Heart Condition

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

Tell me about it. You just have to look at the news and see how desperately wicked people's hearts are. Parents abusing their children. Rapes, robberies, murders. Identity theft. People being unkind to people. Justice is not served. It generally doesn't seem to even be on the menu. My, oh, my, how wicked their hearts are!

Of course, I've already missed all the important points. But, what would you expect? My heart is "deceitful above all things." Strange, isn't it? We miss that first step and jump right on the finger pointing at others. The problem begins with me. My heart is deceitful. My heart will fool me time after time. I keep thinking I'm right. I keep thinking I've got it together. I keep thinking I'm justified in what I do and think. I keep finding I'm wrong, fooled again by my deceitful heart.

So deceitful is it that I cannot even comprehend how wicked it is. "Who can know it?" While so many voices around me assure me that people are basically good, God says quite the opposite. If you believe that people are basically good, you simply prove that your heart is deceitful ... and you've been fooled again. If I believe that you are fooled for believing that and I am not ... well, there I go again.

One of the common beliefs of orthodox Christianity is the belief in Original Sin. It holds that mankind is sinful by nature. We sin because we are sinners at heart. It started with Adam and we have all inherited it, so to speak. We are, by nature, wicked. Now, some have argued the point, but I don't see any reason why. We can see it in children. We can see it in adults. We can see it in "good people." Everyone has problems with sin. It's just a basic premise of Christianity. "All have sinned" Paul assured us (Rom. 3:23).

The message of Christianity is "the Gospel", the "good news." We have good news to offer. The offer of that good news, forgiveness of sins and a relationship with God, is only as good as the problem is bad. The more we comprehend that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," the more we can begin to see how bad the problem is. The more we comprehend that this heart problem isn't "their" problem, but my very own, the bigger this good news becomes. The sooner you and I realize that we are classified, at the heart, as "desperately wicked," the sooner we can appreciate all the more the height of God's grace.

Do you ever wonder sometimes if you don't seem to love God enough? Perhaps your answer is here. "He who is forgiven little, loves little" (Luke 7:47). We who have a relationship with Christ have all been forgiven much. The clearer we see it, the greater our love.