Ephesians 4:25 – Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

THEME OF THE DAY: WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN? Imagine this scenario and I will use me as the example. It is Sunday morning about 11:00 a.m. I am mounting the platform getting ready to preach. As is the custom in my church, I have you stand for the reading of the scripture. As you are standing, I say, “Brothers and sisters. I had a rough week. I was snappy with my wife, irritated over some situations in my life causing me to complain. My personal quiet time has been hit and miss, more miss than hit. I studied the Bible more to create sermons instead of knowing the Lord. I attended all our prayer meetings this week but was there in body only. My heart was in another area code. And I wish I were just sick enough to miss church today but not too sick to watch football or do some worldly activity with my family. By the way, I really don’t want to come back tonight either. Please pray for me. Now let’s open our Bibles to Ecclesiastes 10.”

What would you think of me after such a brutal display of my innermost struggles of the past week? By the way, the story is fiction, but back to the question of what you would think of me and my honesty. That is an important question because all of us to a certain extent care what people think of us. In some cases, we seek our identity, affirmation, and even worth from what people think of us. That is not good. In fact, it is very bad. Even spiritually paralyzing us to where we simply don’t share the “real us” with our brothers and sisters out of fear of rejection. And we each are guilty. How often after a horrible week spiritually, do we arrive at church exhausted and distracted, maybe just leaving a tense ride to church with our families, and when asked, “How are you?” We respond, “Good. Praise the Lord. Isn’t it good to be in the house of God?” when actually we would rather be in bed. Or at least be in a place where we don’t have to put up the “front” of all is well when it isn’t.

In today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul identifies what this action truly is before our watching God. He calls it “falsehood” or “lying” because we are not telling the truth about what really is going in our lives. And this is more the attitude and actions of the world than the church of the living God. Perhaps what the church of Jesus Christ needs is a revival of transparency which removes the hypocrisy and false piety hindering true revival. Think for a moment what would happen in our churches and lives if we were transparent with our struggles, honest in sharing our failings, and genuine in carrying one another’s burdens? What would happen in our churches and lives if we began to love the way the New Testament commands us? A love that is not tainted with pride, hypocrisy, or the fear of what people think of us? There would be at least two spiritual blessings from such sincerity lived among us.

First, we would know the joy of the Lord in a deeper and more satisfying experience. Remember the Apostle Peter’s denial of the Lord Jesus and that fateful breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee when he was restored by the Lord? Jesus said, “Peter, do you love me?” And Peter said, “Lord, you know all things. You know I love you” (John 21:15-19). How liberating and joyful to know we are hiding nothing from the Lord, living in complete transparency; just like the Christian life is to be lived before one another.

Another wonderful spiritual blessing of living sincere, honest, and transparent lives with one another is the world would see the true church of Jesus Christ alive. Perhaps one of the reasons why our churches are not drawing the unsaved is because there is no spiritual attractiveness about us. I am not referring to fancy programs and worldly methodologies to do the work of the church. I am referring to the spiritual attractiveness of genuine Christians living genuine lives with each other in deep heart-to-heart and life-on-life relationships of honesty and sharing. If we are like that, we will be used by the Lord to draw the unsaved to Himself. He promised it (John 17:20-23). Imagine what might happen if we obeyed today’s scripture with one another. It just might be the start of the spiritual revival the church so desperately needs.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I put forth something about me that isn’t true.”

QUOTE: “What the church of Jesus Christ needs is a revival of transparency and love”