Maybe you didn't notice, but we're in the middle of a war here.

Two U.S. marines are on patrol in Baghdad, which is under U.S. control. Saddam Hussein and his armies were defeated years ago, but a dangerous insurgency continues. It is essentially impossible for the U.S. military to be defeated, but the insurgents continue to wage their war, unaware that they have already been conquered.

As the marines conduct their patrol, a well-placed roadside bomb explodes, ripping their armored vehicle apart. Both of the soldiers are critically wounded as they are thrown from the vehicle. The insurgents laugh and cheer as they rush back into the shadows, congratulating themselves on another victory against the occupying forces.

Upon hearing the explosion, four marines rush to the scene. As their wounded friends lay there bleeding to death, one of them remarks, ?You know, I always had a feeling that these two weren?t very good marines.? A second adds, ?Yeah, I know I?m not the best warrior in my division, but at least I?m not as bad as them.? Finally, a third says, ?It makes you wonder if they really were marines, or if they just had us all fooled this whole time.? The fourth empties his sidearm into the soldiers? dying bodies and they head back to their camp.

Despicable, right? Who could even imagine such an atrocity?

Now, change the story a little bit. Instead of ?two U.S. marines,? insert the head pastor and the children?s ministry director of a church. Instead of ?Saddam,? insert Satan. Instead of ?roadside bomb,? insert adultery. Instead of ?four marines? insert four Christians.

I found out this weekend that the head pastor and the children?s ministry director at a church I used to go to had been having an affair. When the elders of the church found out about it, they promptly fired both of them, ushering them out of the church community immediately. They shot their wounded, as the saying goes.

At the exact point where these two people needed the care and nurture of their church family to heal and restore them, they were shoved out the door. The church that prided itself as being a hospital addressing the needs of the spiritually sick told them that they were no longer welcome after they had been gravely wounded by the destructive power of sin.

I?m not saying that they should get a ?free pass.? I?m not saying the sin should have been ignored any more than the wounds of two marines should go untreated. Their positions as leaders in the church complicate things a bit, but we shouldn?t expect our spiritual leaders to live up to a standard of perfection.

In fact, I might go so far as to suggest that this expectation of perfection was a contributing factor in the downward spiral of sin. If the church had nurtured an environment of openness and frank, loving confrontation of sin and its consequences, this whole chain of events might have been stopped before it got dangerous. What would have happened if the pastor had gone to the elders, or at least a trusted accountability partner of some kind, right when the first inappropriate thoughts entered his mind? Ideally, they would have come to his side, helping him to deal with temptation and to mortify the desires of his flesh. What if the children?s ministry director had gone to her close friends and said, ?I think I?m in over my head??? Hopefully her friends would have encouraged her to be faithful to her husband, reminding her of the horrible consequences of unfaithfulness and sin. Unfortunately, I don?t think that?s how either group would have reacted.

They would both have been looked down upon for being ?less than perfect? because they were experiencing temptation. Their vulnerability and honesty would have been met with pious sanctimony and judgment. They would have been ostracized by a group of alleged ?believers of the gospel.? A group of sinners who deserve the infinite wrath of God, who have been saved by his mercy and love, would have pointed their fingers and say, ?Man, I?m glad I?m not like that guy.?

When will we realize that we?re at war? When will we realize that the enemy has already infiltrated our churches? When will we wake up and see that the spirit of the Pharisees is tearing our churches apart from within?

We tell people that they must admit that they are a sinner, repent, and trust in Christ to save them from their sin. Then, we expect them to follow a certain set of rules that we have come up with if they want to remain in our Christian circles. We exhibit a false humility as we sing songs about the Amazing Grace of God and how desperate we would be without Jesus. Then, we walk out of church and gossip about how sinful so-an-so is and how we just can?t believe that he or she did you-know-what. ?Saved by grace, preserved by self-righteousness? should be our new creed.

We ignore the gluttony of the 300 lb. man that leads the ?worship team,? but we castigate the man who drinks from time to time for abusing his body, weakening his ?testimony,? and dishonoring God by his conduct. We ignore the divorced woman who left her husband because she just didn?t love him anymore and married a guy from the singles ministry, but then we run the pregnant college girl out of church for being such a whore. We ignore the legalism, self-righteousness, and pride that are rampant in every corner of the church, but then we throw the pastor out for having an affair.

The next time you run someone out of your church for being such a miserable, unbelievably terrible sinner, make a special point to think about just how much better you are than them. Then, politely usher yourself out the same door for being a prideful, legalistic Pharisee. As for me, I?ll be inside with the other redeemed sinners, singing ?Rock of Ages? with all my heart.

?Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die?

Augustus M. Toplady, 1740-1778