Temptations in Ministry

Introduction

People always go into ministry with the best of intentions. Very, very, very few people go into ordained ministry with the thought of how they can harm people. Moreover, anybody even decently familiar with the Bible knows the warnings about false teachers and hypocrites. James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” In context, that’s not even a warning for false teachers but for anybody who already has, or who desires, a teaching ministry. Even a surface reading of the Gospels makes one aware of the Pharisees and false teachers.

I can already hear the thoughts of some hearts here: “That’s not me! It will never be me! I love God! I love his Word!” So did Gehazi at one point.

Today’s message may be hard but it is a necessary one. You see, most ministers will apply their messages to the one’s sitting in the pews but hardly ever sit under a ministry that applies the Word to them. We live in an interesting age for ministry. The minister is no longer regarded as an authority in all things. There are people more qualified to speak on certain topics than the local pastor. Ministers no longer have the cultural and social capital that used to come with the job. Ministry is hard. Rather than learn to adapt, some in ministry want to retain a sense of entitlement and the rise of narcissism (or rather its exposure) in the Church today is something more people inside and outside of the Church are becoming aware of. Abuse scandals abound. The Southern Baptist Convention has been dealing with issues for the last few years. The Presbyterian bodies are likewise dealing with their fair share. Roman Catholics have been under scrutiny for decades if not centuries. And those are just the cases that come to the surface!

We always say to ourselves, “it will never happen to me.” But the moment we think that, and say it in our hearts, our guard is already down and self-deception is already at work.

Today’s message is about a guy like that: Gehazi, a servant of the prophet Elisha. He was enrolled in the best seminary of the time: the school of the prophets. Elisha heard directly from God and spoke for God so that was the best in theological training that period of redemptive history had to offer. Gehazi is a tale of one who started out well but succumbed to temptations in ministry. My goal is to familiarize your with some of those temptations so that you will be on your guard and protect the sheep not only from Satan’s schemes, but from your own selves if need be.

In no particular order of importance, just as they appear on the text, let’s be on guard for temptations of the heart, the temptation of spiritual abuse, the temptation to do great things for God and the kingdom that God has not ordained, and the temptations when caught.

Temptations of the Heart

We do not know much about Gehazi. He first appears in 2 Kings 4:12 and the last time we will hear about him is serving in the court of the king of the Northern tribes of Israel in 2 Kings 8:4-5.

What we know is that he was a servant of Elisha. He was like an intern with the school of the prophets. He was an obedient servant for all practical appearances. Perhaps he had a level of authority within the school as he seems to be a “right-hand-man” of Elisha. In the narrative we read, we witnessed his downfall from that position. In fact, in the overall narrative of 2 Kings 5, we see that Naaman, the Syrian General was unclean and a leper when he arrived and left clean and healed; in a reversal of affairs, Gehazi was clean and became a leper when he left.

I have labeled the first category of temptations as those of the heart because these are temptations that arise from within ourselves. These are internal. These are not always prompted by external agents. While the writer of Scripture privileges us with the words that Gehazi said within himself, these temptations are usually not verbalized. Nobody says them to us. We act out of various sinful passions.

The first temptation of the heart is jealousy. It is revealed in verse 20: “See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian…” What jealousy? Gehazi had problems - as almost any Israelite would at this time - that healing and salvation had come to “Naaman the Syrian.” His ethnicity and national origins are mentioned because there is perhaps a bit of nationalism behind Gehazi. “Why is Elisha healing Syrians and not Israelites? Why doesn’t he serve his own people? His own kin? His own country?” Israelites believed that God was “pro-Israel” only. There are many today who still feel this way. So when Elisha heals the top General of the country that is currently oppressing Israel, you know there are a lot of questions and feelings going on including anger but especially jealousy. Naaman has been “spared.” Guess who feels like they have not been spared? Israel who sits under the oppressions that Naaman has brought. Of course, the readers know that it is the sins of Israel that have them under the sin of the Syrians.

Let me make this application: God is going to give some people better temporal blessings than you might experience. God is to grow the ministries of other churches that you might feel are the enemy. Having sat under Presbyterian ministry for over 20 years, it is baffling to watch non-Presbyterian bodies grow like crazy! In the PCA, there is a struggle to reach minorities like Hispanics and Blacks. Even here in the Rio Grande Valley, bodies like the PCA struggle to reach Latinos and thats because we are surrounded by Latinos! God is going to give revivals to people you may not like and God is going to save some sinners you think do not deserve God’s grace.

