The High Cost of Spiritual Leadership

So we must ask, as a disciple of Christ Jesus, “In whom are you investing what you have learned while being a believer? Who are you discipling right now?” These questions are immensely important, because if you are not discipling someone, you are abandoning the gospel message. That is, you are not guarding it. The gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else.

God has just reminded the priests of the covenant from which they received their charge, but only because the message He intended to deliver required it. What comes next is not an encouragement (like reminders of covenants can be), but an indictment. God points out four errors of the priestly class to reveal just how far they’ve strayed.

First, God rejected them because of their poor sacrifices and their inadequate understanding of the Lord’s incommunicable qualities, specifically His holiness. Then God presented the people with a role model for obedience by reminding them of the righteousness of Levi. Now God makes plain the areas in which the priests have rebelled.

We see in verses 8 and 9 four actions on the part of these priests that are antithetical to the deeds of Levi. These are the four ways in which the priests have strayed and violated the law of the Lord.

The priests disobeyed the Lord. The priests “have turned from the way,” the instruction of the Torah. The proper path was cut for them, yet they decided to stray into the underbrush instead.

The priests distracted the people. How terrible it is that the priests themselves caused the people of Israel to stumble! Those entrusted to be ministers of the gospel are not only responsible for their own faithfulness in service to the Lord, but also how they lead others to do the same. It is one thing for a person, as an individual, to fall away. It is a completely different matter should one cause another person to stumble. Each person is responsible for how he acts. Ministerial actions speak as loud as words. People are watching both your lips and your life.

Jesus cautioned against this kind of destructive behavior in Mark 9:42-43:

But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes your downfall, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell—the unquenchable fire.

The term little ones here does not refer to children. He is referring to the disciples, the poor in spirit, the humble ones. The normal word for “sin” in Greek is hamartia. But in this case, Jesus opts for the word scandalizen, which can also be translated “sin,” but generally refers to stumbling. Jesus says, “If you are a part of shipwrecking someone’s faith, it would have been better for you to have been drowned with a millstone around your neck than to have caused them to stumble.”

This passage brings to mind those who infamously led many astray from the teaching of God. Think of men like Jim Jones, who duped hundreds of people into drinking poisonous Kool-Aid laced with Valium, cyanide, and Phenergan. David Koresh, the high school dropout, rock musician, and polygamist, told his people, “If the Bible is true, then I am the messiah.” He convinced 74 men, women, and children to burn in a firestorm in Waco, Texas. Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, leaders of the Heaven’s Gate movement, thought a UFO was connected to the Hale Bopp comet and, at its highest point, they convinced 39 of its members to drink a concoction of vodka, pineapple juice, and phenyl barbital before putting plastic bags over their heads and suffocating themselves. May God have mercy on the souls of these men and women, for Jesus said it would have been better for a person to be drowned by a millstone than to lead someone else astray. There is a high cost to being a spiritual leader.

Unfortunately, the priests engaged in another prohibited practice:

The priests disregarded the promise of God. They “‘violated the covenant of Levi.” Violated is the word used to portray something as damaged beyond repair. This word is used in Malachi 1:14 when God described the people’s unauthorized offering of sacrifices.

The priests demonstrated partiality. The priests were supposed to decide cases based on integrity and truth, but they were ruling with bias. They were showing favoritism to some and injustice to others. A valued individual received a favorable verdict. If the priests reviled an individual, justice was withheld. God accused the leadership of Israel of prejudicial priestly favoritism. Corruption permeated the society. Their teachings and their offerings were tainted, to which God ultimately responded, “Because you have no integrity in your walk and no integrity in your talk, here are the consequences.”

Look at Malachi 2:9: “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people.” It’s a terrible thing to be in the crosshairs of the wrath of God. Whether God meant it metaphorically or physically, having dung spread on your faces is supremely awful. Disgusting and embarrassing though it may be, this is a fairly light sentence! When you look at Numbers 18:32, their penalty for this perversion should have been death. Is God a God of mercy? He absolutely is, because He should have and could have decimated the entire priesthood in the blink of an eye. Yet God extended mercy.

They deserved death, yet were spared. Do not forget, however, that God’s silence was perhaps a worse punishment. Silence can be deafening. A few hours’ silence is bad enough, but it is another category entirely to hear nothing for 400 years. Can you feel the weight of what that must have been like for the people of God? No more prophets. No more words. No more truth. Just silence.

So how do we apply what we have read in Malachi 2:1-9 to our own lives? We see that leaders are held to a higher standard than those being led. And all Christians are leaders in some aspect of our lives, whether it be as mothers and fathers, teachers, coaches, or mentors—we are a kingdom of priests. Further, I believe that every one of us repeatedly commits high treason against the Lord through disrespect in our actions and attitudes. If we really think about our lives, we, like the priests, have wandered in our character, commitment, and communication with the Lord. Instead of being vehicles of consecration, we have become facilitators of contamination.

The irony of the passage is that God appointed the priests for the purpose of purifying the people and protecting the temple, but they were the source of the pollution. The ones who were called to live a life of purity before the Lord were the ones who were actually destroying the nation. Perversion originated with and was propagated through them.

Regarding vocational ministers, without a doubt, there is perversion throughout the history of the clergy; such transgression was not isolated to the priests of the OT. Whether we look at the Roman Catholic sexual scandals, the adulterous, immoral relationships of some pastors, or the greed of many televangelists, no one is outside of the sting of sin. Sadly, many apparently get away with their sinful leadership. But God, who sees it all and certainly does not forget anything, holds church leaders to a higher standard. James 3:1 is a sobering reminder: “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment.”

Church leaders are examined both by the Lord and by other people. Ministers’ families are constantly being scrutinized. Their finances are constantly being examined. Their material possessions are being analyzed and questioned. People from the inside and outside of the church judge their marriages, speech, actions, and attitudes all the time. Additionally, a pastor experiences the constant burden for lost family members, for backslidden church members, and of performing funerals for friends. This may be one reason why hundreds of pastors leave the ministry every single month.

Ministry is both a terrifying and a thrilling endeavor. The thought of standing before a righteous God to give an account for how His gospel was carried out is alarming. But what a privilege to be set apart for ministerial service! However, with great privilege comes great responsibility. Thankfully, One has come who carried out this responsibility perfectly. He was righteous under the law, never being led astray. Jesus stands as the quintessential priest and fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood.

Five key points can be extracted from this text as they relate to the calling of ministers:

¹ This idea is from the 19th-century Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne.