the bible says we are and what they come looking for, Christians. that the Lamb who was slain may receive the reward of his suffering, and God may be glorified!
