The Shortfall

Romans 1:29-31
"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy."

First thoughts when reading this:

• What horrid, wicked, all round bad people
• Surely God doesn't love them
• If there was a bursary program for hell, these guys would be sorted
• Definitely not me.

But as I read it over a couple times, I had a sinking feeling that maybe I'm not too far off from these people. And I'm sure as you go through this, you'll agree that we all really have fallen way, way short of the glory and holiness of God [Romans 3:23].

Envy:  feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities or relationships.

Have you ever really wanted a car like that person, or wished you had their charming personality or longed for a best friend like that person has? As the saying goes: 'jealousy makes you nasty' and it's a sure sign of the discontent that lies within us. 

Envy: yes.

Murder: unlawful, premeditated killing of a person. 

Not me and probably not you, if we take the world standards. But we're talking about the glory of God, so let's see what Jesus said: being angry with another without cause / calling someone a fool [Matthew 5: 21-22]

Angry: yes. Name-calling: yes. Therefore murder: yes.

  

Strife: angry or bitter disagreement

Strife is all too rife in families and homes.

Also defined as: contention for superiority

It's wanting the first say and the last word and everything in between.

Strife: yes.

Deceit: concealing or misrepresenting the truth

Ever not told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Deceit: yes.

Malice: desire to harm others or to see others suffer

Ah, but they broke my heart / back-stabbed me / are just so different to me... so it's okay! 

But it's not, because you would never want that for yourself. Desire for people what you desire for yourself.

Malice: yes.

Gossip: reports or rumours about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true

Our tongues are too loose and start wild fires daily with the little, seemingly harmless rumours we share [James 3]. If you're saying something about a person that you wouldn't say to their face, that's gossip and it never really ends well [unless you're organising a surprise party for them, then that's probably okay].

Gossip: yes.

Slander: making a false statement to damage a person's reputation

An easy way to make yourself look good is to make those around you look bad. So we just drop a casual line or story that drops others down a peg or two, and we come out on top. At least, we think we do.

Slander: not as much as Johnny over there [aka yes].

God-hater: living in direct opposition to God; loving what he hates and hating what he loves

It's a pretty intense word that we don't want to be associated with, but we were born sinners, God-haters. Putting anything or anyone above Jesus in your life is the giving of yourself to an idol which is in direct opposition to God. Not that he hates our friends, family, work, car, dog, dream or rugby team; but he rightfully hates when we give them the #1 spot.

Put things above Jesus: too often. God-hater: yes.

Insolent: audaciously rude or disrespectful

Respect is earned. Even the Bible speaks a lot of living a life worthy of respect. But the Bible also calls us, regardless of the other person's worthiness, to obey our masters with respect as we do Jesus [Ephesians 6:5], to show proper respect to everyone [1 Peter 2:17] and to treat all people with gentleness and respect [1 Peter 3:15-16]. Nowhere does it give grounds for being rude or disrespectful, but how often do we give ourselves those grounds. 

Insolent: yes.

Arrogant: having an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities

What makes me more important or special than the girl next to me? Nothing.  Do I forget that? More than I'd like to admit. "I deserved that prize." "Of course they're friends with me." "I'm not going to hang out with you, you're below me." "Me, me, me."

Arrogant: yes.

Boast: talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction

If you have to tell someone how good you are, you're probably not that good. Our actions should be doing the talking. "I got 96% for my test." "I'm in the first team." "I got the most kills on COD." "I, I, I!"

Boast: yes.

Disobey their parents: this needs no defining.

Disobey, dishonour, disrespect my parents: yes.

Foolish: lacking good sense or judgment

You don't have to be a genius. You don't have to have the biggest brain in town. But whatever brain power you do have, put it to good use. It's only a mistake the first time, after that it's a choice.

Mistakes: plenty. Learn and burn: not always. Fool: yes.

Faithless: believing that your problem is bigger than God; 

Oh, we of little faith! It's so hard to look past all the darkness we see to the Light we cannot see. So we stop looking, and we start worrying. We make plans, forgetting that the Author of life is in control of the ultimate plan. 

Lost sight of Jesus: yes. Faithless: yes.

Oh how far short we have fallen! 

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

"Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

Ephesians 2:4-8, 13

We fell short, but Jesus took our gigantic shortfall with him to the cross.

He paid the price. 

He made the way.