Glory, gold, girls — Pastors’ major stumbling blocks

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
It appears from both Biblical accounts and the reality of everyday life that the common stumbling blocks for spiritual leaders are glory, gold and girls. If the man of God resists pride successfully, he may be caught off guard in the area of money and possessions. If gold offers no strong lure, women may be found irresistible. These three are the adversary’s three point hook; and the hook seldom fails to catch. If one point of the hook misses, the other one if not the other two will make a great catch.

The devil takes pride in this hook but his rejoicing is only for a short time because God has given us a way of escape: Christ succours us as our advocate and saviour. Thus when we fall we need not despair but sincerely and quickly confess our sins, forsake the sins, receive forgiveness and cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ and move on with our redeemer (1 John 1:8-9).

Temptation is an invitation to sin. To be tempted is not sin but to yield to temptation is. The basis of temptation is the enmity established by God between the seed of Satan and the seed of Christ. Adam’s fall warranted the establishment of that hostility.

In meting out judgment to the serpent for beguiling Eve into yielding to temptation God declared, “Because you have done this,… And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:14-15).

The devil always tries to prove to God that man is as disobedient to God as he is. He uses temptations to prove his assumption true. Man’s choice is the deciding factor in this cosmic conflict. When one successfully resists the devil, he proves the devil a liar. Only Jesus Christ, the Son of man, proved the assumption of the devil false because he never yielded to any temptation.

But when one yields to temptations, the devil rejoices. It is written in Hebrews 4:15, “…but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin.” Unfortunately, we as the followers of Christ have stumbled in many places and yielded to temptations. The devil can rejoice at that.

Everyone’s faith fails at one time because of the persistent nature of our tempter. Temptations are common to every believer because the tempter is still alive. However, the ways in which we respond to temptations vary as we have different degrees of resistance to temptations. Some have least resistance while others have no resistance at all.

But there are others who resistance is strong most of the times. These can withstand the enemy’s assaults most of the times but they are not invincible. The enemy persists and targets our points of weakness, so everyone yields to some temptation at one time or the other. Though temptations are common to all believers there is a marked difference in intensity between temptations that come to the flock and those that come to the shepherds.

Temptations are greater and stronger against church leaders than church members. ‘Higher levels, higher devils’ so they say. It is therefore important for church members to pray earnestly for their leaders. When the enemy targeted Apostle James, the church was sleeping and he was killed. But see the difference when Peter was seized. The church prayed without ceasing and the enemy was defeated. Pray for your pastors instead of just pointing at their weaknesses.

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