Even Though No One Seeks God

Scripture Verses that Caught my attention today: Romans 3:9-12 What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, 10 as it is written:
“There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who has understanding,
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness,
there is not even one.”

Observation: Doesn’t reflect too highly on humanity, eh?

Application: I basically just ended up Lutheran by happenstance. My parents were Lutheran, most of the rest of the family was Lutheran and so it goes.

Interestingly, I’ve always had an abundance of openness to other denominations. Still do. In fact, there was a brief time when I almost ended up in an entirely different Christian faith tradition for seminary training. But alas that particular non-Lutheran seminary program didn’t include a year of internship. And since for practical reasons I thought that a year of internship would be very important, that made my decision to head off to a Lutheran seminary easy.

I still maintain significant openness to other faith traditions, but I must say that, as the years go by, I’m becoming more and more thankful for my Lutheran roots, whether by happenstance or not. And one of the very big things that I really appreciate is the Lutheran emphasis on the sinfulness of the human condition.

I know…that might sound crazy to some. Why would I find satisfaction in focusing on our sinful nature?

Answer? Because it’s a refreshingly honest perspective.

It seems that so often in life we are encouraged to delude ourselves into thinking that we can be above the fray. But that’s a half-truth. Sure, there may be some things we can “do” to improve our lot in life. We might be able to break some unhealthy cycles and such. We might be able to attain some significant measures of earthly success. But at the core of our nature there is self-centeredness. When the Scriptures say that “there is no one who seeks God,” they are correct.

Sure, some people seek God, but it’s almost always with a leaning toward some kind of self-benefit, be it assistance through a personal crisis, a longing for a safer world, or even the hope of eternal life. Our motive for ‘loving’ God is more often than not rooted in a desire for God’s help in some temporal or even eternal way. So much for love.

Thankfully, in the Lutheran church we can come clean about such things. We can lay our motives out on the table, not in some prideful way, but in a way that indicates that we recognize our situation—or at least part of our situation—and ultimately place our hope in Christ.

Paul deeply encouraged such thinking and acting years and years ago. We Lutherans most certainly have our many foibles, but we do take Paul’s analysis of our situation to heart, along with his faith that, through Christ, we who are sinners nature will still receive Good News in each day.

Prayer: Lord, thanks for enabling us to be honest with you and to trust in your forbearing reply. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: 1 Kings 8, 2 Chronicles 5, Psalm 99, and Romans 3)