Reflection 2 People Don't Change - It is the Situation

People do not change. It is the changed situation, the new opportunity, that brings out the best or the worse within their nature. It was there in the first place looking for opportunity to show itself.

In the previous post, Reflections on the Reactions to Kong Hee Alleged Misue of Funds - 1, I presented the side that "People change", even godly people can change citing examples of King Saul and David from the Bible. However, there is another view about human nature that says People do not change. It is the changed situation, the new opportunity, that brings out the best or the worse within their nature. It was there in the first place looking for opportunity to show itself.


Chinese has a saying, "江山易改本性难移", translated, "It is easier for the dynasty to change than for human nature", or the equivalent English saying of  "The leopard cannot change its spots."

Why then we did not see the person hidden potential for good or evil? The answer is in the situation. A small dot is not easy to spot. But when view under the microscope with many times of magnification, we can see it. The situation provides the magnification or amplification than reveals the original nature.

Jesus taught us this lesson in Luke 16:10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. When the scale of the business is small. We don't notice the small things. But when the business scale up, we can see the difference now. The secret for great success and scaling up business is to take care of the details. When the operation is small, it is easy to change thing and fix the defects. When the operation get big and messy, it may be too late to make any change. For more on this, see Kingdom Discussion 11 Law of Amplification - Growth with Care for Details. We are to pick people that are faithful in the little and not to believe those that say give me greater responsibility and then I will be faithful. The test of character is how we handle the little things of life when no one is watching.

The Biblical concept of sin, or more accurately, sinful nature, is not just the acts of violation of God's laws but the tendency to violate God and People when all the restrain is removed. If no one is watching and if we could not be caught, what we would be doing? This will reveal the true nature.

The Gospel message of good news is then not about giving people a set of laws for good behavior, about asking man to be good, but about giving man a new heart that want to be good. The Bible call it New Creation or Born Again.
The newness begins within, placed in the same old mind and body. There is therefore the need to grow up, from baby in Christ, to mature in Christ. It takes a process and takes some time. Consider the challenge of this growing up process as a sports man training for the Olympics. Philippians 3:14.

BTW, if you like to change the behavior of others, please note that the change begins with you. If you change the way you treat others, they may change the ways they treat you. See Changing Behaviour (1) Mine.

Next: Reflections 3 Christian Faith is Not Blind