Today's Daily Lesson comes from Romans chapter 1 verses 28 through 32 and chapter 2 verses 1 through 4:
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29 They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. 2 You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” 3 Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
During the height of the protest against America's war in Vietnam William Sloane Coffin said that God is more interested in holiness than innocence.
Coffin said it was too late for innocence. He quoted Graham Greene's book "The Quiet American" in which it is said that innocence should be made to walk around with "a leper's bell". The point: innocence is deadly. For it was the idea of innocence that got us into the mess in the first place.
By holiness Coffin meant integrity or, literally, "wholeness". The one with integrity is the one who acts without self-deception.
The irony of the human condition is that the one who has integrity is the one who also knows himself or herself to be a sinner. It is the one who knows "no one is good but God alone". And that knowledge becomes then a kind of goodness, an acceptance of an unmerited righteousness given by God through faith and then expected to be given also to others in turn. It's the sinner's righteousness.
Jesus said, "He who is forgiven little loves little."
But woe unto him for whom there is nothing to repent. And woe even more to the nation he represents.
To err is human. To be conscious of our err is a step towards the divine. It is progress towards holiness -- true integrity.
But it's not innocence. For as Coffin said, "It's too late for innocence."
It is too late for innocence; yet thank God it's not too late for mercy.
"And unto whom much is given, much will be required."
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Over the weekend we will stay in Romans, reading through chapter 13.
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