阅读经文 

自从罪进入我们的世界以来，人类一直在设计新的方法来作恶。如果我们认为自己可以从中豁免，那也只不过是在自欺。

创造力是神赋予人类的属神的形像的一部分，可悲的是，我们把创造力尽可能多地用在了破坏我们里面所保留的神的形像。这就是我们今天在罗马书的经文所获得的警告。

神一直在等待着我们去寻找祂，但在主进入我们的生命之前，我们总是拒绝寻求祂。我们不愿意寻求神。我们的罪性使我们远离了神。我们想要追逐恶，或者即使我们在追求善，我们却总想用自己的方式去寻求。

在《罗马书》的开篇，保罗显然对人们在这个世界上所做的一切恶行感到愤怒，然后在第二章中他转换了一个角度。对于我们在世上制造的种种恶事，每个人都负有一定的责任，任何人如果认为自己可以论断他人，就是在定自己的罪。

即便如此，神还是以仁慈宽恕了我们，给我们指出了一条更好的人生道路。既然神对我们显出仁慈，我们也能够而且应当把这种仁慈传递给其他人。

Ever since sin came into our world, we human beings have been thinking up new ways to do bad things or to do things badly. And if we think we are immune from this, we are only deceiving ourselves.

Creativity is part of the image of God given to human beings, and, sadly, we have put our creativity to use to destroy as much of the rest of God’s image in us as possible. That’s what our passage today in Romans warns about.

God has always been there for us to find, but until the Lord came into our lives, we refused to find him. We didn’t want to. Our sinful nature turned us away from God. We wanted to pursue bad things, or if we wanted to pursue anything good, we wanted to do it our way.

In the opening chapter of Romans, Paul is clearly angry about all the evil that people have done in the world, and then in chapter 2 he turns a corner. Every person has had some part in this creative sinfulness we’ve brought into the world, and if any of us thinks we can judge another, we are condemning ourselves.

Even so, God has been kind and merciful to forgive us and show us a better way. And since God has been kind to us, we can and must spread that kindness to everyone else as well.