The Pastor's Justification

We preach the terrors of God’s wrath as if they are terrifying, we preach the joys of God’s salvation as if they are joyful. We preach hell in serious, sober ways, neither being glib about it nor speaking as if it is the only word. And we preach the gospel in declarative ways, bold and certain and full of Christ’s glory.

Do we love God and others enough to drop the pretense and just be ourselves? Only the gospel simultaneously provides the humility and the confidence the pastor needs to be his real self. The pastorate is no place for image-managing, for worrying about our own PR. In any event, if everybody likes you, something’s wrong, and if everybody hates you, s

Moses says, “Please show me your glory” (Ex. 33:18). Deep down, this is the cry of every human heart. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says eternity is written there. The gospel of God’s glory in Christ must be central in our preaching because nothing else even comes close to filling the eternal gap.

Being all things to all people, if this is our ministerial goal, ought to begin with being all ourselves to God who approves us, qualifies us, commissions us, and loves us.

Still, many seem pathologically devoted to anything warm and fuzzy that is not the gospel. “If I just stay positive, things will be okay.” Well, no, they won’t. And I’ve told you that a billion times. “If I just pray more, my life wouldn’t be so difficult.” Are we reading the same Bible? “Just keep hoping; that’s all we’ve got.” That doesn’t even m

The pastor who neglects personal holiness has forgotten who’s in charge. He believes he is an employee of his flock, so it is not holiness he is chiefly after but the appearance of success, of “having his act together.” When today’s pastors think of being an example to their flocks, they primarily think in terms of appearing well-off materially, ha

The right response to the survey of this wearying battlefield is not timidity or a pity party, but clinging more desperately to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The justification for the sin-prone pastor—by which I mean simply the pastor—is the same as it is for every sinner. There is no Justification 2.0 for ministers of the gospel.

In short, disciples know each other. And so Matthew 18:15 might be happening all the time, perhaps weekly within loving relationships, in churches where there is no imminent danger of somebody being kicked out but rather where iron is constantly sharpening iron.

A pastor not interested in theology is like a computer programmer not interested in technology.