good people and bad people

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Romans 3:9-31. And Paul is telling the Jewish people he's talking to how it is. And many of them accept his teachings, but you can see why many hated what he had to say.

Because what he said resonates all the way into 2019. He said that, basically, there aren't "good people" and "bad people", which is what the Jewish nation had believed for hundreds of years. They, the Jews, were God's chosen people. Everyone else was evil, and that meant that sometimes they were even supposed to kill large numbers of them.

But Paul says no. "Everyone has sinned. Even you religious people. We all need Jesus. And everyone can be saved, even those who aren't Jews." This was pretty radical teaching, and many hated him for saying it.

Today, we're facing alot of the same problems. We think of ourselves as the good guys, and the other people (liberals, Trump, illegal immigrants, Iran, China) as the bad guys. But the fact is, we're all sinful people. We all need Jesus. And we can all be saved. So let's remember that. We're not perfect. They're not pure evil. We're all sinful humans who need Jesus and can be saved.

God, thanks for reminding us that we're all in this together. Help us love those that it's hard to love.