"Sincerity is
the life of all graces and puts life into all our duties.
Just as sincerity
covers all defects, hypocrisy uncovers the soul and strips it naked before God
despite the richest embroidery of other qualities. This scab grows on even the
sweetest perfection and changes the person's complexion in God's eye more
drastically than leprosy destroys the fairest face.
It is interesting
to see how Scripture portrays the different characters of Asa and Amaziah. The
writer says of Asa: "The high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa's
heart was perfect with the Lord all his days" 1 kings 15:14. Like true
gold, sincerity allows grains for lightness. Asa's infirmities were not
mentioned as flaws to dim his honor but as a wart or mole which an artist might
use to accent the beauty of his other features. Thus failures were recorded to
give a greater attractiveness to his sincerity, which-- in spite of his sins--
won a good testimony from God's own mouth.
Yet it is said of
Amaziah, "He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not
with a perfect heart 2 Chronicles 25:2. His actions were good but his attitude
was faulty-- and this turned his right into wrong. Thus we see how Asa's
uprightness supported him in the midst of many shortcomings, but hypocrisy
condemned Amaziah as he did what was right.
Sincerity is the
life of all graces and puts life into all our duties, as life keeps the body
warm and beautiful. And prayer breathed from a sincere heart is heaven's
delight. If sincerity is gone, God must say of prayers what Abraham said of
Sarah, whom he had loved dearly while she was alive: "Bury my dead out of
my sight" Genesis 23:4.
"Bring no
more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; ...your appointed
feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them"
Isaiah 1:13-14.. The thing God loathed which made Him speak so coarsely against
His own ordinances was hypocrisy.”
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell.
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