Private Life Accountability

There are Christians, and even Christian leaders who try to divorce elements of their private life from their Christian life. For some this manifests itself in Friday/Saturday behavior that would not be admitted to Sunday at church. For others, it is a homelife that is in trouble while the public persona is polished. Too often it is felt that our private lives are just that and it doesn't matter. I reject that argument for all Christians and especially for Christian leaders. Christ is not our profession, He is to be our life. It doesn't mean that we are to be perfect. That is impossible, but every area of our lives speak to our walk with God. That is why the personal life does matter. Scripture holds a very high standard on this, especially for leaders. James 3:1 "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." 1 Timothy 3 gives an extensive list of standards for leaders in the church. Much of the list concerns itself with general lifestyle behavior, in the home, out in public. It is not a statement of what happens "in church". This is seen clearly in 1 Timothy 3:7 "And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." I write this today because I came across an article about a recent publication by a computer engineer who works for Google. This security tech found a bad flaw in Microsoft Windows XP. He reported it to Microsoft so that they could work on patching it, but then within the week he published the flaw publicly, allowing others to know about and exploit the flaw before Microsoft could fix it. This violates the standards that Google itself has for such reporting and Microsoft is angry with both the man and Google. The man and Google argue that what he does on his own time is soley his business/responsiblity. The writer of the article disagrees

What you do on your own time reflects upon your employer whether you or your employer wants it to or not; this has been true since the beginning of time. The closer the connection between your personal activities and your employer's business, the brighter that reflection will become. When, as is the case here, your personal and business activities overlap, your choices are almost always to toe the company line or start polishing the resume.

I like this. "What you do on your own time reflects upon your employer whether you or your employer wants it to or not". This is true of us a Christians and our "employer" if you will, God. What we do on our own time reflects on God and it will reflect on how others see not only us, but Him. True in the business world, true in the church.