Are We Really as "Good" as We think we are?

In the Book “People of the Lie” M. Scott Peck states that he believes most evil in our world is committed by people “who believe them selves to be good people doing the right thing never realizing how bad they really are”.  We would like to believe that our lives are clean enough, holy enough, and righteous enough to stand in judgment of others. The  truth is God does not trust us with such judgments, because we are quite simply not as righteous or good as we think we are. We will most likely get it wrong, which is exactly why Church discipline is precisely that – Church Discipline. Even when Paul discusses this in 1 Cor. 5 it follows a lengthy discussion about unity in the church. A church divided is in no position to discipline anyone. Such a church must first work out who they are in Christ, as brothers and sisters united in Christ, before believing themselves “good enough” to stand in judgment of others in order to discipline them. Void of Vision and Unity in the church, we are quite often “blind guides in dark rooms looking for black cats that aren’t there”.

God builds checks and balances into our lives by uniting us into a Body. None of us, as the sole interpreters of God’s will, has the right to tell the Body how they are to live. This is especially true when a person or persons are not under the conviction we want them to be under, or think they should be under. We are responsible to one another, not responsible for one another. It is not my job to straighten you out. This job God has reserved for Himself. And if God has called me to be the person who might help you to get your act together, I better do this with humility and confirmation, or not venture to do it at all. To believe I should be the one to straighten you out because I deem myself more righteous or holy than you are is to take the love of God and the reality of who we are in Christ completely out of the picture, and leaves us standing and judging armed with nothing more than the Law. The Law condemns, but Jesus saves and forgives. The Law brings condemnation and death, the cross of Christ, brought to life through the Body of Christ, offers hope, love, and peace to our brothers and sisters and the world.

We are in this together, as members belonging to each other, not a group of nomadic cowboys all left to ourselves to somehow figure out the answers alone. Paul makes it clear in 1 Cor. 5 that the reason the church has not been able to properly deal with the sin in their midst is because they are guilty of their own sin – pride (the road of which paves a way to hell). He seems far more upset with their division and pride than he is with the sexual immorality they are ignoring, given that he spends 90 percent of the letter addressing it.  Paul’s most obvious point to the church in Corinth is that their own spiritual condition had prevented them from being able to deal with the sin in their midst in a way that represented the Spirit and Will of Jesus. If they could heed his words in the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians, they are ready for chapter 5. Often in our churches we skip straight to chapter 5, and make our case against the sinners around us, which never seems to be our selves. Is there any doubt that we truly are the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  Peace/Out.