It always hurts when people let us down, but there is a special sorrow that comes when we discover that someone we have looked up to and emulated is not the person we thought they were. A friend of mine recently shared a particularly sad story. He met his wife at a small church in Huntington Beach. Friendship became romance and they were soon serious. Desiring to lay a good foundation for marriage they sought out a mentoring relationship with a respected couple in the church. They met together regularly with the mentor couple, learning all they could.
The friend had tremendous respect for his mentor, so much that he asked him to perform the wedding ceremony. The man agreed and conducted the service. A few weeks after the wedding came the devastating news- The mentor had abandoned his wife and moved in with a girlfriend! He had been carrying on an affair for months, during the entire time he had been doing marriage counseling for my friend! He was devastated. What stunned him the most was the hypocrisy. It was one thing to be unfaithful. It is another thing to be unfaithful while at the same time counseling others on how to have a good marriage!
I wish stories like this were rare, but they aren't. Leaders, especially spiritual leaders, often let us down. So how do we protect ourselves from hypocrites in positions of authority?
In many ways we can't. On this side of heaven everyone we meet is a broken person with the potential of doing terrible things, each a reminder that there is only one perfect person, and that He is the only one worthy of our devotion and praise.