Errors of Alcoholics Anonymous: Capacity to be Honest

From the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous:

"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path."

David suggests a much better way:

"He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." (Psalm 23: 3)

God does the restoring and the leading. Then God sent His own Son, we made the way perfect and unavoidable:

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14: 6)

Which later is realized for us through the Holy Spirit:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

and later

"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
(Romans 14: 17)

"Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves."

Since when has man ever been able to be honest with himself:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17: 9)

"I said in my haste, All men are liars." (Psalm 116: 11)

Honestly is neither a priority or a pertinence for fallen man.


There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. 

David did not dismiss the sin nature in man:

"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm 51: 5)

In another Psalm, the writer points out with equivocation that man is bad from birth, by nature:L

"They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Psalm 14: 3)

Even our attempts to make ourselves righteous, to be honest with ourselves, so to speak, are marred with sin and failure:

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64: 6)
There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty.

Instead of attempting to make us live up to His standards, which are impossible, Christ lives in us and works in us to effect His perfect will. To begin with, He is the Truth, better than any honesty that we force on our own:

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (Jon 14: 6)

Later, the writer of Hebrews informs his audience regarding the New Covenant extended to all believers through the shedding of Christ's blood and the indwelling Holy Spirit:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:


"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

We are forgiven of all our sin, but not only that, God writes His law in our hearts and minds, and He becomes a God, a loving and ever-present Father who assists us in all ways!

Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
 
"The grave emotional and mental disorders" mentioned here emanate from a reprobate mind, separated from God:
 
"And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." (Colossians 1: 21)
 
Later, Paul indicts the empty wickedness of the mind of fallen man:
 
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind." (Ephesians 4: 17)
 
For believers, we are called to receive the renewing our minds through the Word of God:
 
"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;" (Ephesians 4: 23)
 
This verse can more accurately be translated:
 
"to be made new in the attitude of your minds" (New International Version )
 
and also

"Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes." (New Living Translation)


Regarding the renewal of our new mind in Christ (1 Corinthians 2: 16)

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:2)

and also

"And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (Colossians 3:10)

We do not need a capacity to be honest; we need Christ living within us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1: 27), and through His Word, we are transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3: 18)