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| Sincerely
Yours |
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| Dee Bowman |
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Our word “sincere”
has an interesting history. Etymologists tell us that in
Ancient Rome, men who made statues, sculptors, and other
artistic endeavors used wax to cover up their mistakes. They
became so proficient about it that only the most trained eye
could spot the charade. The pretense looked good until the sun
came out on a hot summer day or the wear and tear of weather
came to bear. Then the wax melted and the pretender was
unveiled.
The professional people, who would not stoop to such
pretensions, came up with a warranty word of sorts to protect
their art or product. The would say it is sine cera, without
wax. This was later adopted into English and became our word
“sincere.”
Sincerity is a great need today. Pretensions are everywhere.
Never are they more abundant then in our advertising. Promises
are made and guarantees are given that are absolutely
worthless. And yet, when they are done with some dulcet-toned
announcer or some beautiful young starlet, all doubt is
removed. The wax is applied. And what about politics? Charades
are everywhere in political circles. Some well-known
individual runs for office with promises abundant. The wax is
applied. By the time he gets elected, the promises have been
forgotten—covered up with some hastily applied excuse.
The Scriptures are filled with admonitions about integrity,
honesty, reliability. “Lord, who shall dwell in thy
tabernacle? who shall dwell in the holy hill,” asks David
(Psalm 15), “he that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” The
secret to true sincerity is personal integrity, speaking the
truth in one’s heart. All sincerity begin there. There is no
external wax on the character that speaks truth in his heart.
Philippian 1:9-10—“And this I pray, that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be
sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.” Here,
Paul prays for a sincerity as people approve the more
excellent life. Approval of that life is seen in a sincere and
dedicated effort to follow Christ. Sincerity breeds a good
life.
Peter, in his first epistle, chapter 2, verse 2, enjoins that
we “desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby.” The “sincere” milk of the word is the word
without any admixture, the word in all its purity. The New
International Version renders this “crave pure spiritual
milk.” The religious world is filled today with a compounded
gospel, one appended with men’s ideas and decisions. In may
religious circles today, the gospel used is one filled with
the wax of human opinion.
Paul closes his letter to the Ephesians saying, “Grace be
with them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.”
There must not be any duplicity in our love for Christ. It has
to be a sincere love, one with true dedication, evidenced by
our total dedication to His word, His gospel, His assurances.
Sincere love is devoid of any false mixture; it is pure
devotion to Him.
Hypocrisy is the opposite of sincerity. Jesus saved his most
harsh rebukes for those who practiced religion with a mask on
their faces. Matthew 23 tells of their masking their true
hearts with a kind of external cloak. They covered up the real
person with external rituals, facades of various sorts.
It’s interesting to me that etymologists have a simple way
to measure whether or not an affirmation about a word is true.
Michael Quinion, the English word expert, says, “The better
they sound, the more circumstantial and detailed the
background, the neater the conclusion, the less likely they
are to be true. Conversely, if a story (about a word, db) is
mundane and boring, it is likely to be correct.” That’s
true about most truth. It is seldom complex and difficult to
understand, but simple and direct—even sometimes boring to
some of the religious “experts.”
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Copyright (C)
2008
Southside Church of Christ
All rights reserved.
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