Most Christians are guilty of thinking highly about Christian leaders and godly men, whom the Lord has used for His glory. Most of us think of these men as great and having no issues with sin, the world and the flesh, like normal Christians. Moreover some schools of theology teach there are a higher grade of Christians who are better than the normal struggling saints. However the truth is, every single Christian experiences the battle against sin. Most genuine Christian leaders are honest about their struggles. Here is one quote from a very famous Christian leader:
I am convinced that some sins have always attended me, as if they made a part of my constitution; among these I reckon pride, or rather vanity,—an evil which I have detected frequently, but have never been free from to this day. Indolence in divine things is constitutional: few people can think what necessity I am constantly under of summoning all my resolution to engage in any thing which God has commanded. This makes me peculiarly unfit for the ministry, and much more so for the office of a missionary. I now doubt seriously, whether persons of such a constitution should be engaged in the Christian ministry. This, and what I am going to mention, fill me with continued guilt. A want of character and firmness has always predominated in me. I have not resolution enough to reprove sin, to introduce serious and evangelical conversation in carnal company, especially among the great, to whom I have sometimes access. I sometimes labor with myself long, and at last cannot prevail sufficiently to break silence; or, if I introduce a subject, want resolution to keep it up, if the company do not show a readiness thereto. [1]
Now who would have guessed the lamenting author of this quote is William Carey, the Father of the Modern Missionary movement and one of the greatest of all missionaries in Church history. Carey wrote this in a letter to John Ryland to give some report of his experience and then lamented about his characteristic sins.
Ordinary Christian, take courage, you are not alone in your battle against sin. You are a normal Christian when you struggle against sin. Keep fighting in His grace.
Footnotes
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[1] Eustace Carey, Memoir of William Carey D.D., 37-38
