The words we use mean everything.  Isn’t that their intent?  No one asks someone to turn the light by saying “I think the price of gas is too high”.  I know that is ridiculous, but it’s proof that the words we use matter.

There are far more subtle variations of these ridiculous statements.  And in these subtleties, “ridiculous” is no longer a usable word.  For if I point that word at the things of subtle variation, the pride of man will flare up.  So in striving to right the wrong of our vocabulary, I am forced to capitulate for the sake of understanding.

With that said, let me proceed to the meat of this post.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?.” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Can it be said, with absolute clarity, that man is really good at heart?  Doesn’t it matter, the words we use?   Doesn’t it matter what we believe?

I don’t need to define the word “deceitful”.  And I can’t do better than to say the phrase, “beyond cure”.  And I realize I have no ability to form words that express the true meaning of “Good”.  For if I could do that, I could describe the very essence of the Most High God.

So when people tell me that man is really good at heart, my soul recoils in aversion.

But I will let mercy reign in me.  I will understand the intent of their meaning.  they mean to be kind and compassionate.  They mean to have hope in a chaotic and desperately deadly world.  But saying “Kumbayah” does not stop the lion from devouring our body.

May God have mercy, that I may relate the things that are true.

If society prospers, men can live in a relative peace.  But let society suffer a great loss, and we begin to see the deceitfulness of men’s hearts.  Greed will take hold of the most refined among men.  Mothers have even eating their babies during times of extreme famine.  And unspeakable wicked things have been done, when society has not been embraced by peace.

So those who believe that people are good at heart, believe what they do because their society is at present and relative peace.

I myself would rather believe the Most High God.  Not only because he has spoken that man is wicked to the core.  But also because I have seen his word play out.  Not only in the lives of utterly wicked men, but also in my own heart as he began to reveal His Holy ways to me.

With saying people are actually good at heart, a great urgency is removed.  Those who hear such things think to themselves, “I do wrong, but I am innocent of trespass.  For under the right circumstances I would choose what is pure and good.”   Therefore they blame others, for surely they are not at fault.

God says this is a lie.  No one is good and pure but God alone.  And as it is written, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”   And if man is truly good, then why was Jesus sent to die as a sacrifice for our sinful nature?

I have spoken with my best.  But there are two limits placed on my testimony here.  One is vocabulary.  The other is the truth revealed from God to my soul. 

I have spoken the things of God, as one man to another.  Therefore I ask the mercy of God, that understanding may come to those who read.