What if Christians Discovered the Genius of AA?
How to create a community that can change the world
Our family is watching a medical crime drama where the lead character is a female neurosurgeon turned medical examiner.
She is notorious for being opinionated, direct, and condescending. In the pilot episode, a new coworker introduces himself, saying, “I’ve heard about you.” Her response: “Don’t believe everything you’ve heard about me. The truth is much worse.”
I love the honesty, self-awareness, and freedom. No pretense, no pretending. She is the kind of person who is primed to experience authentic community, where people are truly and deeply known and accepted.
Isn’t this what you want? To experience relationships not defined by the fear of judgment and rejection but by the safety of grace and acceptance. We want this in marriage, with our children, and friends because we crave real relationships, deep friendships, and authentic community.
We also know how elusive this kind of fellowship is.
By default, we are fig leaf wearers like our first parents. We cover up, deny, deflect, and resist exposure at all costs.
Some of us have confessed our sin and struggle, only to have it used against us. If that is your experience, I don’t blame you for pushing back against a post like this. However, what if it were possible to experience the kind of relationships that were safe for sinners to be real rather than hide?
According to the apostle John, it is possible. Yes, risk is involved in digging below the surface. But there also is the potential for striking gold.
To that end, the apostle John provides the pre-requisite necessary for authentic community in 1 John 1:5-9.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But _if_we walk in the light, as he is in the light, (then) we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
It’s the “if… then” conditionality of verse 7 that gives us our big idea —> the prerequisite to authentic community is moral honesty.
John calls it “walking in the light.”
As we develop this idea, we’ll highlight three main headings.
#1 — Moral honesty is simply confessing my true condition.
Moral honesty is the genius of Alcoholics Anonymous. When an AA meeting begins, there is no hiding from the truth. Everyone is living in the light of a common struggle with alcohol. There is no pretense. Everyone is standing on level ground.
The apostle Paul shows us what kind of posture fosters at AA type of ethos.. In 1 Timothy 1:15, he writes,
This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.
Did you notice he speaks in the present tense? Paul never claims his sin and personal struggles are in the past. He doesn’t say, “I was the worst of sinners,” but “I am.”
What if I could live with that kind of self-awareness? What if husbands, parents, and leaders in the church embraced such a posture? What if Sunday mornings and small groups were more like AA meetings? What if our families were more like AA meetings?
I think we’d be on our way to authentic community.
#2 — Moral honesty is harder than we think.
In high school, several friends and I would crash a neighborhood country club pool on Saturdays in the summer. I don’t need to get into the details here, except to say the pool had two diving boards. One was a standard 1-meter board. The other was a 10 meter, Olympic-style “high dive.”
From the ground, 33 feet doesn’t look that high. But when you climb the ladder to the platform and stand on the ledge, it feels twice as high as it looks from the ground. Especially if you have a fear of heights, jumping off the high dive is harder than you’d think.
Stepping out of the darkness into the light feels like that—fear mixed with anxiety. Some of us understand. We’ve stood at the ledge and wondered, “Is it safe to jump?”
What if someone discovered the truth about my eating disorder or self-medicating abuse of alcohol? Is this a safe place to be real?
What if my struggle with depression and social anxiety were exposed?
What if someone knew about ____________________?
What if people knew I feel distant from God and have questions that make me wonder if I really believe what I hear on Sundays?
Stepping into the light is far more difficult than stepping off a high dive. It feels like we are jumping to our death. And in some ways, we are.
Whenever the light of truth exposes my sins, flaws, struggles, and weaknesses, I am forced to die to self-protective fig-leaf righteousness. For myself, this means I am no longer McKay the pastor or professor with degrees and titles, I am McKay, worst of sinners, who needs grace more than anyone in the room. I’m just a beggar showing other beggars where to find bread.
Walking in the light is a two-step process.
The first step is repentance. Repentance is not promising to try harder or do better. It is confessing my true condition. Repentance is moral honesty. Instead of running away from God with my sin, I run toward him with it.
The second step is faith. Faith does not merely believe in God or even that Jesus rose from the dead. Satan believes these things. True, saving faith personalizes the sacrifice of Jesus, believing that he not only paid the penalty for my sin but also gives me his perfect record of righteousness to replace my record of unrighteousness.
It’s like I took an exam and earned an F, but Jesus received an A+. The gospel offers us the opportunity to exchange grades. In repentance, I give Jesus my failure. Faith then receives his score as my own.
This grade exchange is what makes it possible for us to be morally honest. And being real, we are safe for other sinners, which leads to the authentic community we deeply desire.
#3 — Moral honesty is only possible in view of the cross.
Scientists have discovered that UVC light has the power to disinfect contaminated surfaces. This has led to the creation of devices in which you place cell phones, keys, and other items that are prone to collecting germs. Once you place an object under the light, the UVC rays break down the contaminant at the molecular level, dissolving germs and viruses. It is a simple but amazing technology.
What if you knew that by stepping into the light of God’s truth you not only would have your sinful contaminants exposed but dissolved? This is the promise of the gospel—that when we step into the light with moral honesty, we are reconciled to God and cleansed of sin—not with UVC light, but with the blood of Jesus.
Look at the second half of verse 7 and verse 9.
If we walk in the light… the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin… If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Did you notice the word all? It was used twice, as if to reinforce a core gospel reality. We are not forgiven of a lot of sin, or most sin, but all unrighteousness.
This is why we can be morally honest. As fully forgiven, perfectly righteous, dearly loved sons and daughters of God, we no longer need to wear fig leaves. We no longer need to defend ourselves. No more pretending. No more pretense.
Like our medical examiner friend, we can admit the truth of our sin is much worse than anyone knows. But the truth of the gospel is far better than we can dream! Someone has said it is unlikely that any of us are aware of even 1% of our sinfulness. That would mean we are only aware of one percent of God’s kindness, mercy, and love.
There really is a universe of immeasurable grace to explore! If someone tells you they already understand the gospel, grace, etc., don’t believe it. It will take an eternity for us to plumb the height, depth, width, and breadth of the Father’s love for us (Ephesians 3:13-21).
If you’ve already stepped into the light, I want to challenge you to continue walking in the light by holding fast to the present value of Jesus’ blood.
Walking in the light with moral honesty and gospel confidence will empower you to be the biggest sinner and most grace-needy disciple in the room. I’m convinced this is what our marriages, kids, and the world need most from Christians. They don’t need our pretense. They need holier-than-thou self-righteous platitudes. They need our honesty about our need for the blood of Jesus.
With his posture, when someone else confesses a sin, flaw, struggle, or weakness, we will not respond with shaming or judgment but with empathy and gospel reminders.
Gospel empathy says, “You, too? I understand.” A gospel reminder says, “There is grace for that.”
This leads to an invitation.
If God has enabled you to believe there is grace for that—whatever “that” is—I want to invite you to step into the UVC sin-sanitizing light of the gospel, believing that the blood of Jesus covers not a lot, or most, but all of your unrighteousness.
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