09/07/2019
Rose
Friends,
Do you practice what you preach? I don't; not like I should. I want to and I try to, but I fail. I'm a hypocrite.
But not Jesus. He told us to love our enemies, and then hanging on the cross, he prayed for those who had put him there: "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." Jesus taught that greatness came through serving, and that he himself came to serve, not to be served. And then he proved it by serving us through his death for our sins and resurrection from the dead.
Hypocrisy is to say one thing and do another, to pretend to be what you aren't, to condemn in others what you yourself secretly do. Jesus wasn't a hypocrite.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: In Jesus' day, the word "hypocrite" meant "stage actor". It was Jesus who began to use it for people who said one thing and did another. He changed the way the word was used, and that has lasted down to our day.
SOMETHING TO PRAY ABOUT: Ask Jesus to help you practice what your preach. Better yet, ask him to help you practice what he preached!
SOMETHING TO PUT INTO ACTION: Is there somewhere in your life where you're faking it? Resolve -- with God's help -- to be a more honest, more authentic version of yourself.
In Christ,
Pastor Marty Hufford