March 12

Day 273: Not Swayed By Appearances

In Matthew 22, some of His detractors (conservatives and liberals) went to Jesus to ask a question about taxation. They didn't want to know what Jesus thought. They wanted Him to politically entrap himself.

They begin by offering Him platitudes. "We know that you are true and teach the way of God faithfully." And, "You do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances."

In saying such, they verbally exposed the vast difference between Jesus and themselves. He taught faithfully. And they did not. His identity was not dependent on the opinions of others, or in comparing Himself to anyone else. And they did.

Jesus was consistent and true; that they could not contest. While they were indirectly admitting they were had professional experience in living false lives.

Pete Scazzero gives us a helpful list of indicators he's called, Symptoms of a False Self:

I compare myself a lot to other people

I often say “yes” when I would prefer to say “no”

I often don’t speak up to avoid the disapproval of others

I have a hard time laughing at my shortcomings and failures

I avoid looking weak or foolish in social situations

I am not always the person I want to appear to be

I struggle with taking risks because I could fail or look foolish

My sense of worth/well-being comes from what I have (possessions), what I do (accomplishments), or what others think of me (popularity/approval)

I often act like a different person when in different situations and with different people

God commands us “to put off your old self...and to put on the new self (Eph 4:22). Yet we often do not address this command straight on. We are so attuned to creating false impressions of ourselves, we begin to believe those impressions ourselves. Our falsities become our chosen and preferred truth.

The tragic result is that too many of us will go to our graves without knowing who we are. We know our false selves are false. And we don't want that, so we are tempted to swing the other way. Full disclosure.

Matt Smethhurst said this about that: “If your commitment to being "real" supersedes your desire to be godly, then your issue isn’t being fake but being proud.”

The past decade or two has shown me something new - our Christian culture is big on confession. But not so big on repentance. It's like just exposing and naming the sin is job done, instead of being willing to be changed.

Ephesians 4:22-24 says in full, "to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

So much of our old self is wrapped up in creating and protecting a false self; a picture of ourselves we want everyone else to believe and honor.

We will continue to be trapped in being our old selves, unless we release ourselves to be renewed (not improved, but made new.) Freed from the heavy duty of being false. Living instead as God created us to be.

Our freedom from our false selves comes when we learn to seek true righteousness and holiness. After the "likeness of God."

Who is true. And faithful. And not swayed by appearances.