Why are pastors who have affairs asked to step down while pastors with pride issues are left alone? After all, it's all sin, right? If a pastor struggles with homosexuality, I actually have more compassion for him than I do for a pastor that chooses to be prideful. With that said, if the homosexual pastor wasn't struggling and was happy about engaging in the homosexual life style, that would be different. How many pastors have you ever come across that struggled with their prideful heart? I have never met one because I suspect that pride is never really thought of as a real sin. I think that most people classify pride like they do gossip. The Bible says that God resists the proud ( James 4:6 ). Should someone that God is resisting be leading a congregation?

       My friend pointed out that pride may be perceived as one thing to one person and a different thing to another. I agree with him on that. Also, I was thinking to myself that everyone probably has a moment of pride here or there, just like I believe that most people gossip occasionally. There is a difference between doing something occasionally, versus living a lifestyle of it though. Some people indulge in pride on a regular basis. A few examples of how I see pride are the following: being overly proud of  achievements, thinking oneself is self made (for example, believing that the grace of God on your life is not the main source of your success), someone that believes that everyone around them should bow to their greatness or superiority, someone that is above reproach, someone who thinks they know all there is to know about most things or everything. To clarify, I do not believe that any pastor in (A Lifestyle Of Any Kind Of Sin) should be left in their role as pastor, even if that sin is just gossip or pride.

       I believe that God thinks pride is an important sin for pastors to deal with too because he went so far as to give Paul a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being prideful. That speaks volumes in my opinion. 2 Corinthians 12:7 reads "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure".