I’m not a regular commentator on gossip and scandal, but the conversation around the revealed adultery of Philip Yancey over the last few days has me feeling reflective. Full disclosure: I don’t believe I’ve ever read a book by Philip Yancey. I read part of one over 20 years ago but set it aside. He came across to me, at least in that book, as being overly individualistic, somewhat negative towards the local church and a bit on the sentimental side. In fairness, I was young and exploring my own theology and Yancey seemed to cut across the grain of what God was doing in my own life at the time. However, this is not a post about Yancey’s theology, it is a post about the reaction of Christians to the news of his marital infidelity.
To be clear, ALL infidelity is cause for lamentation. Marriage is a gift and a joy and adultery does violence to that. Adultery is an assault on a living thing created by God. Any time any believer commits adultery it should call into question their salvation. I’m not saying that adultery causes you to lose your salvation, I’m saying it calls into question the reality of your salvation. A saved person, growing in grace should become more faithful, more selfless, more generous and more forgiving over time. For a 70 year old man to confess to an 8 year affair ought to give us all pause. More importantly, it should give him pause. He should be asking: “Am I even truly saved?” “If I am a true believer, why have I not outgrown this grievous, harmful, shameful, immature, selfish inclination toward adultery?”
I’m not sure how he will answer that question but he should definitely be asking it.
But my focus with this post is not so much HIS reaction as the reaction of many Christians on the internet. I can understand bemoaning his adultery – I’m doing that too. I can understand bemoaning the state of Christian discipleship – I’m doing that too. But there are two things about the internet conversation around Yancey that I do not understand.
#1. I don’t understand how the sin of a journalist and author says anything about the quality of pastors and elders.
I’ve been hearing lots of people saying: “Here we go again! Another leader in the church was revealed to be a hypocrite. This is why I don’t trust authority in the church.”
But Yancey was not a leader in the church.
He was an author and a journalist who professed faith in Christ.
How does Yancey’s fall say anything about the reliability of the local leaders in your church? In fact, if anything, I think this should be a rebuke to our tendency to be led by people who are NOT pastors and elders in our local church. Why does Philip Yancey have authority in your life? Because he writes compelling prose? Because he sold 15 million books?
That part doesn’t make sense to me.
Stop following people you don’t know. Stop giving authority to people on the basis of talent or charisma. If you can’t observe how a leader treats his wife or drives his car or speaks to a waiter or deals with a difficult staff person then you have no basis for granting that person influence in your life.
#2. I don’t understand how this situation says anything about the reality of the Christian gospel.
I’ve seen people asking the question: “If God’s grace wasn’t enough to help Yancey, then how can I expect it to help me?”
What a strange question!
The fact that Yancey did this suggests to me that he was better at writing about grace than he was at accessing it. We all know people who are good at describing a thing and poor or neglectful when it comes to doing the thing. So it seems to have been here.
The grace of God enables you to outgrow even the worst of sin. I KNOW THAT FOR A FACT. I HAVE EXPERIENCED THAT. Anyone who has been writing about grace for 50 years who then has an affair for 8 years has been painting a picture of a fountain he hasn’t been drinking from. That’s my testimony, but it isn’t just my opinion, it is 100% Scripture fact. According to the Apostle Peter:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” (2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV)
The internet makes us aware of every bad thing happening in the world. It makes us feel like every Christian leader is failing.
But that’s not true.
And it certainly isn’t true in this case.
We should pray for Yancey. Pray that in his weakness and humiliation he will now drink deeply from the fountain he has been describing for 50 years. Pray for his wife. Pray for his soul.
But to use this as a justification for leaving the church, resenting your local leaders or doubting the power and efficacy of grace seems like an example of poor reading. This is a sad story, but it isn’t an invitation to lose faith, it is an invitation to focus in and buckle up. Yancey’s failure should motivate you to close ranks, watch your input, stay current in your confession, and stay drinking from that fountain that we all with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of God as though in a mirror may be transformed by one degree of glory to the next into the same image, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Praise the Lord!
Pastor Paul Carter
If you are interested in Bible teaching from Pastor Paul you can access the entire library of Into The Word episodes through the Audio tab on the Into the Word website. You can also download the Into The Word app on iTunes or Google Play.
