February 14, 2023 by Eric Stillman 0 comments
Who are you when no one is looking?
In chapter 6 of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the listening crowd that the religiosity they see on display in many of their spiritual leaders is not genuine, but fraudulent. He uses the Greek word for an actor on a stage – hypocrite – a word that has come down through the ages to refer to anyone who is pretending to be something that they are not. Jesus tells the crowd not to be like the hypocrites, who give and pray and fast in a showy way in order to curate public perception of themselves as godly people. Jesus tells his audience instead to give in secret, to pray to God where no one else can see, and to not make it obvious when they are fasting. This kind of secret devotion, He says, reveals that you are truly living for an audience of One, not for the applause of the watching world. And God will honor and reward that kind of devotion....Keep Reading