Php 1:9-11 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
We are all at our best when we’re in the company of other Christians. But it’s who we are at home that defines the person we truly are. The question is, are you and I sincere?
Our English word “sincere” is a translation of the Greek word eilikrinēs, which means pure, unsullied, without wax, and able to bear full examination in the sun. That type of examination was essential because it wasn’t uncommon for first-century craftsmen to use wax as putty to hide cracks in their slightly damaged pottery.
Say you were a worshipper of the goddess Diana, and you purchased an idol to take to her temple. But as you held the statue in the warm sun, her arm fell off. What happened? When the heat was turned up, your idol was revealed for what it was—with wax and insincere.
Likewise, when God turns up the heat in our lives through fiery trials, His purpose is to expose falsehood within us. We may deceive others, and even ourselves, but we cannot hide the truth from God. Our relationship with Him must be sincere. We cannot “putty” ourselves up and put on a show of Christianity. We must, as Paul prayed, “approve the things that are excellent.”
It’s time to get real—time to allow the full splendor of the light of God’s Word to examine us. That we might have a single eye to the very best things with a pure and sincere heart until the day of Christ. (Hibbs)
