By Rev. Santo Ladu
I once watched a Christian movie with this inscription “full pocket but empty heart.”
Corruption is a term that is heard in news and the streets every day and its cases have become common occurrence.
The term ‘corruption’ is defined as acts of dishonesty by people in power. It also refers to the actions such as giving and taking bribes, evolving in fraudulence activities, embezzlement, double-dealing, diverting funds and so on and so forth.
The term corruption is also found in the Bible in case some of you may not know or believe it. You can find this in the book of Psalms 41:1.
This Psalms was a song sung by King David who was struggling daily with the issues of corruption among his officials and Generals. In this psalms, he traced the root of corruption to be the heart without God.
We read, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” (NKJV)
The word “fool” here does not refer to a person who lacks intelligence. In fact the most dangerous persons are the intelligent ones. The whole world went into lockdown because of the action of the intelligent people. What he lacks is understanding. Lacks of spiritual insight into the reality of life whether spiritual or physical. The truth is human are both spiritual and physical beings. The problem arises when we cannot understand what are we? The fact that one has a tendency to worship whether a god or anything one values more than the other including oneself is a proof that spirituality exists inside of us. But due to our sinful nature, we misplace the worship.
The Apostle Philip asked the Ethiopian Eunuch, the treasure of the Queen of Candace (Acts 8:30), do you understand what you are reading? He was reading the Judaism scriptures which today is the Old Testament of the Bible. Let no one confused us that they brought education to Africa. The problem with that treasurer was spiritual not language. We read the Bible, but do we understand what we read daily or weekly on Sundays?
The root of corruption is the heart that lacks spiritual understanding. A person without spiritual understanding lacks the fruit of the spirit. The Apostle Paul’s teaching to the Galatians (Galatians 5:22) mentioned that one of the fruit of the spirit is love without which the heart is contaminated by all sorts of evils.
Corruption results from the denial of the existence of God. We may confess God from our lips but our hearts deny his existence proven by our actions. The Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22)
Being corrupt is a choice or a decision made by the individuals. The primary factor or factors that tempt them is greed for money, urged for fame etc.
Corruption is doing “abominable works” according to King David in the Bible. Every ills in our society resulted from this kind of a heart. David evaluated his subjects and concluded that ‘there is none that doeth good’. This all because they say in their hearts there is no God. No reverence of God in their hearts. No love of God in their hearts. This reverence of God is the key that keeps us from embezzling public fund. This love for God is the one that leads us to be our brother’s keepers and not like Cain killing his brother for envy and jealousy.
Abraham Terah had to tell a lie in Egypt for fear of being kill because of his beautiful wife Sarah. To paraphrase, he told the king, I lied because I knew there is no fear of God in this land and they may kill me if I say she is my wife. From the statement of this holy man of God, we can deduct that some of the killings in the land results from the lack of fear of God in the land. Killing the innocent is an abominable works that found its root from corruption. Corrupt hearts produce corrupt families, governments and may affect the society as a whole.
The solution is repent and turn to God with a sincere hearts. John the Baptist told the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who were the leaders of that time that they should produce fruits in keeping with their repentance. Fruits such as love for your neighbor, other communities other than your own tribe which some of us worship so much that you don’t even correct if they are doing wrong.
In this way, we can have a peaceful and God fearing country where everybody is important. It all starts with God. The root of corruption is the heart without God.
The writer can be reached at: santoladu11@gmail.com Tel: 0921725681