Recovering Sinner
By John Hendrix
I heard a news program about a congregation in New England that was mostly made up of recovering drug addicts. The congregation focuses on helping the addicts stay drug free. Many of the members had never been part of a congregation, or had not since childhood. On man commented that he liked the congregation because it encouraged openness about his failings and he did not feel “looked down on”. His memory from childhood was that people at church did look down on him, as they did on many people. They were not open, but rather hid their own failings while despising people whose faults became public knowledge.
Is there anything for us to learn from this? We can set aside whether or not he was “being fair” in his assessment of his childhood congregation. I wonder how people at this congregation view each other. I wonder if Christians here feel judged or if they are encouraged.
For what reason do we gather together?
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25)
The focus is holding fast to our hope, the purpose is stirring up love and good works, the action is exhortation, that is, encouragement. We assemble for mutual edification. We assemble to help all of us please God.
Certainly, we assemble to praise God, but we can, and should, do this by ourselves. The assembly exists for us to praise God together and to encourage each other:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)
Do our members—do you, do I—feel encouraged or despised? Do we feel love for one another or contempt? Do I assemble for better or for worse?
Paul criticized the Corinthians for having such messed up attitudes and actions that their assemblies actually made them worse off (1 Corinthians 11:17). Is it possible that he might write the same thing to us?
Certainly Corinth had severe problems. Some even got drunk during what was supposed to be the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:21). Surely we can not be as bad as that?!
But there are many other problems that can be every bit as bad. Jesus criticized the Pharisees and Scribes. They were not drunkards. In many ways their behavior was superior to the average Jew. They were hypocrites (Matthew 23:13). But what made them hypocrites? Because they had faults?
If faults make one a hypocrite then all of use are hypocrites.
They were hypocrites because they pretended that they did not have faults. They were hypocrites because they despised other men while having the same problems with sin (Luke 18:9). They were hypocrites because they were careful to tithe garden spices, but neglected justice, mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23).
In their wicked hypocrisy, they neither entered the kingdom of God, nor permitted others to enter (Matthew 23:13). They had ceased trying to pleasing God and were only interested in justifying themselves.
So, I ask myself again, do I assemble to provoke love and good works? Do I, instead, have too little love and little but contempt for other Christians who need my encouragement? Do I even acknowledge my own need for help and encouragement?
We should face the truth: at best we are all recovering sinners. We all were once lost in sin and powerless against it (Romans 5:6). Even now, only God’s grace keeps us from the sin that easily ensnares us (1 Corinthians 10: 13; Hebrews 12:1).
We have nothing that we were not given, so we have nothing to be prideful about (1 Corinthians 4:7). So James writes to us:
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)
Why does a man feel an atmosphere of love and support—leading him to stay “clean and sober”—at a congregation of recovering addicts, while he felt only despite at a congregation that, perhaps, had few addicts? Maybe the fault was his. Maybe, on the other hand, the other congregation did not really admit they were, at best, recovering sinners (certainly no better than a recovering drug addict). Maybe there was a lack of honesty and openness among the members about the problems they all had.
Maybe only those who “got caught” asked for prayers while the rest hid their sins and pretended to have no faults.
While we pretend to have no faults, we do not confess them. Having not confessed them, our brethren do not pray for us. Is it any wonder that we are not healed?
Knowing my own faults, I cannot look down on anyone. We are all recovering sinners. We all need each others help.