Decoding Humanity

Have you ever had an infection? That very word makes my skin crawl. The thought of a foreign organism invading my body—growing, feeding on the inside of me, and making me weaker—makes me want to vomit. Your body will militaristically fight off the foreigner terrorizing you, employing its best strategies to defeat the beast and settle the war. But what happens if the body loses the battle? All that time, all that effort—wasted. No matter how many remedies you tried, how much money you spent, or how many antibiotics you took, the infection only worsened with time. Even worse, the end result could be death. What might have seemed like a small infection—born from a simple wound and a mindset of "I’ll get over this"—eventually becomes the culprit in your demise.

What if I told you this is the exact effect sin has on our lives when we allow it to go untreated without the Spirit of God?

Sin is hereditary. It has passed from generation to generation. When Adam and Eve became infected, they spread it to us. It has permeated every facet of our lives, and the nature of the human mind reveals this. Some people think that because they haven’t committed egregious crimes—and because they could have done worse—that somehow, they’re good people. But when you compare yourself to other imperfect individuals, of course, you’ll seem that way. If we all compared ourselves to people like Trump, Hitler, or Stalin, we’d look like saints. Yet, there are people even worse than those men, and we still recognize their faults easily. They never earn the passibility of "not being so bad." We judge, yet we naturally all inhabit the same hearts as those men. (Matthew 7:1-5)

I believe that sin is our initial sickness, and childhood wounds are what worsen our condition. Based on your circumstances, your actions will reflect what is already in you.

The only reason some of us have never committed murder is because we haven’t been put in the predicament—but we all have the capability. The great man of God, Billy Graham, once said in a sermon that Cain and Abel were born in a world of perfect conditions. They were born at the beginning of time—no wars, no poverty—they were technically more wealthy than any of us combined. Yet, Cain murdered his brother out of jealousy. He had no reason to do such a thing, but sin had already altered our biology. I can only imagine the immense amount of guilt and shame he carried throughout his lifetime.

Sin turns us inward and deepens our narcissism. When God asked Cain where his brother was, his immediate response wasn’t confession—it was defiance and arrogance. You know like, when someone confronts us about something we’ve done, and we’re too blind to see immediately that we’re wrong, so we feel cornered? And in order to regain a sense of control, we respond with our chests puffed up? Well, that’s exactly what Cain did. His response to God was: "Am I my brother’s keeper?" What a vile thing to say after murdering your own blood. From that point on, Cain was cursed. And yet, God still showed him mercy by placing a mark on his body to protect him from being killed in retaliation.

Instead of humbling himself and bowing to God in gratitude for His mercy—because God makes it clear that He hates the shedding of innocent blood and Abel was more than innocent—Cain rejected God further and spread that spirit of rebellion through his children. When Cain was exiled from his family, forced to wander alone, separated from God, he built a city named Enoch—the name of his son. His descendants developed civilization, music, metalwork, city life, and introduced polygamy. One of them in particular—Lamech— a man with two wives, became even more violent than Cain. This proves that sin is hereditary, and that the pain within adults only hardens them over time, leading to devastating effects within their children. (Genesis 4:1-24)

Sin is the initial sickness we must tackle, but when we don’t heal our inner child, we only worsen over time, passing the same pain onto the next generation.

If you read my commentary on Sacrificial Innocence, you’d know how I once felt about my father. As I’ve grown, my empathy for him has only increased. I understand now—because of his upbringing, the lack of good examples he had, the absence of love and care he may have received, and the realization that he could only depend on himself—he was like Cain. Wandering in a desert alone, trying to figure things out without much guidance. And in his own way, he loved me the best way he could. In a weird way, he loved me the only way he knew how, and despite all, I love him dearly.

I also have an immense amount of empathy for men in general. Although we live in a patriarchal society, the patriarchy serves no one. As women, we have our own unique struggles, and it’s hard to put yourself in someone else’s shoes when you feel oppressed. But it’s important to look deeper than the surface and find the humanity beneath what we think we see.

Men operate under enormous pressure, without much sympathy or empathy from anyone—not from other men, nor from us. Imagine how heartbreaking it must be to wake up every morning knowing the weight of the world will always be on your shoulders. Now add sin and childhood scars to that weight, and the result is exactly what we see today.

Black men, especially, face struggles that are generational. Imagine living in an oppressive society where you are constantly dehumanized and emasculated. Most people don’t know how to cope with that. Many Black men turn that aggression toward their families, asserting the little bit of dominance they have. None of this justifies the behavior, but it broadens our scope beyond what we immediately perceive. Neglected, wounded children—failed by their parents—become adults who have learned to mask their pain. And because most people never address the root of their issues, they fail their own children in turn. Thus, the cycle continues.

Galatians 5:19-21 tells us who we truly are:
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like..."

But despite this infection, there is a cure.

The greatest remedy of all—the most powerful antibiotic to ever exist—is the blood of Jesus. Without God descending from above, wrapping Himself in flesh, exemplifying a love beyond human comprehension and an action greater than what we can truly understand, we would never have a chance at healing. Galatians 5:21 finishes off by saying “..of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” It is impossible to free yourself from the bondage of sin by your strength alone.

But Galatians 5:22-25 offers a glimmer of hope. It says:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

Without His Spirit, you and I would be damned for eternity. Our life here on Earth is only a buffer before our final destination. Earth was intended to be our home—there’s a reason no other planet in the universe is compatible with human life. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they robbed the earth—and us—of perfection.

God and sin cannot cohabitate, for He is too holy to come near it. That is why He sent His Son. That is why He gave us His Spirit. If that’s not the greatest proclamation of love, I don’t know what is.

So, recognize who you are and accept the truth.

You—we—are imperfect.
We are impure.
We deserve separation from God.
We don’t deserve His mercy.
We don’t deserve His grace.

But He loved us so much, He gave it anyway.

Honor Him by rejecting sin and working toward a better version of yourself.

Proverbs 23:7 says:
"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

The mindset we operate from yields the results we see in our lives.

Turn your heart to Christ. Reverence Him with your mind, body, and soul. Sacrifice yourself. Crucify your flesh. Kill who you are naturally, and allow His Spirit to live on the inside of you. Purifying your body inside and out, cleansing your soul of that nasty infection we know as sin, and enacting life-saving surgery on your heart to rectify those deep and ghastly childhood wounds. Forgive others, because He forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

And remember, this is a daily commitment. Just as if you’d like a fit body or desire to be the best in your profession, you must work at it everyday. Only those who go through the fire and don’t give up, come out on top. Nothing worth having comes by easily. (James 5:7-8)

Christ is the only way to eternal life.