How many leaders have ruined their own lives and the lives of their people by behaving in morally reprehensible ways? Character has become an essential criterion for leaders in every area of society — precisely because there have been so many failures, and they have been extensively discussed in public. There is no question that the spiritual battle for what is true is part of the development of thousands of leaders, and that mistakes and transgressions help reveal moral boundaries. They did not fall because of this, but because the adversary decided to bring them down.
Leaders must be aware that they are a role model for many people. They must never forget this truth. They must also be aware that replacing fallen leaders is a very slow and difficult process.
How can leaders protect themselves against moral failure? First comes the recognition that competence must never outrank character. Many leaders hire people for their competence and let them go because of their character. They carry an unhealthy scoring system in their heads that gives more points to competence than to character. It should be the other way around. Competence is very easy to develop. Character development, on the other hand, is a much harder process. In the end, success requires both, and every choice has its price.
| Who I am | What I do | The result |
|---|---|---|
| I am humble and | make myself dependent on God, and | I experience God's power. |
| I am visionary and | set ambitious goals, and | I live God's standards. |
| I am committed and | do what is right, and | I gain credibility. |
Proverbs 5
Warning against the Seductress
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.