Wednesday; November 19
I haven’t followed the Jeffry
Epstein mess close enough to know much about it, but what I do know is that
scandals like this irritate me – not just that some prominent people took
advantage of others, but because of what it can do to a lot of innocent
people. Several years ago, more than one
famous preacher admitted to inappropriate relationships and while it impacted
their careers, I also believe it made it harder for others of us to feel
comfortable doing our jobs. I hope that
these sordid stories don’t negatively impact good people doing good things, but
I have to admit it can make me feel uneasy.
One struggle in dealing with something like this is combating
negative accusations about something you didn’t do. How can you prove you are innocent? I don’t know that you can do that, but what
we can do is live lives that make it harder for people to accuse you and even
harder for people to believe the claims if they are made. The Apostle Paul would challenge Timothy to
look for church leaders who were “above reproach”. He seems to expand on this in another letter,
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove
yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in
the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear
as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that
in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did
not run in vain nor toil in vain.” (Philippians 2:14-16). In essence, we should be living in a way that
if we were accused it would be so out of character for us that people would find
it hard to believe.
Let’s hold people accountable for what they do, but let’s
not paint everyone with the same brush.
Additionally, let’s live lives that make it hard for people to accuse us
of wrongdoing. Finally, if we are
accused, let’s not only be able to honestly deny the allegation, let’s be able
to show a pattern that makes it hard for the accusation to develop traction.
Think About It!