LOVE IN LEADERSHIP -- Devotional for July 29, from "Good Seeds"

Love does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own; is not provoked in taking into account a wrong suffered. (I Corinthians 13:5).

I’m reading a book that talks about the connection between love and leadership. Love and marriage go together, we know that; same with friendship, but what exactly does love have to do with leadership? When I read I Corinthians 13:5 today my friend’s former pastor came to mind. Apparently this man has a secret problem with anger coupled with a propensity toward lording it over others. My friend tells me that in public ministry these things don’t usually surface and the majority of the flock is unaware of these weaknesses in their shepherd. But they come out in the elders meetings, where the pastor trash talks to his men about how they and others do not live up to his standards and expectations. The staff pastor reporting this to my friend revealed how shocked and disappointed he was to see in a leader he had long admired such venomous prejudice, bordering on hatred, expressed against believers in another church because of a minor doctrinal variance. He said he was downright embarrassed for his pastor. Now, to be embarrassed for someone else means you are expressing this emotion in his place, by proxy, because it is obvious to you that it is called for, even though he is apparently totally oblivious to it. That in itself is an embarrassment! For an adult, especially a leader, to behave like a spoiled child, a reckless driver, or an unbroken mustang, is to “act unbecomingly.” This shows more than a lack of breeding or training. Rather it is a clear manifestation of the absence of agape, the brand of love explained in the Love Chapter: First Corinthians 13. Why is it that the higher a man ascends on the corporate, social, or ecclesiastical ladder, the more easily he gives in to the temptation to exert his will and authority over others, and to do it with less and less care for the way it will be received by them, or what it will do to them – and more, how it will tarnish his testimony as a soul supposedly rescued from the power of sin. When we as leaders become aware of a wrong, whether inside or outside of the camp, we are faced with three decisions: #1 – Is this a wrong to be taken into account: where we record its details, finger its perpetrators, and proceed with disciplinary or punitive measures? #2 – Is it a wrong to be suffered: to be endured silently with no action taken? Or, #3 – Is it a wrong worthy of our personal involvement, and if so, are we able and willing to monitor the degree and quality of our own words and emotions? Whether we ever thought of it this way before or not, these are the parameters and measures of God’s love as it plays out in the everyday affairs of men – and in the kingdom of God.