A Leader’s Character: Honesty

Christian leaders must be honest

A third requirement of Christian leaders is that they be honest. Fundamentally, this means personal honesty. An honest leader says what he means and means what he says. He keeps his word even when it costs him. He does not take advantage of people or manipulate them. In short, he is trustworthy.

But I’m thinking of more than just accurate speech. This is a person whose entire life is marked by integrity. He is reliable. People know they can trust him not only to say the right thing but also to be and do what is right. They know they can depend on him.

An honest leader is also a reliable source of truth. He does not just avoid lies; he tells the truth plainly and understandably. He can be counted on to lead people toward the truth. He is open and transparent. He does not hide his views, but leads by being willing to explain and graciously defend them. He embraces the Apostle Paul’s mindset: “O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open” (2 Cor. 6:11).

This is not the only place Paul lets us glimpse his heart. He talks repeatedly in his letters about his openness in ministry. Perhaps the clearest place is 2 Corinthians 4:2, where he says “We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Notice what he refuses to do. He refuses craftiness and deceit. He does not change, distort, or mask the gospel or its implications. He does not use creative tricks to stimulate emotional responses. He doesn’t water down the cost of following Christ. He doesn’t threaten or intimidate or pressure. Rather, he preaches the truth, trusting that God will do His work in every person’s heart. He does not try to be their conscience, but rather appeals to every person’s conscience. He does not try to be God, but instead calls them to God.

God builds His kingdom through the “manifestation of the truth.” He does not want people to be backed into belief, nor to be manipulated into making a decision. He wants people to embrace Christ full-faced, with eyes wide open. He wants people to see Christ clearly and accept Him because of who He is. To this end, Christian ministry must be free from error, uncleanness, and deceit (cf. 1 Thess. 2:3). Rather, we must commit to clear, undistorted truth-telling which depicts Christ in His pristine glory.

If this is true of our gospel proclamation, how much more in all of our Christian ministry. Christian leaders (especially church leaders) must not lead by manipulating other people’s consciences or trying to control them. Rather, like Paul, we must appeal to their consciences, remembering (1) that they answer to God, not to us, and (2) that God’s truth does not need our help to be effective. Paul’s primary aim was to make the truth clear to his hearers. He trusted God to do His work through the truth, and he left the hearer’s conscience free to answer directly to God alone.

This is one of the peculiar challenges of Church leadership — how to appeal to people’s consciences without being their conscience, how to speak for God without trying to stand in His place. A Christian leader must point to Christ and call people to follow Him while never forgetting that they answer to Christ alone.

Each Christian is personally accountable to Christ, and no leader may come between. Multiple Scriptures show this is the case:

• Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. — Rom. 14:4
• For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. — Rom. 14:7-8
• But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. — Rom. 14:10
• So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. — Rom. 14:12
• Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. — 2 Cor 5:9-10
• With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; by He who judges me is the Lord. — 1 Cor. 4:3-4
• If I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. — Gal. 1:10b.

All of these show that each individual Christian is responsible to Christ alone. Church leaders are stewards of the gospel and undershepherds who care for the sheep, but they may not stand between Christians and their Master. Each Christian answers to Christ alone, and faithful shepherds must remember that they are stewards of the Christian sheep — not their masters.

What does freedom of conscience have to do with honesty in leadership? At the very least, the two concepts coexisted in Paul’s mind. For him, “commending ourselves to every man’s conscience” is juxtaposed to “the hidden ways” of craftiness and deceit. Honesty respects conscience; deceit manipulates it. Paul understands that an honest appeal which respects a person’s conscience stands in contrast to tactics which attempt to maneuver him to making a decision he does not understand and may not want.

Let me put it this way. If we think it is our job to get people to believe the right thing — or do the right thing — no matter what, we will be tempted to pressure, coerce, or manipulate people to get the desired result. We will justify unbiblical methods to try to produce biblical results. But as Bob Jones Sr. said, “It is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.” Paul did not stoop to dishonest methods to try to produce spiritual results in others. Neither should we.