Why only hearing half the story is truly bad news

My friend Jim, a small business owner, called me in a state of complete despair. He told me that he had heard terrible news about the UK economy and was ready to ‘throw in the towel’.

In the ‘catch-up’ TV link that he sent to me, the newscaster explained: ‘for the average bad debt for UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is £16,641, which is a 61% increase from 2022. Also, around a third of SMEs have debt levels more than ten times their cash balances.’

Given Jim’s history of struggling with business debt, his response to that news was completely understandable. However, the fact that the statement began with the preposition ‘for’ suggested to me that he wasn’t hearing the whole story.

In fact, the news segment began with this announcement: ‘The UK’s policy of debt relief for small business is going from strength to strength. That’s because (as we’ve been told previously) dependence on debt relief is an essential lifeline for SMEs.’

Jim had only heard half of the message and was understandably upset by it. However, the overall message was emphasising the importance of our country’s debt relief policy in providing a financial lifeline for small to medium-sized businesses.

The part of the story that Jim heard was merely to add some concrete evidence that proved how essential such relief was to the survival of businesses, like Jim’s.

Jim was horrified because he only heard half of the truth – and the same thing can happen to us, if we read Romans 1:18-32 in isolation. That’s because Paul’s discourse follows a similar logic to the news story.

When read by itself, Romans 1:18-32 is very negative. It summarises the catastrophic moral decline of all mankind, declaring that God is entirely just in responding to that with retribution.

However, we need to ensure that we don’t just hear the ‘doom and gloom’ part of the story (as Jim did) because, by itself, that passage is likely to leave us in a far worse state of despair than Jim experienced.

Also, no one is exonerated by this indictment of humanity (for which the gospel is the sole remedy). Instead, without exception, Romans 1:18-32 spells out the collective guilt of all mankind. There isn’t a single human being who hasn’t ‘worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator’. At some point, all of us idolised the false god of selfish, short-sighted desire (cf. Col. 3:5).

And, without the grace of the gospel, the just recompense for that sinful ‘exchange’ of self-evident truth about God for the lie of selfish, short-sighted desire is for God to set us adrift into the chaotic sea of self-will that is our fallen world.

Of course, many modern minds would be horrified by this judgement on mankind, but just like Jim, they’re still only hearing half of the story.

After I listened to the whole news segment, I encouraged Jim to do the same and he was overjoyed. Similarly, we all need to be encouraged to hear the part of Paul’s letter that precedes and gives context to Romans 1:18-25.

In Romans 1:17, the good news is that, in the same way that the newscaster highlighted the importance of our country’s debt relief policy as an essential lifeline for small businesses, Paul highlights the importance of ‘righteousness based on faith’ as God’s lifeline of eternal salvation for all who will humbly accept it.

Thanks be to God for His righteousness, by which we rely on the gracious death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, not only to quench the fire of divine retribution against our sins, but also to elevate us to share eternally in everything owned by God, the Owner of all life!

So, if you think that Romans 1:18-32 is just more bad news for mankind, then, like my friend Jim, you’re only hearing half of the story.

Do read the rest of it, ’cos it’s really good news for all mankind!