Very good question.
I can only offer my opinion, but I think that what he might be saying is that no one who identifies as a believer (including a high ranking member of the clergy) should feel certain that they have already secured a place in heaven.
In other words:
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Not to mention:
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
So I see his statement as challenging people like me (and himself) who say that we are believers not to be complacent, as well as not to be blind/indifferent to the needs of others and to our own failings.
Anyway, that's just my take on this.
Thank you again - wishing you well and peace.
Tim
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