This jealousy can be further honed into, what I call, the jealousy of grace. Gehazi was jealous of the grace that Naaman got. He felt that Naaman should have paid for his healing. Naaman had ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothing ready to make payment. Gehazi’s words from his heart in the text in v20: “…in not accepting from his hand what he brought.” Again, the words are not spoken out loud, God knows and hears the inner workings of Gehazi’s heart which we are privileged to see and learn from. Gehazi’s own words let us know that he thinks Naaman should not have received free grace.

There will be temptations in ministry to make salvation harder for some than for others. John Frame says, “The doors of the church should not be narrower than the doors of heaven.” This is the Judaizing tendency that is seen in the letter to the Galatians. But it is also seen in the book of Jonah and his hard-heartedness toward those who were outside the visible covenant community of his time. The full blessings of the New Covenant are always “yes” and “amen” in Christ through faith alone. And while we don’t mind saying that justification is by faith alone, denominations and cults always find a way to say that there is something missing that will unlock the full blessings of God or that will lead to deeper spirituality which Colossians 1-2 argues against. It could be the “you need to express this particular gift” to the deceptive “you need to start giving this much money” to something as subtle as “what you really need is to subscribe to this particular Confessional document”. There are subtle ways that ministers end up ministering law instead of grace in their attitudes and requirements to some in the Church. This is not to say that confessions, or giving or serving in church is wrong but that those good things can be used out of order to serve hidden agendas. Gehazi used giving and took advantage of the generosity and new-found loyalty of Naaman!

Another temptation of the heart is the temptation to usurp authority. Remember we are privileged by the omniscient third person narrator to give us the inner heart language of Gehazi who says, “see, my Master has spared this Naaman…” He does not agree with the actions of his Master, Elisha, and so he is convinced that he must take action that the higher authority did not. He is tempted to take matters into his own hands. We must remember that Gehazi is also reasoning to himself. Gehazi did not write this. It was revealed to the author what Gehazi was thinking. Gehazi has to reason to himself for the actions he is about to take contrary to those above him.

The temptation for ministers today is to think they are doing something good that may go against Scripture or against the polity and policies that they vow to uphold. The fact that he calls Elisha his “master” meant that he should have recognized the submission he owed to him. The temptation to “think you know better than” your superiors is always present and its an expression of pride. Satan thought he knew better than God. Adam and Eve thought they could know better than God in the temptation to “know good and evil” for themselves, which was an attempt to make up their own rules and usurp God’s authority.

Temptation of Spiritual Abuse

This leads to another category of temptations that is called spiritual abuse. Listen to Gehazi’s heart reasoning; “…As the LORD lives….” Gehazi now attempts to bring God to his side and is going to act in the name of God where God has not said to act.

What is spiritual abuse? We hear about all kinds of abuse today. Michael Kruger, in his book “Bully Pulpit” defines spiritual abuse this way:

”Spiritual abuse is when a spiritual leader - such as a pastor, elder, or head of a Christian organization - wields his position of spiritual authority in such a way that he manipulates, domineers, bullies and intimidates those under him (even alongside him) as a means of maintaining his own power and control, even if he is convinced he is seeking biblical and kingdom related goals.”

Gehazi makes a rash vow to do something that he is convinced is better for the kingdom of God than Elisha has done. He vows to do something, however, that God has not commanded. God did not reveal to Gehazi that Elisha had messed up. God never commanded to take a minimum fee for healings.

When a minister becomes convinced that the “best” way to serve God is to do something not explicitly commanded in Scripture, then the temptation to convince others to follow along through any means necessary - including heavy-handed methods - is not far behind. Remember Nehemiah resorting to physical violence to gain obedience? We see it very obviously on television as prosperity preachers attempt to convince people to give their money to their ministries so that “the power of God can move in their lives.” Colossians 1 is very clear that no rituals bring the blessings of God. Only union with the resurrected Christ does, which comes through faith alone. Nothing makes a person more spiritual than they already are as the Holy Spirit unites them to Christ and his resurrected life.

Nonetheless, the temptation to abuse an office, a title or a position is something that one needs to be aware of in ministry. Perhaps Paul was aware of it and that is why he worked to support his own needs lest he be tempted to take advantage of his position. The prophet Samuel, when he was on the way out to give way to the office of the king, asked the people if he had defrauded them in anyway or abused his office as Eli and his sons had before him (1 Sam. 12:1-5). The area of church discipline is especially an area where the temptation can be present. The temptation to be heavy-handed and issue out penalty rather than means to achieve repentance, restoration and transformation. Nehemiah beat people up when they sinned. Heavy-handed shepherding is contrary to 1 Peter 5:1-3 and its qualifications for elders and shepherds. It is grounds for disqualification from ministry.

