Reasons Why We Pose …

Some pose looking to gain something.

Matthew 23:25-28 (NIV)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Some pose out of fear of losing something.

Galatians 2:11-14 (NIV)
… I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas (Peter) in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?”

Posing Takes A Toll …

It can be exhausting.

You can walk in integrity but you can’t outrun the truth.

It can be self-deceiving.

We are told to be careful not to deceive ourselves in the following scriptures: Jeremiah 37:91, Corinthians 3:18, and James 1:22

Nathaniel Hawthorne
No man can for any considerable time wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.

It can be repelling.

It’s through Jesus that we find the security to shatter the mask.

Communion

What’s helped you to no longer pretend or pose?
What is it you would ask God to do in your heart today?