What's Friendship Got To Do, Got To Do With It?
Matthew 7 Series - Part 10

This is part 10 of the Matthew 7 Series. These articles are concerned with Matthew 7:13-29 and how the soft-marshmallow approach of the last several decades is failing us. It is past time to stop acting like Pharisees and start to act like Jesus, Paul, John the Baptist and Moses. It is important to read this series in order, especially the first three parts.

James 2:1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
James 2:7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?
James 2:9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors

James applied the concept in these verses to the sinful partiality prevalent in churches of the first century. They were giving preferential treatment to those who appeared wealthy and dishonoring those who were poor. Today the problem that is prevalent in churches today is preferential treatment towards "friends" and leaders, even when they are plainly sinning their brains out, blatantly teaching heresy, or committing financial fraud against the church or Christian organization. This sinful behavior of looking the other way and allowing leaders to remain in leadership is racing through churches and Christian organizations like a fire across a pool of oil.

If you excuse or ignore the sins of someone who claims to be a Christian, you are sinning. If it is a leader committing disqualifying sin, especially by misusing their position, and you leave them in leadership you are not just sinning. You are helping Satan. By failing to act on it you are helping to cover it up and enabling them to harm more people. This is being an accessory after the fact for sins already committed, and accessory before the fact for sins done in the future. The harm caused by future sins is on the head of everyone who covers up the sins of the past. It's the same as if they did it themselves.

People will say things like, "But he's a good friend." If you really were his friend you would confront him about his sin. Or they say, "But he's such a good leader." If he was such a good leader they wouldn't have an issue with bringing out the truth. And a real Christian would not accept the word of the sinning leader over the evidence against them. And we certainly can't trust someone who has admitted that they have committed disqualifying sins whey they claim they won't do it again. Thy must be removed and must prove they have made real changes over a period of many years. There is no way someone can be "restored" from disqualifying sins in months or a year. Scripture requires that anyone be removed from the fellowship until they prove they have truly repented. It is crazy that people don't think that applies to leaders. Those that ignore sin because of favoritism start their excuse with "but...". They show they know that they are ignoring sin and are trying to change the subject. By ignoring sin they are collaborating with it.

However, the problem doesn't start with sin. It starts with putting people into ministry that never should have been there in the first place. Scripture is clear that we are required to vet people to make sure they are qualified before we put them in ministry at any level. This means ensuring they are morally sound and that they know scripture very well. Someone who doesn't know scripture cannot possibly be morally sound because they are ignorant of God's morality. Whatever morality they have must be their own and therefore inherently flawed and sinful. But instead of being properly and scripturally vetted people are elevated to ministry because of anti-biblical favoritism. That is setting them up for failure. Everyone who does this is guilty of the sins that leader then commits.

One of the bigger examples is Stephen Koko. He was known as the Billy Graham of Panama. Unfortunately, he proved he was not worthy of being called a pastor, let alone evangelist to a nation. There are multiple witnesses, documentation, and recordings of him admitting to sexual sin with multiple women who were less than half his age. And his sins include criminal physical and mental abuse against these women, lying, as well as attacking and trying to destroy those who were attempting to hold him accountable. That some people are still trying to keep him in ministry is not just sick, it's demonic. But it's not just those twisted people that are to blame.

The root problem with Steven Koko is that he was never qualified to be an evangelist in the first place. That he was able to be an evangelist is because there is no church discipline going on at 9,999 out of 10,000 churches in America. Worse, there is zero Christian discipline in any of the seminaries or Bible schools. They claim they do, but it is only secular academic discipline. Christian discipline is ignored or forbidden. They allow openly anti-Christian professors, student leaders, clubs, and administrators, scripture be damned.

There is no doubt that Koko having sex with many very young women, not to mention the criminal physical and mental abuse of these women, disqualifies him from any role in any Christian organization or church. Although it is unlikely someone this depraved could ever be restored within their lifetime, there is absolutely no way he could be restored in less than ten years. But these sins and the harm brought on these women is on everybody who's ever been involved with Koko that did not object to him being a leader. They should have seen he was utterly unqualified to be an evangelist even without the sexual sin. And they should have marked him as disqualified both morally and biblically before he even started. They are guilty of being an accomplice before the fact to Koko's sin, and are also guilty of their own sin of ignoring the clear commands in scripture to vet leaders.

Koko's main problem is that he did not and still does not understand the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. If they do not know how to follow Christ, if they do not know even the basics, they should not be a leader in anything that is legitimately Christian. In one of his voicemails he outed himself as being unqualified to be a Christian teacher, let alone an evangelist. A Christian leader knows what Jesus taught and teaches it to others. Koko said, "they're not God, so they can't judge me." It is a fundamental duty of Christians to judge what is good and what is evil. We are especially to judge whether someone is qualified to be a leader. We are to judge that what God instructs in scripture is good and right. We even have specific guidance on the minimum qualifications for ministry in scripture. These were not applied to Stephen Koko.

At another point in his coverup of his own sins and crimes he confessed to sexual sin with yet another woman stating he repented and immediately ended the relationship. This was recorded. And this was a blatantly anti-biblical response to his sin. Ending the relationship does not absolve the sin in any way, shape or form. All it does is remove that particular temptation and start the cover up, and it does that by adding on another sin. The biblical response is to pursue marriage when you have fallen into sexual sin. That doesn't change that there was sin, but it makes the situation right. To have sex with a woman and cast her side is a worse sin than the sexual sin according to the Bible. But Steven Koko does not know the Bible. He is utterly ignorant of biblical principles. He should never have been put in any position of leadership. It should be noted that even if Koko had actually done the right thing after the sin, the sin is still utterly disqualifying from any ministry position.

Steven Koko shouldn't have been a volunteer leader at a tiny church in Kansas, let alone an international evangelist. The qualifications in the Bible exclude people like him long before they fall into these depraved sins. One of the main qualifications for being an elder is to be able to teach. If someone doesn't know scripture and Christianity then they cannot teach it. And if someone doesn't know the basics of Christianity they cannot be an elder. If someone doesn't know the proper way to deal with sin they aren't qualified to be a Christian leader. If someone doesn't know the proper way to judge they are not qualified to be in any Christian position of any kind.

Because Stephen Koko was elevated to positions he was never qualified for, the result was a false teacher who caused great harm to many women physically and mentally, and great harm to the church. A person cannot follow Christ if they don't know what Christ taught. A person cannot follow Christ if they don't know his Commandments.

There is an epidemic of fake pastors, teachers, professors, evangelists, churches, seminaries, and Christian institutions. People are following frauds and not God. People are trusting wolves in sheep's clothing and not God's scripture. Worst of all, people are not calling out blatant sin and heresy because of personal relationships and associations. That is denying God. That is disrespecting God. That is telling God He is wrong. Shame on everyone who does that. As for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.