When you look back through history, both secular and spiritual, ancient and contemporary, it becomes clear that God uses sinful people to accomplish His purposes — not just weak people, sinful people. But this does not mean God always approves of everything they do or say, nor that there are no consequences for their sin. It is still deadly.

In the same way, God uses wounded people to accomplish His purposes, including wounded Christian leaders. But if those wounds are not properly healed, it is likely that those wounded leaders will themselves wound others. The Bible tells us that “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29, ESV), and therefore they will operate in our lives regardless of our submission to Him … but we have a responsibility to keep our hearts clean before him.

Take Sampson

There is probably no greater example of this in the Bible than Samson, a man called to be a Nazarite (meaning, specially separated to the Lord) even before he was conceived. An angel of the Lord told his mother, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13:3-5; see also Numbers 6).

Samson is best known for two things: 1) the supernatural strength God gave him, enabling him to accomplish powerful exploits against Israel’s enemies, the Philistines; and 2) his lack of self-control, which led him to have sex with and eventually marry a Philistine woman. Talk about sleeping with the enemy!