Nobody can say our people lack imagination. Watch a man with a few sheets of zinc, some board and a hammer turn a bare lot into shelter in a weekend. Watch a grandmother feed eleven from one pot. Watch a young couple sketch a two-bedroom house that can become a four-bedroom house one room at a time over fifteen years. Creativity is part of the image of God in us, and it shows up everywhere there is a home to be made.
It also shows up in less happy places. The same ingenuity that stretches a budget can be bent to stretch the truth. There is the receipt made out for more than was paid, so the overseas relative sends extra. The boundary peg that moves a few feet one dark night. The cement mix quietly thinned so the builder can keep a few bags back. The rental advert that somehow never mentions the water only comes on at night. None of it is stupid. All of it is clever. And that is exactly Paul’s point.
Inventors of evil things
In the first chapter of Romans, Paul gives a long, uncomfortable list of what happens when people turn their backs on God. In the middle of the gossips, the arrogant and the boastful, he says something striking: they “invent ways of doing evil” (Romans 1:30, NIV). The King James puts it even more sharply: “inventors of evil things.”
Sin, in other words, is not only weakness. It can be creative. It takes the gifts God gave for building and uses them for tearing down. It wants God’s blessing without God. It wants the house, the land, the rental income, but on its own terms and by its own methods, even when those methods hurt a neighbour, a tenant or a sibling.
The turn in chapter two
It is easy to read Romans 1 and nod along, thinking of the crooked contractor who took your deposit, or the cousin who sold the family land without telling anyone. Paul expects that. So he turns, at the start of chapter 2, and warns that whoever passes judgement on someone else is condemning themselves, because they do the same things (Romans 2:1).
That lands closer to home than we would like. Most of us have been inventive in small ways we would not want read aloud at church. The insurance form that rounded up the value of what was damaged. The tenant deposit held back for wear that was simply ordinary life. The “small” addition built without approval, because the paperwork was a nuisance. The story told to a relative so they would not ask for their share. Before we point at the big schemers, Paul asks us to check our own drawings.
Kindness that leads somewhere
And then Paul says one of the most hopeful things in the letter. He asks whether we show contempt for the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance and patience, “not realising that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4, NIV).
God’s patience with us is not a sign that He does not mind. It is an open door. The fact that the crooked plan has not yet collapsed, that we have not yet been found out, that the house still stands, is not permission to continue. It is mercy, giving us time to turn around.
And turning around is itself a creative act. Repentance in property matters often needs as much ingenuity as the original scheme. How do we put right the boundary we pushed? How do we repay the relative we overcharged, without wrecking the family? How do we tell the tenant the truth about the water, and fix it? These are problems that need wisdom, humility and, yes, imagination.
Inventors of good things
What would it look like to point our cleverness the other way?
- A landlord who works out how to keep the rent fair for an elderly tenant while still maintaining the building properly.
- A family that finds a way to share a piece of land so every branch has a place, instead of racing each other to the registry.
- A builder who invents a better way to explain costs so that clients abroad can actually follow them.
- A homeowner who designs a spare room with a single mother at church in mind, not just resale value.
The gift is the same. The direction is different. God, who has been kind and patient with us, invites us to spend our creativity making things that bless.
To reflect on
- Is there a clever shortcut in your house, land or rental dealings that God’s kindness is patiently inviting you to put right?
- Where could your practical creativity be used to make someone else’s home, or life, better this month?
A prayer
Creator God, You made us in Your image and gave us hands and minds that can build. Forgive us for the times we have used that gift to cheat, to hide or to take more than our share. Thank You for Your patience, which is giving us room to turn. Make us inventors of good things in our homes, our yards and our dealings with one another. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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