The Fault of Man

If we thought that man is less savage than jungle animals, think again.

Disney’s “Lion King” tells of the “Circle of Life”: “There's more to see than can ever be seen/ More to do than can ever be done/There's far too much to take in here/ More to find than can ever be found/But the sun rolling high/Through the sapphire sky/Keeps great and small on the endless round.” The animated film among others explains that while animals feed on other animals, they do so for survival and to keep the balance of nature.

But for human beings, we feed not just our physical hunger.  We hunger for enjoyment, wealth and recognition.  For instance, on July 1, 2015, American dentist Walter Palmer, a big game hunter and animal trophy collector, killed Cecil, a 13-year old lion that had been studied and tracked by the University of Oxford for years. He paid US$50,000 to a professional hunter so he could kill a lion. Cecil was lured outside of the sanctuary to be killed. The lion was later found skinned with its head removed.

There lies the fault of man – selfishness that is “being concerned, sometimes excessively or exclusively, for oneself or one's own advantage, pleasure, or welfare, regardless of others.”  “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:2-4)

To be selfish is to be worldly, and to be worldly is to be damned. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17) (Bro Mel B Libre)