With Great Difficulty

 

I would submit that we have focused on the latter part of this verse for far too long. Perhaps it would do us well to hone in on the first.

Let us take our harsh critique off of the "ungodly and the sinner" for a moment and turn the focus onto ourselves. Number one: Are we even sure which category we are found within? What is the criteria that we have applied to arrive at our conclusion? What has caused any one of us to become convinced that we are, in fact, righteous? Do we know what standards Yahweh uses to apply righteousness to a man? Despite what we have been told, it is with great difficulty that even the righteous are delivered, saved, rescued. Remember the righteous one Noah? With... great... difficulty. Let's do whatever is individually necessary today to be sure that we are righteous, as Yahweh Himself defines. Let us first be sure that we are in this category, ready to receive our deliverance and salvation, with great difficulty. Then, when we are solidly identifiable as righteous and found ready to endure well, may we go out and beckon the ungodly and the sinner to come and do likewise.