Lots of stuff happens behind closed doors. Many people live a secret life behind the scenes. A life where they would never want the skeletons in their closet to be viewed by others. Today is inauguration day in the United States. The day where political power is turned over from one party to another. It is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day as well. We live in a day and time where our lives are very well documented. This is especially so if you are someone famous or well known. Political leaders, pastors, celebrities all have one thing in common with the rest of us. They don’t want other people to see them behind closed doors.
Behind closed doors is a darker side of who people are. People put their guard down when they are around people who they trust. When out of the eye of the public, actions, behaviors and words often look completely different because there is no need to be politically correct. Some people also hide very evil personal secrets behind closed doors. Sexual perversions, infidelity, malice, evil, retribution, and the list goes on and on. Not everything you see on the surface is the same behind closed doors. People put on a good show when they have to. They are politically correct when it matters to carry the favor of the day or appease a crowd. They bite their tongue so that they don’t offend someone in public.
The other day my church announced that one of the pastors at the church had an affair. He was quickly fired from his position and the church was made known of the situation. All of the cheerful smiles and Godly words spoken and sung from the front of the church were now tainted with a black cloud of shame. The life lived behind closed doors looked very much different than the life that was shown on Sunday at church. People act surprised and they act disappointed. The sad thing is that bad behavior behind closed doors happens all of the time. You just don’t know about it. You don’t see it and you don’t get to hear the juicy details about it.
Behind closed doors people are different.
Just to reflect on the day. President Biden pardoned many people on his last day in office. He used the power of the pardon to preemptively pardon potential criminals, political allies and family members accused of breaking the law. Obviously, we know that someone isn’t going to get a presidential pardon if they haven’t done something wrong. As we all know that a proper investigation of an innocent person would yield zero results so there wouldn’t need to be a pardon. What happened is that President Biden is covering for the behaviors that these individuals did behind closed doors.
Next comes Trump sworn in as the next president of the United States. Trump has his own set of baggage from things that have also happened behind closed doors. We can fairly assume that where there is smoke there is fire. Did every person making an accusation about him over the years speak the truth? Of course not. But our character defines the level of truth that people are willing to believe. In the case of Trump, a twice divorced and three-time married individual with a past of infidelity doesn’t really come across as an unlikely victim of false accusations. When you put yourself in compromising positions, people will draw conclusions about those situations.
And of course, we have Martin Luther King Jr. who was a phenomenal civil rights leader who did many amazing things during his lifetime. One stain that held itself over his legacy has been marital infidelity. There are many news articles that expose the relationship he had with his longtime aid Dorothy Cotton. Conveniently this affair is often ignored out of convenience. Rarely does anyone want to have a conversation about that part of MLK Jr.’s life. We live in a world where some behaviors are excusable because we don’t want to tarnish a legacy. The same sinful behaviors demonstrated by others are used as a weapon to try to destroy another individual. There is zero balance of outrage in the Christian community.
God sees what happens behind closed doors.
Luke 12:3 New American Standard Bible
3 Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
We need to be mindful that our actions behind closed doors are still visible by God. No matter how we try to hide our sins from the world, eventually our sins will make their way to light. The moral of the story is don’t engage in any behaviors or speak any words that you do not want fully exposed at some point. Everything we do and say will someday be revealed. I gave you the examples above not to judge or condemn but to show you that just because you are hiding something does not mean that it will stay hidden. God brings many things to light in his own timing.
This is why it is so important to live our lives for God. When we focus on doing things that honor him and serve his kingdom, many of the bad habits and sins in our life will disappear. Acknowledging that we are sinners is only one part of the solution. The second part of the solution is to identify sin for what it is and avoid it as best we can.