Sincere

One of my pastoral mentors has encouraged me on numerous occasions to “stay out of the weeds.” This, for when teaching in the pulpit. The goal is to be concise and keep my attention on the main point and not be distracted by small and seemingly unrelated details or rabbit trails (regardless of how excited I am to share them).

However. I’m not applying it to studying and leading bible study (the lil rebel that I am).

This week while preparing, I found a great harvest of weeds on my rabbit trail. And yes, I’m excited to share it with you.

We’re taking a deep dive into the life and letters of Peter. “Have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22).

Sincere. The concept alone can be a huge struggle. The (Greek) word Peter uses gets lost a bit in our one word, sincere. It means without pretending, (pretending, where we get our English word hypocrisy). It conveys the idea of an actor on stage, one who pretends. Originally, they wore masks in a theater setting, but as they stepped off stage, they took their mask off, stopped pretending and were now—sincere.

Paul too speaks of being sincere but uses a different word to describe it. He wanted them to understand what truly matters (overflowing in love, knowledge and understanding) so they live sincerely and blamelessly until the day of Christ’s return (Philippians 1:9-10).

Paul was expressing the word “sincere” that ancient merchants used to describe items that were genuinely flawless. The word literally meant “judged by sunlight.” When buying a sculpture, customers would ask to inspect it out in the sun. This was because dishonest artists used wax to fill in hidden cracks or repairs. If in the hot sunlight and no wax was evident—the sculpture was proven to be truly “sincere.”

Taking both Peter and Paul’s urge to be sincere, with the mask off ensures our love is not a performance and when tested by sunlight (SONlight) goes after what is hidden and ensures our inner motives are not tainted but genuine. We are charged not to fake it!

Yes, I taught this while wearing a mask (I love me a good visual aid). I challenged the gals (and myself) that this week, may we ask Holy Spirit to show us where we’re being fake and please shine on it and expose any flaws (lovingly, please Lord!)

Sincere.

In Him, DeDe (“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love & good deeds” – Hebrews 10:24).