19 March | Youth
«Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.» Matthew 23:28
We need to have an intimate relationship with Jesus so that His character can be reproduced in our lives. A true Christians is not a fake. One of their hallmarks is authenticity.
It is common to find fakes in stores. They are cheaper and therefore more attractive to some. It is not always easy to identify whether a product is authentic or not. But everyone knows the value of something original. Compared to a fake, its quality is much higher.
Among other things, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that we must be authentic.
Pretending to be something you are not has a name: hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a kind of universal spiritual illness. Jesus introduced this term into the moral vocabulary of the church. And this word came to be used to identify the person who pretends to be something they are not, or the person who plays a role.
In Matthew 23:13-36, when talking about hypocrisy, Jesus makes it clear that God knows our interior, examines our heart, knows our intentions, knows, and tests our thoughts. We can deceive people, but not God! Plus, pretending to be someone you’re not takes a lot of work.
There is a public self that everyone knows. We spend a lot of time taking care of this image, always trying to make it appear much better than we really are. But there is a private self that no one knows. And often, when the lights go out, each of us has to deal with this private self alone. That hurts.
That’s where God comes in. He knows us completely. Still, he accepts us, loves us, and uses us for his glory. God is more interested in working in us than through us. Sometimes, God is unable to work through us simply because we do not allow Him to do His work in our lives.
Don’t be a fake. Allow God to work in you, building an authentic character similar to His. The world will know who God is through your transformed life.