“What then? Do we excel them? No, not so. For we have charged both Jews, and Greeks, that they are all under sin. As it is written: ‘There is not any man just. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. All have turned out of the way: they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, there is not so much as one’. ‘Their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully.’ ‘The venom of asps is under their lips.’ ‘Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:’ ‘Their feet swift so shed blood: destruction and misery in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known:’ ‘there is no fear of God before their eyes.’
St. Paul here shows that Jesus lifts all that come to Him to Himself, considering neither heritage nor previous sin: “There is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision” (Colossians 3:11). All have sinned, the brokenness of man reached to all, including Israel, and them despite God’s many blessings and mercies. Because all are under sin, there is no claim to goodness as far as natural virtue goes, for being naturally good and having a burning love of God are entirely different realities. Being naturally courageous or temperate is a point of goodness in oneself, whereas loving is a gift from God: “And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them” (Acts 2:3). Jesus found the lowliest, most unglamorous men He could bring them to a place of extraordinary love: “Why wonder you at this? Or why look you upon us, as if by our strength or power we had made this man to walk? “(Acts 3:12). Without the illumination of the Holy Spirit to show one the love of God, all justice is stained, for even what is upright morally is easily stained by the love of self. Thus, there is not any man that is truly just without grace, for even the upright did not act from an abundance of love but out of righteousness, virtue, promise of reward, or fear. Those that acted from these sources but without the living flame of love did not understand, they walked in darkness of their own goodness but without the piercing love of God: “Thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes” (Song 4:9). Thus, many sought, but none knew Him in the simplicity of love, for even though there are testaments of zeal for God: “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts” (3 Kings 19:10), this was not done with love, with figures such as Elias having other things driving them. Thus, all have turned from the way of I Love You, all have become unprofitable, for they do great things without a tender love for their Lord: “’Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name?’ And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity’” (Matthew 7:22-23). Without divine love, all works fall short of Him, thus “there is none that does good.” This is why St. John the Baptist, a paragon of all virtue and goodness, is put in a seemingly strange place: “Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11). Without the ardent love of God given by the Holy Spirit, one cannot speak of Him from a heart filled with affection: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:45), with this loving excess being something beautiful to God: “Thy lips, my spouse, are as a dropping honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue” (Song 4:11); “Well ordered words are as a honeycomb: sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24). Without a heart filled with love, one cannot help but speak at least with a note of bitterness, which is a poison to the one that hears. Love is gentle, speaking of the Beloved in a manner that is soft and pleasing, yet radiant with love, thus St. Paul exhorts: “Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:31-32). Without the enticements and draws of love, the human person cannot but decline to other ways to seek happiness, which lead to ruin: “Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve” (Jeremias 2:20), but God promised His people: “I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love” (Osee 11:4) that true justice, the life and way of love, may be found. Without love, all is misery, destruction, and unrest, for love is the way of peace: “[Love] beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). Because all human action, no matter how righteous, in stained in some form, either with fear, self-seeking, etc., all needed the merciful love of God to understand Him: “God is love” (1 John 4:16). This is typified by the tower of Babel: “Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands” (Genesis 11:4), for though the virtues are good and necessary, when they is separated from love they can only climb so high. Focusing on them rather than on letting your heart be captivated by God turns your attention from Him, and He is not smitten by the great heights of virtue in someone: “He seeth from eternity to eternity, and there is nothing wonderful before him” (Ecclesiasticus 39:25), but by their brokenness, which He longs to love. There is no human righteousness that reaches up to heaven, but it is only the gift of love that does this, which He gives freely: “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8) that brings you close to Him. Therefore, strive only for love, seek nothing but love, love God, love yourself, love your neighbor as yourself, love all that He has made: “And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good” (Genesis 1:31), for love alone is forever, love alone binds you to God: “He that abideth in love, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Now, all this is so that there may be no rejoicing in your own goodness, but that you may always encounter the merciful love of God. He looks upon your imperfect work and frailty with ardent love and shows you His love by loving you and forgiving you through all of your imperfections and failures. He does not desire you to build a tower to heaven, but to let Him come down to you, for this is the nature of His Incarnation.