Good Intentions
Some say it was Bernard of Clairvaux, a French abbot in the mid-1100s, who is to be credited with the saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Gretchen Ronnevik has written and article entitled The Deadliness of Good Intentions. It’s based on the movie Arsenic and Old Lace.
Two nice little old ladies provide a boarding house for men; if they find these men to have no family or friends, they poison them and bury them in their cellar, thinking that they have been merciful to them. It was a comedy, but Ronnevik sees it as an opportunity to examine our own intents.
In a court of law, intent to murder ranges from first degree murder to manslaughter. In the court of God’s laws every one of our own intentions are laced with sin. Rather precise in the court of God’s laws all of our good intentions have gone awry. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
The prophet Jeremiah writes that The heart is deceitful above all thingsand beyond cure.Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 And Jesus said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. Mark 7:20-22 nkv
Like those nice little old ladies, we want to believe in the goodness of our hearts and we spend all kinds of effort convincing others of that. Gretchen Ronnevik writes that “intent does not equal impact; the purpose behind an action or statement is separate from its actual result or effect.
For example, “you may not have intended to hurt someone but you did. The fact of the matter is, you did.” And there is no way you can right those wrongs.
We search in our minds for some intent at redemption, and worst of all search for some justification in our own minds to right that wrong. The intent becomes a deeper lie, by virtue of it becoming a matter of pride and entitlement.
The greater deception, Ronnevik writes, is that “we had to lie, because otherwise they wouldn’t do what we needed them to do to make things right.” And as Ronnevik writes, “then prayer requests become forms of gossiping.” It is an issue of genuine care.
We must examine our own hearts. The impacts of sin will vary, but the consequences remain the same. Sin remains sin in our hearts. This is the sin that separates us from God. This is the sin that pollutes our hearts. This is the sin that deceives and hardens our hearts so it doesn’t feel deception.” Sin hardens the heart by causing it to become numb to spiritual matters, leading to a refusal to listen to God, to a lack of empathy, and a desensitized conscience that struggles to distinguish right from wrong on one’s own. Sin then becomes the lie we hide behind.
That’s what the law does, it takes us to the cleaners and tells us someone has to wash our robes white through His blood. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14
All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-23) All these evil intents are replaced by the Spirit of Faith as the writer of Hebrews says. By faith alone Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Hebrews 3:11
Then as Paul promises we will all be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24
