Do You Know How To Do Good?

"They are shrewd to do evil,
But to do good they do not know."
Jeremiah 4:22
I read several chapters of Jeremiah this morning. I read outside,
seated on the bench alongside the front of the house. As the morning
rays begin to give their heat, I read and pondered over several
wonderful passages. I thought I would share my thoughts on one,
because it is so relevant to us today.

We naturally do evil when left to ourselves. Nothing has changed,
the human race is not improving in the least in this area. In the
2500 years since Jeremiah wrote down God's words, the human race has
not changed a bit in it's heart. I would even say that we invent ways
of doing evil. We excel in the art of doing wrong and of rebelling
against God's loving commands. In the verse 22, God looks down upon
His children and observes as a loving father that His children "are
foolish." He then concludes with the quoted passage, a sad but ever
so true observation of mankind's attitude. In every way they devise
ways of doing what is hurtful to themselves and rebellious against God.
That is who I am. Apart from God I cannot do good. In fact, apart
from God there is no such thing as good. That is why God's final
phrase is so relevant, "they don't even know how to do good!" Here is
the thought that came to mind as I read the second phrase.
Christians, non-believers and Athiests tend to get all worked up when
reports come in of crimes against humanity perpetrated in a foreign
land. But in the same breath, we'll justify our actions, such as
sleeping with our girlfriend, as being an action that doesn't hurt
anyone.
Who do we think we are and how can we know? God himself tells us that
we don't know how to do good!