In America we have laws in place that prevent companies from doing what is called deceptive packaging. What this means is that companies can not try to sell a product by keeping back certain information. They have to make sure that the product they are advertising is the same product that they are actually selling.
So if there product is known to be harmful in someway they have to put a warning label on that product so that the customer is aware of the danger. If there product is supposed to look a certain way, than any of the pictures that they use must accurately represent the product they are selling. If the product is a certain size but they want to use is a close up image they have to put a statement that says that this picture is not the actual size of the product and is used to show the texture of there product.
So why were these laws put in place? Why are companies forced to make these accommodations? These laws are important because it forces companies to do the right thing. It makes companies to have to be honest about the products that they are trying to sell. It makes sure that the consumer is not lied to or deceived in some way.
There was a time in our country not to long ago when these laws did not exist. So companies who knew there product was not entirely safe would still try to sell there product and keep that information to themselves. Companies could make what ever claim they wanted to about there products and they did not have to back up those claims. They could tell you that a certain tonic could make you grow your hair, make you rich, and more handsome and they did not have to prove that there product actually did those things. They could put an add in the paper that would attract potential buyers, and when their product would arrive the product that they got was not what advertised.
While companies are no longer allowed to be deceptive about the products that they are selling ( at least not without some legal ramifications) this is not true about people. People are all the time trying to present themselves in a certain light that may be completely accurate. When you go into a job interviews the perspective employee may not be forthright about there qualifications. Bosses who are seeking to look to fill in a certain position may not be completely honest about the difficulty of the job that you are being hired for. When a couple goes on there first date, they both are trying to impress the other. In psychology this is referred to as the Hallo effect.
This is not something that is excluded in the church, on the contrary. Many people who claim to be believers in Christ, often times don't act like it. There are people who go to church and act a certain way there, but outside of the church they live, act and speak much different. From the outside they can fool a lot of people. In fact they sometimes can even fool themselves and believe that they are not living a life of hypocrisy.
The truth of the matter is that no matter how hard they may try and no matter who they are able to fool it is all just smoke and mirrors. It is not real, its not genuine. It is something that they can not keep up forever, and so eventually the truth shines through the cracks in there armor.
Now this is not a new thing. This is not just a problem for the church today. In fact this has been going on even in Jesus's day and time. Even back then there hypocrites. Jesus time and time dealt with these individuals and some of his harshest rebuke was towards them.
You see in Jesus's day there were these religious leaders who were called the Pharisees. They wanted to live there life according to scripture, and they wanted everyone to believe that they did everything by the book. They had rules that they said they followed. Some of those rules were from God's word, and some of those rules were of there own invention. Never the less they followed these rules very closely. That is unless no one was looking.
The problem you see is that they had so many rules that they themselves struggled to follow them themselves. They struggled to live out their rules and instead of admitting that they could not do it. Well they doubled down on stupid and invented more rules, and tried to make sure everyone believed that they were living up to all those rules they were teaching you had to follow. They really wanted the people around them to believe that they were perfect or at least close to perfect as one could get.
Its to these people that Jesus has something to say,
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (Mat 23:25-26)
It is here where we see Jesus points out the Pharisees hypocrisy. He tells them that they have made themselves white washed tombs. Another words they look good on the outside, but inside is nothing but death and decay. To put it in another way, the way they were living was like putting perfume on a corpse.
You see these religious leaders could only fool people so long. Over time people could see the real person under their pretentious actions. They could only keep up the charade up for so long.
Their problem is that while they focused on how others seen them and trying to make others believe that they were perfect, or as close to perfect as you can be. They ignored there true spiritual condition. They ignored that deep down they were still a sinner. They refused to see that they needed God to live out there life.
This is where Jesus gives them the secret to true success. Jesus told them to first clean the inside and in doing so the outside will be clean as well. This is how God works in our lives.
When we accept Jesus Christ's sacrifice for our sins and we receive salvation by faith. The Holy Spirit begins working on our heart. The Holy Spirit begins chipping away at the hidden, secret, hardwired sins in our lives. He begins to work in us and produce true spiritual fruit in our lives. Spiritual fruit like love, joy, peace, longsuffering, forgiveness. Little by little as we follow Jesus, what the Holy Spirit does in our heart begins to show out in our lives for the world to see.
That is what this world needs to see the most. They need to see how God has changed your life. They need to see consistency in your life. That what you live in the world is what you live when no one is looking.
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