If you possess these traits . . .
you will never be ineffective.
—2 Peter 1:8
AA works because they’re all in the same boat: recovering alcoholics. So they are comrades, not critics; supporters, not superiors.
The church should be a safe harbor because we’re all in the same boat: recovering sinners, saved by grace.
In 2 Peter 1, the apostle gives us the recovery steps: grow in faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (vv. 5–7).
“If you do these things, you will never fall” (v. 10).
Those who are harsh and judgmental are blind and have forgotten that they have been cleansed from past sins (v. 9).
Remembering that we’re all in the same boat, recovering sinners, saved by grace, will inoculate us against being critics instead of comrades, superiors instead of supporters.
Defective memory is the
breeding ground of critics.