What one needs to recognize is that ministers carry a unique spiritual authority and you must be aware of how you use that. A minister with a sense of entitlement is a dangerous person. When Paul sought to defend his ministry he defended it by his ability and willingness to suffer for Christ. He did not lay claim to privileges of apostleship. Rather, it was the pseudo-apostles who laid claim to such entitlement and demanded more control over their audiences.

Tied to this temptation is the temptation to do great things for God and the Kingdom that God has not ordained. This has already been mentioned, but I want to make it more distinguished here as these temptations are all packaged together.

Let’s consider Naaman first. He brought a lot of money and valuables with him that he was willing to use to pay for his healing. Instead, he got grace. He learned that God heals freely and loyalty to God above all is the proper response to God’s grace, not money. Naaman learned the most valuable lesson and gave something to God of greater worth than material things: he devoted himself. Nonetheless, Naaman displays his willingness to obey Elisha should he ask anything of him. He calls Elisha his “master” now.

Now consider Gehazi. Gehazi witnessed the submissiveness and newfound loyalty of Naaman to Elisha and to Yahweh. Gehazi has it in his mind to serve God by acquiring some of the items from Naaman as a payment to himself. Gehazi feels entitled to something from Naaman and Yahweh will become the means by which he will serve his sense of entitlement. “As the LORD lives…” is the clear sign of spiritual abuse through the attempt to gain for his own wellbeing.

Gehazi approaches Naaman and tells him, “My master has sent me to say….” This is the clear cut case of spiritual abuse; the misuse of office and authority to manipulate and exploit Naaman. Gehazi comes in the name of “my master” who is also Naaman’s master now. Gehazi asks for some items and receives a bit more than expected. No doubt, he was not complaining. Its possible that he thought God was blessing him because of what he got. Gehazi used his position and authority to convince Naaman that he was doing kingdom things to serve some prophets who had just come into town. He disguised his abuse with kingdom-related services. Naaman does not suspect (at the moment) what Gehazi is really doing and we are never told if he found out about Gehazi’s exploitation.

People may think they are serving the good of the church when they manipulate people to do things as responses to grace that God has not ordained. Elijah will tell Gehazi that it was not the right time to exact payment. From a redemptive-historical perspective, it was not the right time because the cross was the only sufficient payment that could and did pay for healing both physically and spiritually. I’m pretty sure Elisha didn’t mean that he had put Naaman on a payment program and Gehazi prematurely collected the first installment! Perhaps Elisha knew already that it was going to cost God something, not Naaman.

Temptations when caught

With time winding down, the final temptations are a package deal. They are the temptation to lie, the temptation to think you are going to get away with it and the temptation to avoid discipline.

Gehazi lies to Elisha. He lies to God. He lied to himself first, thinking that he might be able to get away with his deception. We do not know the inner thinking of Gehazi at this point, but it is not hard to imagine that Gehazi felt justified in what he did to Naaman and what he got for himself. Gehazi had to deceive himself first before he ventured out to try to deceive others.

I pray that none of you do what Gehazi did or any other form of abuse in your future or current ministries. But when you get caught, my prayer is that you do not be like Gehazi who tried to lie his way out of it.

There is grace when we confess and repent of our sin, not when we hide it. Granted there will be consequences but the consequences are meant to save your soul from thinking you can lie and get away with it. That thinking has no place amongst ministers. It might be that a person needs to step away from ministry for a time or forever, especially if you do not yet understand how you fell into pride and sin like Gehazi because you will do it again. Perhaps not in the same way because sin learns and evolves. Stepping away from ministry to heal and even restore back what you’ve taken or make amends for the damage and possible trauma you’ve done is a ministry as well. Shepherds should be willing to demonstrate that rather than just be willing to speak in front of others where attention is gained and commanded.

At the end of this sad tale, Naaman came in unclean and left clean and restored to full health. Gehazi was clean and left unclean and with the disease that Naaman had on him. A full reversal of affairs.

Paul warned the elders at Ephesus to be on guard because wolves would arise from among their own selves. This means that wolves don’t start out looking like wolves. They make it among the ranks before they “arise.” Be on guard. Help each other. Keep each other accountable. No church polity is effective if it is systematically invaded by abusive leadership, even ones with plurality of leadership.

May God protect you by the power of his grace. May God grant repentance quickly should any of us ever fall into Gehazi’s sin. Amen.