The Consequence of Corruption
while interesting, is not ultimately transformative. It tells them that the preacher himself does not bank his life upon it. For this reason, the steward must wage war on secret sin. He must cultivate integrity when no one is watching. He must invite accountability. He must be quick to repent. His credibility as a steward is built not in the pulpit but in the prayer closet.
The Consequence of Corruption The stakes of this stewardship are immeasurably high. Paul warns in 2
Corinthians that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness. False teaching rarely announces itself as false. It often comes clothed in spiritual language, with appeals to Scripture, and with a form of godliness. Its corruption is subtle. It may be a shift in emphasis, a redefining of terms, or a silence on essential truths. The effect, however, is devastating. Corrupted doctrine leads to corrupted worship, corrupted behavior, and ultimately, corrupted eternities. People build their lives on what they are taught. If the foundation is sand, the collapse is certain when the storm comes.
Therefore, the steward must be vigilant. He must be a guardian at the gate of his own heart and a guardian at the gate of the church's teaching ministry. He must know the Word so well that he can detect counterfeits. A bank teller does not study counterfeit bills. He studies the authentic so
thoroughly that the false becomes obvious by contrast. So the steward must be so immersed in the "uncorrupted" Word that any deviation grieves his spirit. He must be willing to correct, to rebuke, and to endure slander for the sake of purity. This is not the task of the quarrelsome, but the mandate of the faithful. A shepherd who will not fight wolves does not love the sheep.
A steward who will not guard the doctrine does not love the Master who entrusted it.
The call to uncorruptness is a call to single-minded devotion. The teacher cannot serve two masters. He cannot seek the approval of God and the applause of men. He cannot be faithful to the text and unfaithful to his own conscience. He must resolve that if he is to err, he will err on the side of fidelity to Christ, not on the side of accommodation to the age. For in the end, he will give an account not to his conference, not to his denomination, not to his critics, but to the One who said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The