The solid foundation for a leader’s life is the personal application of Jesus’ teaching. Disregarding his teaching is a recipe for a life of shambles. That part of an organization controlled by an undisciplined person may also become a disaster area. Many leaders today do not honor Jesus’ words on adultery. Jesus said adultery puts a person in danger of hell (Matthew 5:27-30). Post-modern thinkers who do not believe hell exists, minimize their concern about sexual relations outside marriage. The devil says, “No one will know,” and then he works to make it come to light in a most embarrassing way. Adultery disqualifies a person from clerical leadership. I hear the accusation that the church shoots its own. As a church member, I have not shot any other member. However, I have rejected the overall leadership of a member who has committed a serious indiscretion, but I have not rejected working with him under someone else’s leadership. Someone might bring up the loss of a leadership salary as a severe consequence. Then it would behoove a clerical leader to consider this among other losses before he allows himself to indulge in wrongful thoughts resulting in wrongful behavior. A secular leader might presume they are not under the same personal scrutiny as a religious leader. That is a risky position to take. Secular people can be every bit as judgmental as religious people. Ask Al Franken or Harvey Weinstein. My family is among half a dozen other ranching families that grazed cattle in Hell’s Hole. In the middle of Hell’s Hole is a bog that has captured many a cow. We ranchers built a fence around and hundreds of feet away from the bog. A person who heeds Jesus’ advice to control his thought life is building a fence to keep safely away from the adultery bog. The New International Version translates three words as “self-control”:  sophrown, neephalios, and enkratees. Sophrown means of sound mind, rational, purposeful. Persons with sophrown are discrete. They use restraint to observe the proper measure (Romans 12:3). Sophrown is necessary for church leadership (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8). The opposite of sophrown is mania. A person who does not use restraint will become perverse and incapable of the clear thinking necessary for leadership. The second word translated self-controlled is neephalios, meaning sobriety. A self-controlled leader will not be addicted to anything including alcohol, food, or sex (2 Timothy 4:5). Peter used  sophrown and neephalios to emphasize that being clear-minded and self-controlled work together (1Peter 4:7). The third word that the NIV translates as self-control is enkratees, referring to power over one’s self or some thing. The opposite is akratees, which means one has no inner strength. Socrates viewed enkratees as a cardinal virtue. For Philo* it meant superiority to every desire, expressed in restraint. The New Testament does not discuss this virtue much, probably because of root theology that self-control can only be accomplished through Christ who makes virtuous living possible. However, Paul compared himself to an athlete who refrains from all that might hamper the effectiveness of his life.   *Philo was a philosopher from Alexandria who applied his Jewish beliefs to Greek thought.