Manipulating people with the Word of God to maintain power and control is sin. It is ungodly. And it is arrogant. I don’t care how humbly it’s presented. Teach the whole counsel, not what keeps the reins tightly in your high and mighty hands.
A sentence that haunts me just about every day:
“Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind”
(Shūsaku Endō, Silence).
This idea that God puts up with secret sins from His servants for the greater good is a total crock. He waits, warns, waits, warns then comes for us with a blazing bulldozer. I know because Scripture says. I know because I’ve experienced it. God will not be mocked.