Blog

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it has been written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1).

My friend, seminary professor and fellow pastor here in Southeastern Indiana, Michael Pohlman, writes in his book Resolutions of a Pastor (Wipf & Stock, 2025), “A pastor must prioritize personal holiness in his own life even as he labors for holiness in the church. After all, the fundamental non-negotiable qualification for a pastor is to be ‘above reproach.’” 

I could not agree more. A pastor’s long labors for holiness in the church can be completely undone by a single moment. Pohlman continues by quoting the Puritan Richard Baxter, “He who means as he speaks will surely do as he speaks. One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless disagreement, one covetous action may cut the throat of many a sermon and destroy the fruit of all that you have been doing.” 

And yet, it seems godliness has left the pastoral building these days. 

The list of once prominent, now fallen preachers and pastors in evangelicalism has swollen to high tide in recent decades. And the way we speak about their “misbehavior” must change. 

Case in point is the recent sad news of Pastor Sam Alberry’s resignation from Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN. The church’s official statement said he had been disqualified from ministry due to an “inappropriate relationship with an adult man in 2022.” 

Did you catch it? 

Inappropriate relationship. 

Sufficiently vague. And worldly. And innocuous. 

But I wonder what God calls it? 

Abomination (Lev 18:22).    

I recall something similar when wildly popular pastor Matt Chandler was temporarily removed from his position for a pattern of “inappropriate text messages” sent to a female in the church who was not his wife. I wondered then, and still wonder, what is an “inappropriate text message?” Flirtatious? Deeply emotional so as to be uncomfortable to read in front of your wife? Sexual or semi-sexual? Was foul language used? 

Why not just call it “filthy speech” (Eph 5:4) like God does?

Church, we have got to stop pandering to popular politically correct semantics.

Pastors, we have got to stop playing worldly word games. 

Little wonder that personal holiness is absent from our ranks when we cannot even seem to bring ourselves to call sin by its shameful, Christ-dishonoring, Spirit-grieving, God-hated name. 

“The path forward in holiness for the pastor is mortification” (Pohlman, p. 123). 

An affair doesn’t sound like something I would want or need to kill. An unwise text message simply needs edited. Not eradicated. An inappropriate relationship might merely be re-structured. Not radically amputated (Matt 5:30). A mistake needs adjusted. Not aborted.  

Sinners need redemption. Not just re-direction. The lost must be found. Not just fine-tuned. The dead must be resurrected. Not just reformed. The corrupt need converted. Not just counseled. 

Our words matter. Because words convey meaning. And meaning rests in objective truth. But make no mistake, it’s not just our language that needs to come in line with God’s Word, it’s the entirety of our hearts and lives. The Bible gives us a Savior whose righteousness is accounted to us positionally by faith, and then is progressively worked into us practically by faith (Gal 3:1-9; Rom 6; Heb 10:1-18; 12:1-17; 1 John 2:28-29).  

“Pursue righteousness, godliness” (1 Tim 6:11). It’s non-negotiable. 

And it’s not just popular pastors coddling corrupt passions in their hearts and minds. Nearly every day a local pastor close to you, dear reader, prattles around with pornography. Or justifies watching racy movies. Or stays up late at night playing violent video games. Pray it’s not your pastor! Insist and ensure that your pastor(s) are in close, relational accountability with other pastors. Hold your leaders accountable for personal holiness, even as you do yourselves, and even as pastors do you. God help us rebuild cultures of Christ-likeness in our churches! God help us learn self-denial by sanctifying grace. God help us to stop weed-eating besetting sins and instead kill the root with righteous Roundup. God put us back on purity’s path. God give us love for what You love, and hatred for what You hate. 

Pastors, people of God in Christ, perfection is our passionate pursuit! O, sure, we won’t attain it in this life, but we repentantly run after it all our life-long (Phil 3:10-21). 

Make us holy, God. Make us holy. Give us holy hatred for all that defiles us and defames Your Holy Name. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit. Shape us by Your Word. For the sake of Christ. Amen.

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:14).

by Keith McWhorter