When a leader falls, is their past teaching still valid?

The letter of Jude is consistent with the rest of Scripture in highlighting the importance of a Christian leader’s good character.

No Christian would be wise to accept as "shepherds" (v.12) of their soul anyone who is anything like the people Jude describes. But how does that work when our favourite preacher ministers online and belongs to a local church half-way round the world?

We might well ask searching questions of a potential preacher in our own church, for example: does he ever invite people into his home? Do the young women have reason to feel nervous around him? Is he gentle in his conduct during difficult meetings? Does his own wife respect him, fear him or despise him? What do the unbelievers around him make of him? But when a man ministers to us exclusively through his books, blogs, podcasts and online messages we have no way of knowing the answer to these questions.

But the teaching is so Biblical, we say. More than that, it is powerful and stirring. He speaks out plainly many things that need to be said and so we listen to the sermons with great appreciation and, we assume, great benefit.

Then the scandal breaks. The man who taught so helpfully on marriage was cheating on his own wife, for years. The man who preached the importance of honesty was systematically defrauding his own church. The man who spoke on humility bullied and dominated his trustees’ meetings into cowed submission. And this is clearly no lapse or fall such as characterises all of us from time to time - this is a character flaw. When his own church removes him from ministry, few disagree with the decision. When he then breaks off all contact with the church and continues to pursue an unchristian lifestyle, even his most ardent defenders give up. But what about everything we learnt from him? Is it still valid?

Consider his character and conduct

We must answer this question with caution. If the conduct is ungodly, we should begin on the assumption that the tongue is ungodly also (Jude 18). If the character is godless then according to Jude the man will be among the "worldly people, devoid of the Spirit" (Jude 19). That verse alone is surely plain enough to raise serious doubts in our minds.

Consider his teaching

Following through from Jude verse 4, we will now need to ask whether there were ways, subtle perhaps, in which the Lordship of Christ was not always made plain in his teaching. Or perhaps, on reflection, there were times when grace seemed to excuse sin (Jude 4). Was there after all a tendency to "blaspheme the glorious ones", perhaps not angels in this case but rather fellow church leaders and servants of Christ who were felt to be compromising in some way? Was there a great air of confidence and conviction in the messages, to the exclusion of any note of gentleness or humility, making the man sound like one of the "loud-mouthed boasters (Jude 16)"? Did the man deal patiently and honestly with genuine disagreements and disputed points, or did he too often abuse the privilege of the pulpit to scoff at those on the other side (Jude 18)? That impression he gave us all, that he and his tribe were the only true servants of Christ, why did we ever think that might be the truth? Was he not in the end just someone who "causes divisions" (Jude 19) among the Lord’s people?

There is such a thing as a preacher who is impressive but "fruitless…twice dead, uprooted (Jude 12)". It’s time to re-evaluate, for the sake of our own souls.

"Keep yourselves in the love of God", Jude tells us. No more outsourcing our Christian mind to the internet superstar preachers! It is time to seek Christ wherever He may be found, whether from within our own tribe or beyond. Above all, it is time to resubmit to the leadership of our own local church, where Christ is preached with faithfulness by men we know and trust.