“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” – Jeremiah 17: 9 This Bible verse gives us a good description of the heart of man and what we should expect of human behavior. That is deceit, hypocrisy and wickedness in the strict sense of these words. Starting from our own selves – if we will be frank with ourselves – we can recount the evil things we may have done against people, the lies we may have told, and how we may have done very hurtful things to people. I start off by considering our own selves first, so we don’t become too judgmental as we read on. But come to think of it, the history of the world brings to bear how deceiving and wicked people are. In the news, we hear many terrible and horrible stories of corruption and killings at the national and international level, not to talk about the various forms of abuse and violence in homes and communities that are not reported. There is no need of giving examples, as they just pop up in your mind in their numbers. By this piece, I do not intend creating an atmosphere of fear. There is already too much fear and panic in the world I don’t want to add more. My aim is to make a few suggestions how we can deal with people in general and not become victims of their evil schemes. First, “beware of people,” borrowing the words of Jesus (Mark 10:17). Though people can be good, they are actually “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” So take precautions, protect yourself against this risk. Otherwise you will be surprised what people can do to you. Not everyone who smile at you is on your side. And not all that glitters is gold. If we take this expected behavior of people too seriously, we might end up not grow any friendships or relationships at all. But how can we live our lives that way? We still need people. And we still can trust some people. I was happy to read in Proverbs 31: 11 about the virtuous woman that “the heart of her husband safely trusts in her.” How do we draw the line, then? Let’s see how Jesus approached this issue in His earthly life. “But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2: 24 –25). Jesus knew what people were capable of doing to Him, how they even eventually succeeded in crucifying Him yet without any sin. While He was careful in His dealings with people, Jesus still chose 12 disciples to support His work. But of the twelve, three were in His inner circles. Peter, James and John were the only disciples who witnessed His Transfiguration. Again, He went with these same Three into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and yet left them behind to be alone with God. This shows that we can have varying degrees of trust for people, from no trust to a high level of trust, but we reserve our utmost trust in God alone. God has the character of truth and mercy, the reason why we can fully trust Him. But for people, the rule is: “Test before you trust.” It is advisable to make some background checks on the people we encounter in life, and allow some time to evaluate how faithful and merciful they are to us and others, then we can trust them accordingly. Besides, if we pray, it is possible to get information on people’s lives from God, “who knows the hearts of all men” (Acts 1: 24). To conclude, I pray as follows: may the Lord help us all to forgive people who have deceived, disappointed, despised us, or disturbed our peace and joy in some ways…not forgetting that we have also done similar things to others knowingly or unknowingly.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:30:22 +0000
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