Romans 3:10-11 : As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one; There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God. Paul gives a number of quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures to prove from their own prophets the sinfulness of the Jews. After making the general statement that none of them were righteous, Paul shows wherein they were sinful. The Jews were great students of their Scriptures, and yet they did not understand. Wherein they had an accurate understanding of the requirements of the law, they failed to understand the significance of the things required. They did not understand that their whole system was temporary and typical. In their estimation the whole system of Judaism was God's permanent order of things, and they were always to be God's special people. But Jesus used language about them more pointed than the language Paul quotes "blind guides," "fools and blind." To those who were supposed to be especially skilled in the law Jesus said: "Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge." Even the key to a correct understanding of their Scriptures had been hidden in the rubbish of their notions or traditions. Let those who think the Jews had such an accurate understanding of kingdom matters consider what Jesus and his in-spired apostle said about them. There is none that seeketh after God. Perhaps no people ever studied the Scriptures more than did the Jews; yet they were not seeking after God. To seek after God is to seek to know and to do his will--to make his thoughts our thoughts and his ways our ways. Pharisees, lawyers, and scribes studied that they might be informed and formally correct, so that they might stand well with their fellow Jews. Instead of seeking to be justified in the sight of God, they sought to justify themselves in the sight of men. Jesus said to them: "Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:43). Such a frame of mind utterly unfitted them for heart-seeking after God. "How can ye believe, who receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye seek not?" (John 5:44). When a person studies the Scriptures for any other purpose than to know God and to be able to do his will, there is no telling what sort of absurd conclusions he may arrive at. "And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah" (Hosea 6:3).