"The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself."
—John Calvin in A Calvin Treasury. Christianity Today, Vol. 37, no. 4. - Today's Best Illustrations – Volumes 1-4.
Proverbs 20:9 (NIV) Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?
Isaiah 64:6 (NIV) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
2 Timothy 3:13 (NIV) . . while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Titus 3:3 (NIV) At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
1 John 1:8 (NIV) If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
