What disqualifies a person from service in the church? Are particular sins allowed for those in leadership? While other sins of a supposedly more devious nature are considered immediate leadership disqualifiers? Should a pastor be fired for gossiping about another church member or stretching the truth about attendance numbers?

Some might say that disobedience to God is a general disqualifier. But how do you explain Abraham, a friend of God, and his treks into Egypt, resulting from his lack of faith in God’s provision during a drought? You might say that only extreme sins like adultery or murder disqualify a person from ministry. That standard would exclude Moses, who killed an Egyptian, David, who committed adultery with Bathsheba and conspired to hide his sin by having Uriah the Hittite, one of his most loyal generals, murdered. It would also exclude Paul the Apostle, the church’s persecutor and accomplice to Stephen’s killing.

I suppose many will think that I am trying to abolish all standards. Since sin is sin, and we all commit sin, how can we disqualify someone for something we all do? Who can judge without being judged themselves? Perhaps our standards are too small, our judgments too fragmented, and our exclusions too chained to our cultural prejudices.

To me, one of the most compelling stories in the Bible is the story of the love affair between Hosea and Gomer. Hosea, the prophet of God and a righteous man commanded to marry an adulterous woman by God, is forced to endure the humiliation and shame of an unfaithful wife. And then, after she deserted him and became a prostitute, God publicly embarrassed him by forcing him to buy her out of bondage and take her back as his wife.

It is a beautiful picture of God and his love for his rebellious and unfaithful people. It is a gripping story of God’s love for me that causes me to stand in amazement at the wonders of his grace.

In some of the church scandals that headlined the public media, we tarnished our witness as the world watched other Christians destroy the lives of some of God’s finest servants. Servants who, in a moment of human frailty and weakness, abandoned their calling and succumbed to desires familiar to most people–lust, greed, unhealthy ambition, to name a few. For the cause of a faithful witness to the world, we destroyed the witness of Jesus on the cross when he cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

There is no room for failures in our modern church, for people who can’t meet the standards, for those who are overwhelmed by temptation or desire. If the church were true to itself, it would expel all its members and rid the house of all gossipers, liars, those suffering from greed, and anyone else who fails to live up to the rules of the Christian faith, both Biblical and cultural mandates. After all, anyone who fails to follow the rules is undeserving of mercy.

But maybe our standards are too small. What if Christians began to recognize the truth that we are all hypocrites, each desperately in need of mercy, dependent on grace and not judgment, resting in the joyful knowledge that: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners?”

Instead of public judgment and a rush to purify our witness by demonstrating that we don’t tolerate sin in our midst when one of our leaders or members fails, what if the world saw God’s grace personified in our forgiveness and our efforts to bring about restoration and reconciliation? Perhaps if our troubled leaders knew that the public exposure of their sin would not murder their reputation, destroy their livelihood, and subject them to public ridicule and shame, they might seek help early enough to prevent the total breakdown of their faith.

Wouldn’t it be a greater witness to the world if the ethics of Jesus were on full display, a demonstration that the cross was all about God doing something for us that we could never do for ourselves—reconciling us to God? Who would not be attracted to a God who uses deeply flawed men and women to accomplish his purposes? All human beings, including all Christians, are deeply flawed. Tragically, only some are unwilling to recognize this fact publicly.  But deep down, we know the truth.

The greatest miracle is not that we have become better than the rest of humanity; the greatest miracle is that God accomplishes His purposes through human instruments that always fail to measure up, never make the grade, and suffer failure after failure. Our actions should demonstrate to the world that God has extended forgiveness to all men and women.

Others may judge us because of our past sins, mistakes, and wrong decisions. We can’t stop them from doing that. But remember this: God has a bigger future for you than your past. Move forward and quit being discouraged by what other people say about you. Christ has redeemed your past and has written a new story for you. Embrace it.