Do you tolerate violations of God-given principles? (75-1)

The degree to which a Christian leader tolerates known sin in their own life or the operation of their team is the degree to which they separate themselves and their team from God’s grace and favor. Read Joshua 7:1-26.

I grew up with six siblings. My parents knew that what one of us did that they “viewed as good” would soon show up in the behavior of the others and what one of us got away with would soon affect the behavior of all seven. My mom seemed to have a “proverbial type” saying to fit every situation. One of those sayings was “One rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel.” In today’s world we don’t typically keep barrels of apples around the house so the saying could possibly be changed to “one apple, rotting in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator will cause all the other apples stored in that drawer to get soft spots and begin rotting.” (I do like my mom’s version better.)

Israel had seen great success in Jericho. The people were gaining confidence in God’s promise to give them the land. In fact, they had so much confidence that when they sent out spies to the town of Ai, the spies reported that it was a small city, an easy target and didn’t require all of Israel’s army to win the victory. The strike force of a few thousand of Israel’s elite troops that were sent to capture Ai was promptly routed and there were dead troops left on the battlefield. When the people realized their forces could be defeated fear swept through the entire camp.

Joshua soon discovered that sin in his camp had caused the defeat. One of his soldiers, Achan, had kept some spoils of war against God’s direct command. Joshua dealt decisively with Achan. Joshua did not compromise a fundamental truth of unswerving obedience to every command of God. Because Joshua had the courage to stick to his convictions and deal with the sin problem of his soldiers, the next time Israel launched an attack on the city of Ai, they routed the very troops that had just days earlier soundly defeated them.

Effective Christian leaders do not tolerate known violations of God’s established standards of attitude, behavior or performance. Leaders won’t all deal with the problem using the same tactic to solve the problem but all effective leaders deal promptly with the problem.

Are there any “known” continuing violations of policies, procedures, or God’s moral law taking place in the team you lead? What is your plan to deal with it?