Just Human Nature

June 8, 2024

Our natural Human Nature is faulty. This is clearly seen in the actions of Mankind. Jealousy, hate, selfishness. and a myriad of other faults mutilate any philosophy of a transcendent idealism within us.

“Nobody’s perfect” is a poor defense, giving us no real comfort, and it does not eliminate the fact that our nature does not radiate goodness at all times and in every circumstance. In fact we constantly fall short of any moral or civil standard. It is not easy, this perfection thing. In fact, we continually trip over our own good intentions.

“I’ve got to stop doing that!” seems to be the repeated chorus after every stanza in our songs.

The First Century Christian convert, Paul, observed this:

“What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; in worship of idols and witchcraft.**

“People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious.*** They separate into parties and groups; they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these.” — Galatians 5:19–21, Good News Translation.

So, do you agree with Paul that such thoughts and behaviors of our human nature are “quite plain?”

All the same, by simple observation or just by listening to the TV News, it is quite obvious to me that our world continues to be slipping sideways, and such thinking and behaving are spreading with increasing speed.

** — Especially be aware here that the original word written here as “witchcraft” was actually “pharmakeia,” Greek for “drugs” which I take the liberty of interpreting as “drug abuse.”

*** — Also note: “ambitious” in the original Greek means this, in the NAS: disputes, dissensions, factions; in the KJV: strife, seditions, heresies; in the INT: contentions dissensions, factions. — https://biblehub.com/greek/aireseis_139.htm

So, does this same Paul offer a remedy to correct this wayward disaster gyrating among us?

Yes, he does:

“What I say is this: let the Spirit {of God} direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.” — 5:16–17, ibid.

And he continued to write:

“But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.” — 5:22–26, ibid

Humanity cannot get off this crazy carousel — no matter how hard we try. We are like the poor tortured souls who cut themselves. We do harm. We hurt one another. We hurt ourselves. The Bible puts it this way: “All have sinned…” and sin goes far beyond the concept of disobeying God’s Law to its results and consequences: hurting and harming one another and thereby, also hurting ourselves and harming our world’s Civilization.

Chaos. Pure chaos.

We have to come to grips that we’re in a real mess.

God created a strictly ordered Universe and told us how we should live in His Paradise. Still, we choose to reject His ways and go out on our own, doing whatever seems right in our own opinion.

God knew when He gave us, in our human nature, the freedom to choose, and He knew its inherent dangers.

Yet, God in His inherent wisdom would also provide a way of escape from this endless cascade, this deluge of self-destruction:

“Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

“You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

“For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, ‘People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.” — 1 Peter 1:21–25, New Living Translation.

So, my friends, if and when you might realize these few things and are frustrated by all attempts to reverse nature’s course, try calling on God to reveal the saving knowledge of Jesus.

Become part of the solution, not a part of the problem…

Come to trust in God… and place your faith and hope in God.

Read the Bible and seek God’s active presence in your life.

Reach out to Jesus because He’s reaching out for you.