Romans 3:10-18
Quite an indictment of the nature that drives human society! This helps us to understand that even the struggles between nations are really only small problems grown great. Two major powers locked in a hot war may seem more complex than neighbors arguing over a backyard fence or a family quarrel, but the causes are essentially the same.
Are there problems in our families? If we make an honest search for the cause, we will find that one or both sides are lusting for something and competing for it. Either abuse of authority or an unwillingness to submit—or both—will be present because one or both sides want something and feel this is the only way to get it.
Since we cannot serve two masters, lust drives us to serve ourselves to get what we desire. The spin-offs will be insensitivity, inattention, lack of cooperation, gluttony, alcoholism, quarrels, adultery, and lying. Our children will learn to be disobedient, nervous, selfish, and rowdy.
In II Corinthians 11:3, Paul writes that men's minds have been "corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." This means that the massive city, state, national, and global problems are merely individual problems multiplied by the population. Nothing will change on earth until individuals are convinced that the solution to the problems begins with them. They first have to work to change themselves before they can begin to expect the community's problems to disappear.
This principle holds true in marriage. If the cause is the same as in individual family quarrels, the solution is also the same. Love, tolerance, kindness, mercy, patience, forgiving, sharing, cooperating, and helping, all done with and through contact with the true God and the power of His Spirit activated and used by the individual's faith, will do the job.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Preparing to Rule!
Romans 3:10, drawn by Paul from Psalm 14, where David attributes the declaration to God Himself, is a major indictment of mankind: none is good, all are evil, and every person is guilty before God, having sinned and fallen short of His glory. Human righteousness is like "filthy rags," so righteousness can never be achieved on one's own merit, yet all are called to become like God and must still work toward His righteousness. No one has ever truly sought God, because people, deceived by Satan, do not know whom to look for and form their own wrong images of Him; God must reveal Himself first. Individual corruption, multiplied by population, fuels conflicts from families to nations.