Is Faultless Chastity? Faultless Chastity. Too high a standard for pastors. That's today's

question. And it's a question that reminds me of a personal experience a few years ago.

My family and I had slipped into the back of a church to see a preacher that I liked.

The church was packed out. The elders were on the platform. Tissues were being passed.

The preacher was not there. Moments after we had arrived, he was announced that he had

been booted from his pastoral rule the night before, after the discovery of his romantic

attachment to a woman that was not his wife. And when this punishment was formally announced

to the church, the man sitting directly in front of me, who I'd never seen before, we

had never met. I didn't know him. He didn't know me. He turned straight around in his chair.

Let me dead in the eye and said in a loud voice. That's over the top. Don't you think?

I was startled. I mean, I'll never forget that. But moments like these and really any

formal church discipline is startling. You don't forget them. And they land on some people

with a shock of strictness. This is the experience leading to today's question from a female

listener in Houston. Pastor John, one of the pastors in my church was recently dismissed

from his position after confessing to having had sex with a lady he was dating. On the one

hand, I was so humbled by the high view of God's standard, taken by the church leadership,

but on the other hand, I wondered if this was too harsh. Takes a very special grace to

withstand sexual temptation, especially in a man or woman of a certain age and experience.

And many pastors struggle with hidden sins, such as pornography. My question is this,

is faultless chastity too high of a standard to hold for pastors?

Well, I start with the conviction that the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God into the world

and the revelation of the love of God in the sacrifice of His Son and the pattern of suffering

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