Wednesday, May 6. Romans 3:9-20.
What thoughts and feelings do you have when you encounter a really arrogant person? I’m talking about the person who is constantly bragging about how good they are at everything and how much better they are at things than other people.
I don’t know about you, but when I meet someone like that, I immediately start looking for their faults. Why do I do this? Two reasons:
- I’m a jerk and I want to hurt them because I am envious of how good they are at the things about which they are boasting. My bad.
- I know that there is some kind of fault in that person. Our bad.
Both of these reasons give evidence for what Paul was getting at in our reading today. Remember, Paul is building an argument throughout Romans 1-3 to demonstrate that no one is better than anyone else. He painfully reminds us that ALL people have sin. EVERYBODY has some darkness in his or her heart that makes us ALL capable of horrific things.
As soon as we admit this, then there is no longer room for pride. No matter how good we are, how many times we go to church, how many times we pack meals at Feed My Starving Children, we still struggle with something dark inside of us.
This is a downer message today, but it is a necessary point to keep us humble. We are all in this messy thing called being human together.
Tomorrow, Paul will turn the corner in his argument and shed the light of the Good News on this scene.
