“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:16).
SHARE GOD’S HOLINESS (Pt 2)
The modern phrase for what the “hypocrites” did is signalling their virtue, or “Virtue signalling” which is the act of expressing opinions that align with popular values, with the intent of demonstrating one's good character.
“Look how good I am”, or if we are from a church background we may say, “Look how holy I am”.
God is not impressed with such signalling of our own good character.
These people say, “Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou”, we have heard this expression before, haven’t we? “Holier than thou”. This phrase has found its way into common speech, people use it as a phrase, yet it’s found in the book of Isaiah. And the next part of the verse says, “These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day” (Isa 65:5). The Lord is not pleased with such high-minded pride in our own goodness.
Our goodness comes from Christ, the more we become like Jesus the more we please the Father, for it was in his Son, Jesus Christ, that he was well pleased.
Jesus did God’s will from the heart, refusing to bow to the desires of men. Jesus set his face to work, fulfilling his commission here on earth.
“Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll: I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart” (Ps 40:8-9).
Employees should work with a good sincere heart, “not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (Eph 6:6).
For there is no deceit in God, and if we only work when someone is watching us, and slacken off when their eyes are somewhere else, we are do not share in God’s holiness. “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
Nathaniel was commended by Jesus, “When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit’” (John 1:47). The King James version says that Nathaniel had no “guile”. What you saw is what you got with Nathaniel—no hidden agenda, no point scoring or virtue signalling.
We pray that the Lord will enable us also to have no insincerity or any sort within us.