thoughts from church: Romans 12:1-2 by Pastor Jeff Dodge‏

Remember that, as I said, the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge. When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either. “Morality and Psychoanalysis” – part 2 by  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
 

The one who is sober can comment both to drunkenness and sobriety.

The one who is drunk is in no position to comment on either drunkenness or sobriety

Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The one who is in the Word and constantly seeking to be in Christ can comment on depravity and righteousness.

The one who is out of sync with God is in no position to comment on either depravity or righteousness.

The more we dwell on Jesus, the more we anchor and secure ourselves in Him and the reality of our desperate need for Him and desire to conform ourselves to His image through repentance, belief, faith and faithfulness.

The less we dwell on Jesus, the less secure we feel in our relationship to God as we lose sight of our depravity in becoming more and more depraved and as such desire less and lewss to do anything for, through or to Him in the process.

This is a true principle I have observed in my life as described by Pastor Jeff Dodge this past weekend in his exposition of Romans 12:1-2.