{"id":42511,"date":"2014-01-06T08:09:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T08:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christians-belong-to-league-of-guilty\/"},"modified":"2014-01-06T08:09:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T08:09:00","slug":"christians-belong-to-league-of-guilty","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christians-belong-to-league-of-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians Belong to &#8220;The League of the Guilty&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So of all things, Christianity isn&#39;t supposed to be about gathering up the good people (shiny! happy! squeaky clean!) and excluding the bad people (frightening! alien! repulsive!) for the very simple reason that <em>there aren&#39;t any good people<\/em> &hellip; This goes flat contrary to the predominant image of [Christianity] existing in prissy, fastidious little enclaves, far from life&#39;s messier zones and inclined to get all &quot;judgmental&quot; about them. Of course there are Christians like that &hellip; The religion certainly can slip into being a club or a cozy affinity group or a wall against the world. But it isn&#39;t supposed to be. What it&#39;s supposed to be is <em>a league of the guilty<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3511,3601,3664,4311,4575,4639,4640,4919,4930],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42511","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-confession-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-original-sin","tax_ctp_tags-pharisaism","tax_ctp_tags-pharisees","tax_ctp_tags-self-examination","tax_ctp_tags-self-righteousness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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