Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Seeing My Own Sin

Lately, this has been hard to do. I go through seasons of being overwhelmed by it to not noticing it much at all. And without the ability to really know my sin, I know that I can't really see how great Christ is.

In talking with a good friend last night, I was reminded that we often view others as more sinful than ourselves. We justify ourselves, knowing we aren't like "that." However, the Truth is our hearts are desperately sick.

I read the following quote today about how this all effects community.
"If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. My sin is of necessity the worst, the most grievous, the most reprehensible. Brotherly love will find any number of extenuations for the sins of others; only for my sin is there no apology whatsoever. Therefore my sin is the worst. He who would serve his brother in the fellowship must sink all the way down to these depths of humility. How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own? Would I not be putting myself above him; could I have any hope for him? Such service would be hypocritical." - Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2 comments:

  1. wow. that's great. Michael and I just had a conversation last night about this exact subject. thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. basically all our sh%#$ stank! good word.

    ReplyDelete