The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Kathy Shortridge of Billings, Montana from the tape, GC 1301-P, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 18." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1981. All Rights Reserved.
Question
Is there a place in the ministry to the flock for husbands, though godly are
separated from their wives; they are seeking reconciliation; everything is
really up and up, they are doing everything they can; through no wish of their
own they are separated and the same for the wife who might be in that situation?
Answer
There is always a ministry for a righteous man--always, through the
spiritual gifts God has given you. I just think there is a visibility factor
involved, an exemplary factor that limits some of that ministry. I mean
obviously if my wife left me, my credibility would be shot, no matter how
innocent I might be. People couldn’t hear me preach because they would be
wondering what I was really like, why did she leave me, what quirks in my life?
By the way she’s not going to leave me. But I’m just saying...you can understand
if I came and announced some Sunday morning that my wife had left me, it would
totally change my entire ministry. I mean all the thoughts and all the problems
would arise and so forth and so on. And it doesn’t mean there aren’t problems
when you stayed married because some people hide those kind of problems too. But
basically if you are a righteous man and a godly man you are a channel through
which the Spirit of God will operate and He will operate through your spiritual
gifts and He’ll use you in the body of Christ, but obviously your are in a
situation where you can’t rise to a position of exemplary leadership because of
the tension in you own life and because you make yourself vulnerable for
criticism. The body I think wants to protect you. In other words, its like a
wound that comes to the physical body, the rest of the body moves to that
area--doesn’t it--to fight that infection, and in a real sense the body wants to
protect you; not stick you in a position to be more vulnerable.
Question (continued)
I can say that I went through the situation last Friday, the divorce was
final. My life has been pure toward my wife, and that I know that through that
situation the best times were when I was helping others. I was taken from my
ministry, singing for children on Sunday mornings, and in that time it was
really dry.
Answer (continued)
The Lord is in the ministry of restoration and if you’re the innocent party the
Lord will restore you and use you. It's just that I think that there has to be a
time when you build back the integrity and the credibility that people have to
have to trust your ministry. But I think you can work on an individual basis
until God restores that in your life. All of us are restored sinners
right? Somewhere along the line if the truth were known, we’ve all come back
from something--or in the process of coming back.
Question (continued)
As far as evangelism, I could go out to like USC hospital and do that; I
mean a person in that situation could, and they wouldn’t know who they were
anyway. They’d be telling the truth, the gospel and there would be nothing wrong
with that. You could go as far as you could with that. Right?
Answer (continued)
You know the Bible doesn’t say go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature unless you’ve got sin in your life. It just says go, and if your
dealing with that and a righteous life, I don’t think God is pulling the blinds
on you and saying that’s it for you forever. He took care of David after all the
problems he had, He still used him and called him His personal friend. So I
think there is still things, although I think in terms of the far reaching and
the highest levels of visibility there are problems because of your
vulnerability at that point and the body wants to protect you from that, but not
in the elimination of your ministry.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986