THAT is certainly true.
I am reminded of a friend long ago.
To say the guy was rough around the edges is the understatement of the century. He pushed many of the Christians at church right over the edge.
However, considering where he came from, he made LIGHT YEARS of progress spiritually. I always contended that if all the other Christians who condemned him so freely made as much spiritual progress as he had, that church would have transformed the community. You wouldn't recognize it.
But, no, in their self-righteous back patting, they weren't like him.
Maybe on the outside....
On the inside, I daresay that God was more pleased with his sincere heart than his social decorum.
And there were things in his life that would have been considered blatant sin for someone else. Problem is, he had SO much baggage, that there just some things that had to wait.
In essence, God was dealing with what HE saw as most necessary, not what we think is.
IMO, if someone is making progress, that's all I care about.
Amen, and I think the sermon points out we should be pointing in the right direction. Thus my military example of the compass. Before we are saved our compass points to the south pole. When we are Sovereignly led to repentance and are saved the Holy Spirit gives us a new heading to True north. Jesus is at the helm and we obey His orders on maintaining the sail and deck.