Your Cheatin’ Heart
“The heart is deceitful above all
things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17;9
Hank Williams, Sr. crooned “Your
Cheatin’ Heart” to give a Country Music view to the challenges of a personal
relationship while writer T.S. Elliot expanded a little further with the human
condition when he said, “Humankind cannot bear much reality.” He tells us that the problem goes well beyond
a few. It’s a challenge with all of us. Wow! They both got that right. As human, we have a deceptive gene that
causes us to divert, cheat, deny, and resist in any issues of truth that hit
too close to home…especially if it exposes our failures. We have professional
rationalizers and it doesn’t take much to get us to go there whether its
admitting to a speeding ticket, finding little Johnny has some flaws, or that
you actually might have culpability in some of the arguments in your
marriage. Whether small or large, we
find ourselves avoiding the reality because its simply too close for comfort.
One of the most striking examples of
this was found in Robert Lifton’s book “The Nazi Doctors” Lifton points out that the horrors of
Nazism were not perpetrated by the culturally deprived and uneducated. Rather the educated and elite such as physicians,
lawyers, professionals and more. Hitler had, of course, convinced the German
people that the Jews were taking their jobs and posed a threat, therefore, they
were to be feared. The doctors were a
part of one of the most vile outbreaks of evil this planet has ever witnessed. Lifton sought out to find how those trained
in the name of healing can torture and kill. How ordinary people could commit
demonic acts is beyond many people’s comprehension but torture and kill they
did. This is what he attempted to find
out. Lifton reported that while the
doctors occasionally betrayed pockets of guilt, they generally tried “to
present themselves to him as decent people who tried to make the best of a bad
situation. And they wanted confirmation of this view of themselves.” They
couldn’t bear to face their guilt. So
they denied it. They feigned innocence. They projected their guilt by blaming it on
the system describing “…the chaotic, complex conditions of Auschwitz.” Lifton writes, “Yet none of them- not a single former Nazi doctor I spoke to- arrived
at a clear, ethical evaluation of what he had done, and what he had been a part
of.” Cheating hearts indeed.
How is it that the people that were
responsible for the greatest acts of atrocity in our modern era able to say,
“I’m innocent…or I didn’t do anything wrong.” It is because we learn to deceive ourselves. We minimize what we’ve done. We allow our hearts to become so deceived
that we have no moral compass. Jeremiah
17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who
can understand it?” while Hosea
10:2 goes on to say, “Their heart is
deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their
altars and destroy their sacred stones.
The main reason is that we don’t like
to live with guilt. If you’ve ever talked to a prisoner at a
penitentiary, they either didn’t do it or they had a reason behind what they
did. I’ve spent time at both (as a
visitor if you were wondering) and always found this to be the case. I can never point the finger because all of us
have done the exact same thing. While we
may not be guilty of the same things as the Nazi doctors, we are nonetheless as
guilty before God. You may have done
some things I haven’t don’t and vice versa but in the end we are all partners
in crime. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.”
Whether we know it or not, or whether we acknowledge
it or not, the Bible goes to great lengths to let us know that we are all
guilty before God. In fact, like prosecuting attorneys,
the authors of Scripture begins to lay out an open and shut case that convicts
all of us.
Sometimes through
implication as Jesus said in Matt 5:48-Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” or Peter in 1 Peter 1:15-16
who writes, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." Since none of us
is perfect or holy, we find ourselves not measuring up.
Other times, it is not implied…it is
clearly stated John
tells us in 1 John 1:8
says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us.” Paul tells us many places but most clearly in Romans5:12 says,
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through
sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”
However, John clears it up in the HWT Bible
or Hank Williams Translation when He writes, “If we confess our
cheatin’ hearts, He is faithful and just to forgive our cheatin’ heart and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Whether World War II atrocities or
traffic tickets, Christ’s blood cleanses us.
Now that’s a reality I can live with.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) Why is it so hard for us to admit guilt?
2) When did you first receive Christ’s offer of
cleansing? Do you need it today?
Consider reading the Word today;
Copyright 2014- Terry
Risser
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