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People expect that their close friends will close their eyes when they do wrong. It is not so with God. He is righteous as well as loving. He cannot be unjust momentarily in order to show kindness to someone He loves. Let us learn from the example of Solomon. He valued wisdom to manage his kingdom more than riches and fame (1Ki.3:9). Yet later on, he did not use this wisdom to obey the instruction of God to kings not to multiply wives for themselves (De.17:17). He then let his foreign wives lead him to worship their false, abominable gods (1Ki.11:4). He fell out of favour with God, and God was absolutely angry with him (vv.9,10).

But even though Solomon lost out with God as an individual, God kept him as king, in view of His plan for the Messiah. People may have thought that Solomon did all those horrible things with false gods, and yet God allowed him to continue as king. Now we can see Christian leaders who have openly compromised continue with their ministry. We wonder how God supports such a ministry and people are getting blessed. The answer is that ministry is a task God gives some people to bless others, and God does not want to entirely remove that blessing. He will certainly deal with the leaders on a personal level. They may have imagined that because their ministry is continuing, God must be fine with them. No, the two are different. Ministry is coming from God who uses these individuals to bless others, but these leaders will have to give an individual account of themselves to God. The mark of God's anointing over us is not our ministry, but the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in us.

God told Solomon, "Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares, 'I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever'; but now the LORD declares, 'Far be it from Me--for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed'" (1Sa.2:30). Here we see another passage that gives us understanding of the difference between the task God has given us and our personal standing. David was promised that someone in his lineage will sit on the throne. God's top level plan in this was that the Messiah would be born in David's family. He accomplished that, even though in the kingly line of David there were many individual kings who were unfaithful to God. But we must see the other side of the story that every individual was going to be judged or evaluated on the basis of his own personal life.

Some people consider their personal life and ministry as two different compartments. The tendency then is to pay more attention to the success of the ministry which can be noticed by the others, and neglect the personal life which is carried out in secret away from the sight of people. What God is saying is that it does not escape His notice. No matter how successful we seem to be in our ministry, what finally matters for us is what God thinks about us individually.

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