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Growing up in my walk with the Lord Jesus, I thought every pastor was good. I thought whatever a pastor preached, taught or said was good. I thought whatever a pastor did was good. I thought a pastor could not make mistakes.
However, when I grew up I realised that there was no one pastor conceived of a man and born of a woman that was blameless.
There is none good or perfect. No one pastor preaches, teaches, prays, and does all other things in ministry faultlessly. It appears it is impossible to live in this world without erring..
So-called senior pastors make terrible mistakes in their teachings and preaching all the time. Sometimes they quote and interpret scriptures out of context to drum home their points, so they err. This shows that no one is above mistakes or is good.
Moreover, throughout the Bible, no servant of God ever lived without falling below God’s standard of His goodness.
Man has the natural ability to do what is deemed to be good, but he cannot do good continuously as he also naturally does evil.
So, it is clear that everyone including pastors makes mistakes and that everyone is learning to do good. This calls for humility, tolerance and forgiveness towards one another.
However, the Lord Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man when He walked the earth and never sinned (1 John 3:5). He was good, yet He would not proudly admit it.
“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher…And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone (Mark 10:18-21).
Here, Jesus was not denying that He as God was good but to emphasise the fact that man could not be good as the man who spoke to Him considered Him to be just a man and not God.
God alone is good. And Jesus Christ was and is good because He is God. The Lord plainly declares that He is good; He is a good shepherd which means pastor.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me…(John 10::14).
Brethren, there is no good pastor in the world. Only Jesus Christ is a good Pastor. Everyone else is learning to be good like Him.
By James Quansah
