Faking It

Read: Matthew 23:23-33

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.                                                                                                                Matthew 23:27

     Frank Abagnale became a successful and wealthy businessman at a very young age. However, he did it all illegally. He forged passports and photo identifications, signed and cashed bogus checks at hundreds of locations, and flew thousands of miles to any destination he chose aboard airlines who happily accommodated him for free. How did he do it? He looked older than he really was as a teenager, and he had a very quick mind. He fooled a lot of people into believing he was something that he was not. He would do his research, spend time talking to the experts, and then he would become whatever it was he wanted to become by forging papers and documents that gave him the legal right to participate in his chosen field. Although he had posed as a doctor, had spent time as a lawyer, acted as a college professor, and even worked as an airline pilot, he eventually became an inmate.  His whole scheme was exposed when a stewardess he had dated recognized him as the man police were searching for.

     Many Christians today are doing exactly what Frank Abagnale did. They are pretending to be one thing when they are actually a completely different person. They will come to church every Sunday and Wednesday dressed sharply with Bible in hand. They will come out to visitation and prayer meetings. They may even be involved in the ministries of the church. To anyone looking at them from the outside, they would be the model of Christianity; but deep in their hearts, they are anything but a good Christian. God, Who knows what goes on in the deepest parts of our beings, sees the wicked thoughts, the bitterness, the silent rebellion against authority, and the blackness of unrepented sin.

     Many Christian young men who grow up in church fall into the trap that the devil has set for them: Doing everything to look good on the outside yet being completely hollow and empty on the inside. I fell into this trap myself as a young teenager. I knew what was expected of me to avoid attracting the disciplinary attention of my youth leaders and parents, but I did not have the relationship with God that He wanted me to have. I was at every youth meeting and church service, yet, I lacked the desire to really be right with God. It wasn’t until I got older that God really grabbed my heart and showed me that faking Christianity is not the same as being the real Christian he wanted my life to emulate. Watch out! If you continue faking your Christianity, one day it will be exposed for what it really is.

 

Quote of the day: “The degree of your devotion to Christ is the barometer of your love for Him.”