Today we get a preview of what this Sunday’s lesson will be about at TrueLife’s Sunday morning gathering and it gives us a foretaste of next weeks memory challenge in Colossians 2:9-10. This is one of my favorite passages in the Paul’s writings, and I hope after Sunday, it’s one of yours too.
In my time this week at the North Carolina State Museum of Art, I spent some memonts in the outdoor art display, and I came across a large cement rectangle with these words inscribed, “To Be Rather than to Seem”. I did not grow up here in North Carolina, and in my ignorance I did not realize this is our state motto. It is located on the state seal in Latin, “Esse quam videri“.
This section of scripture could be rightly titled “Esse quam videri“. To be a Christ-follower rather than to seem like a Christian. You can hear it in Paul’s voice, “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize” (Colossians 2:18). I have certainly fell into the trap of trying to seem spiritual without actually being authentic. The longer you walk in what TrueLife calls “first space” (i.e. within churched circles where we take communion, worship together, use similiar words, etc), the more you will feel the temptation to guard the way you seem rather than the reality.
In all of us there is a gap between the core of who we are and the image of who we are. The only one without that gap is Jesus. For the rest of us, we must work at keeping that gap as small as possible. When we guard the image, and let the core of us rot, we end up looking like a hollow tree which is more likey to collapse in cotastrophe. Marriages can do this; businesses too. Any location, event, ministry, or group that contains people is a likely canidate to catch the disease. Here is the only cure:
“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belong to it, do you sumit to its rules:” (Colossians 2:20)
It’s not about appearance. It’s about reality. Guard the core of your life, your marriage, your family, your business, etc. “To be rather than to seem”.