No Pretense...

No pretense

We are called and chosen to be God’s people. Our spiritual way of life is vital

to the unity, the progress, and the health of the truth of God bringing others

to Christ. For many we will be their primary point of insertion into the

movement of Christ. We are the fellowship within which they experience their

connectedness with the body of Christ. Through the workings of the Holy

Spirit we will be the setting for worship, the course of prayer, the personal

spiritual discipline measure, and the study in the word of God as they will

learn from and with us as the Spirit of God gives it. These will establish their

relational identity with Christ as converted born again believers. Simply

understood, we must take more seriously what God Himself expects. We

owe it to His people, we owe it to Christ. We must have a clear grasp of our

own faith and the capacity to support it through the word of God. The

complexity of the issues today requires that we be true to who we are and

show the profitableness of the bible as it reveals all truth. All of our simulation

must fall away; we must represent virtual reality. We have the responsibility

of presenting the advantage to living for Jesus.

I Peter 2:9, 10

Inward grace must show in outward observance. We should do nothing to

embellish ourselves. We are not who we present ourselves to be. Jesus was

a man of sorrows. The people placed contempt upon him because of their

prejudice toward his appearance as it reflected his inner holiness. They

wanted a king to look like a king. Jesus was a man who manifested God. He

had no external advantages to recommend him. Jesus submitted to a low

position. He based and emptied himself. His character was in no way

agreeable to the ideas of those he came to. He was born in a despicable

family. He was silent until time to do his Father’s business. Jesus did not

speak to impress man; rather his words were plain and agreeable with the

truth of whatever the subject was. It was not just his last scene that was

tragical, it was his whole life. But Jesus grew up before God; God had His

eye upon him even when men disregarded him.

There was never any pretense with Jesus. When he said he loved you, he

loved you. He thought you most precious, treasured, appreciated, important,

so dear to him that he devoted his life for you. When he was asked a question

his answer was not given to show his wisdom it was to encourage you in the

study of the word. It was to invite you to encounter not just who you are but

what you could and must be for God. The word of God as lived by Jesus

Christ gives us the freedom to be honest with ourselves and with each other

in every phase of life and yet what we breathe in is not what we breathe out.

What’s really behind our smile, our greeting; do our motives embrace the

Holy Spirit’s enabling? God is going to test our spirituality. A faithful loving

person always speaks the truth because love rejoices in the truth. Love never

speaks in the deceptive dialect of the devil. Gracious truth, though, is not

always soothing truth. Sometimes grace comes to us in the form of a reproof

or rebuke. Wise people understand this.

Proverbs 28:23

There is a great pretense in looking at man outwardly. We have not the

omniscience to look at a man inwardly. Pretentious words are flattery and

that is a form of lying. And it’s a particularly insidious form, because in the

moment it is spoken, flattery sounds so much like encouragement. Yet

there’s a heaven and hell difference between the two. Encouragement is

truth spoken from a loving motive to increase faith and hope in the hearer.

Flattery is a lie, masquerading as encouragement, from a selfish motive to

manipulate the hearer in order to achieve the flatterer’s covert purpose. Love

never flatters others, and wisdom never desires to be flattered. But sin is

neither loving nor wise, which means we, who live with indwelling sin, are

tempted to manipulate others with flattery as well as to enjoy being flattered.

We must be on our guard against this foot-entangling sin. It will bring a fall.

Mark 12:14, 15

Flattery’s attempt to entangle Jesus. Flattery does not make the speaker look

good. Jesus did not come to be admired. He is the truth and truth is the yea,

yea, or the nay, nay of a thing.

Matthew 5:37

When God tells us to show ourselves approved He is offering us through His

word the capacity to change our lives, to adjust the attitudes we bring to bible

study not as though we meet with each other; it is with God whom we meet.

Pause and consider Jesus right now…now ask yourself if you’re not

disappointed in the comparison.

In our meetings we celebrate and experience the promised presence of

Christ with his people. Christ crucified, risen and glorified is the focal point,

the epicenter of our worship. We worship Christ. He is the reason for our

meeting. He has reconciled us to God. Because of this we offer worship to

the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, in acts which engage our whole

being: body, soul, and mind. Pretense is deceitful. One of the ways the Holy

Spirit moves this far from God’s people is that we do not look at each other.

What that means is there can be no pretense in our gatherings because we

look for Christ in each other. We move even closer to Christ when we look

for Christ in the mailman with the jingle bells on his side, with the man

working in his yard during the sabbath walk, when the passerby in the car

offers a wave. Our faith must be our practice. We must hear the word for

direction, correction, challenge, command, hope, explanation…we must

hear the word as our foundation for living. Scripture is God’s truth. In it we

find the authentic power to forgive, not pretending to forgive. It takes us to

such a point of conversion of the mind and of the heart that we actually can

“forget”.

We must stop pretending to be for God. Some preaching can hardly be called

preaching. What is presented from a platform or a pulpit is not always worthy

of the name. Poor preparation or ill-judged irrelevancies can cheapen what

should be precious. In teaching, all, including the one thinking to teach,

should listen to every word spoken. The attitude of the heart must be that of

thanksgiving, faith, obedience, dependence on the word of God. What

hypocrites think they can sit above the word in judgment practicing bibliolatry

in pretense of interpreting the word of God. We leave it to the Holy Spirit,

who inspired the word, illumines our hearts and minds to guide and teach us.

Brothers…sisters, we must abandon all forms of pretense if we are to be

converted and purified and born again. Our omniscient God knew that words,

in fact, would not be enough. He sent His Son to speak and to live His words

personally. There was no pretense in Jesus and when we speak God’s word

personally, meaning what we say, and also living out those words all

pretense is gone. Let our actions speak. What did the sacrificial death of

Christ on the cross say? Was he pretending to love us? Was he pretending

to want us to be co-heirs with him? Was Jesus pretending to be God?

Justification, repentance, reconciliation, sanctification, purification,

conversion; these are the areas that we experience when we come into

relationship with Jesus Christ and is born of the Spirit, our life is changed.

We are indwelt by God Himself. The relationship is established.

Let’s quit pretending the self is dead. Quit pretending that we have faith, love.

Quit pretending.

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⛰ Go Deeper

This reflection is part of a larger Bible-based study on faith and transformation.

👉 Read more at OnlineBibleCourse.com

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