I know that people have always behaved badly since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden, but for some reason over the past few months, the horrible behavior of the human beings around me has seemed to be greatly magnified. I have been observing this ungodly behavior with a great deal of disappointment. That is up until a few days ago when I came to the surprisingly true conclusion that humanity is incompatible with Torah.
In order to explain what I mean let me share just a few examples of the ghastly human behavior that I have witnessed recently. In the news we heard about a group of people who were murdered after being enclosed in a locked truck until they died from the stifling heat. The response of many people was that those people deserved what they got because of their immigration status. In another tragic event, a group of people died when the submersible they were riding in imploded with them inside, killing all five people including one teenager instantly. Both of these horrific events, which resulted in multiple deaths, were followed by jokes by commentators shared on social media making light of these deaths.
As a man of faith, my first reaction to these despicable responses given by many people to these heart wrenching events, which took the lives of those people and permanently changed the lives of their families and friends, was to think about verses in the Bible like Proverbs 24:17:
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, or let your heart be glad when he stumbles,
After all, if G-D's word teaches us not to rejoice even if it is our enemies that fall or perish, we definitely should not rejoice or make fun of the death or calamity of those we do not even know. All of the jokes, memes, statements on social media, and so on by people really hurt my heart as I imagine the families who lost loved ones being subjected to all of it very publicly while they are mourning the loss of their loved ones.
My heart cried out in prayer to G-D: “How can these people behave so inhumanly?” In my heart I heard G-D reply, “they are not behaving inhumanly, they are literally behaving humanly.”
Then my mind was directed to a familiar verse from Romans 8:7:
7 For the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit itself to the law of God—for it cannot.
In other words, the human being is by nature hostile towards G-D and cannot submit to G-D’s Torah or Instructions. To say it another way: humans are incompatible with G-D’s Word or Torah. This is precisely the reason that humans need to be born again and filled with the Spirit of G-D. Because it is only through the indwelling of the Spirit of G-D that we can be more than “human.”
In our humanity, we are and will always be incompatible with G-D’s Word. However, when G-D infills us with His Spirit, we become more than human. We become compatible with His Word and we should begin to live as if we are.
It is for this reason that the Bible provides a list of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23:
22 But the fruit of the Ruach is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control—against such things there is no law.
Furthermore, the writer ends his instructions with Galatians 5:23. Paul then goes on in Galatians 5:24-26:
24 Now those who belong to Messiah have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Ruach, let us also walk by the Ruach. 26 Let us not become conceited—provoking one another, envying one another.
In these verses, Paul says the same thing that G-D spoke to my heart when I was grieved by the actions of people in response to terrible events taking place in the lives of other people. Paul says that if you live by the Ruach, we will crucify our flesh and we will stop acting like a human and start acting like a Child of G-D.
Because the truth is humanity is incompatible with G-D’s Word.
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