Titus 1:6 says “An elder must live a blameless life.” Have you ever tried? Inconceivable (with credits to Princess Bride)! If we only follow blameless leaders then church will be anarchy. Remember Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned…” Who besides Christ qualifies? If you are looking for a reason not to follow me just ask JoLynn. Or Megan, or Amanda, or… How are we to interpret such a radical command?
The Greek word for blameless, Cooley definition is “Teflon coated.” Accusations don’t tend to stick due to the person’s character. Think of past presidents. Some accusations slid of like butter on Teflon, some like gorilla glue. Some knew how to apologize, others how to spin words and make excuses. I’ve got an old rule for leaders, developed from the betrayal of Christ (and some time in Dr. Scott Peck’s wonderful book, People of the Lie). I call it the three Rs. Here it goes:
Rationalization. This is zero change after being confronted with our sin, and making up excuses why we are still OK. Remember the Pharisees? They took money from the temple (too cheap to use their own) and paid Judas to betray Jesus, they had people lie about Jesus, and then they watched Jesus be tortured to death as a result of their actions. After the event, when Judas threw the money at them and confronted them with their sin, what did they do? The rationalized, “If we don’t put the money back in the temple treasury, we’ll be off the hook for lynching an innocent man,” they thought. Weird - sick.
Remorse. This is a 90 degree change. It’s a Judas change. He felt awful about betraying Jesus – but it didn’t make him blameless. Mt. 27:3 says he felt “remorse.” But remorse doesn’t lead to reconciliation, only death. It isn’t going far enough. So Judas went out and hung himself. Forgiveness and reconciliation were available, but ignored.
Repentance. This is a change of 180 degrees. It’s a change like Peter experienced. Just 50 days after denying Christ he is willing to die for Christ. This is the mark of a leader. It’s being blameless.
Being blameless isn’t being perfect. It’s being repentant. It’s living differently after being confronted with our sin. It’s closing the loop, cleaning up after we mess up. Repentance puts a Teflon coating on our character.
Inconceivable – that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
Dan
The Greek word for blameless, Cooley definition is “Teflon coated.” Accusations don’t tend to stick due to the person’s character. Think of past presidents. Some accusations slid of like butter on Teflon, some like gorilla glue. Some knew how to apologize, others how to spin words and make excuses. I’ve got an old rule for leaders, developed from the betrayal of Christ (and some time in Dr. Scott Peck’s wonderful book, People of the Lie). I call it the three Rs. Here it goes:
Rationalization. This is zero change after being confronted with our sin, and making up excuses why we are still OK. Remember the Pharisees? They took money from the temple (too cheap to use their own) and paid Judas to betray Jesus, they had people lie about Jesus, and then they watched Jesus be tortured to death as a result of their actions. After the event, when Judas threw the money at them and confronted them with their sin, what did they do? The rationalized, “If we don’t put the money back in the temple treasury, we’ll be off the hook for lynching an innocent man,” they thought. Weird - sick.
Remorse. This is a 90 degree change. It’s a Judas change. He felt awful about betraying Jesus – but it didn’t make him blameless. Mt. 27:3 says he felt “remorse.” But remorse doesn’t lead to reconciliation, only death. It isn’t going far enough. So Judas went out and hung himself. Forgiveness and reconciliation were available, but ignored.
Repentance. This is a change of 180 degrees. It’s a change like Peter experienced. Just 50 days after denying Christ he is willing to die for Christ. This is the mark of a leader. It’s being blameless.
Being blameless isn’t being perfect. It’s being repentant. It’s living differently after being confronted with our sin. It’s closing the loop, cleaning up after we mess up. Repentance puts a Teflon coating on our character.
Inconceivable – that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
Dan
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