transperency

1 Samuel 16:7

King James Version (KJV)

7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

Every person has two lives, public and private. For most people there are some differences between them. And this is right, because its all about how much we are known, how much do we reveal of our hearts to others and to God. And everybody doesn't need to know us completely, the bible teaches that only a fool utters his whole mind.

The result of Adam's sin was first shame and then hiding. This shows us that Adam's mind had immediately been darkened at the fall because it is not rational to make any feeble attempt to hide from All powerful, All knowing and searching all things God.

When we are restored to a right relationship with God by faith in Christ we realize that hiding from God is futile and that we need to open our hearts door and let Jesus in. We need him to come in because we have a problem that we cannot hide or solve by ourselves, A broken relationship with God our Father.

Christ must be allowed in to every room of our hearts and every area our our lives. If  He is not Lord of all then he is not Lord at all! This means that we are naked before Him hiding nothing. 

What does this mean? It means we are restored to the same pre-fall oneness that Adam & Eve enjoyed with God, our nakedness is no shame to us. 

God is still Holy and He still can not look upon sin, and there is still sin in us, so how can this be. Because we are in Christ, He has become our covering, he imputes His righteousness to us. 

We are now hidden in Christ. We can stand before a Holy God without perishing.

So I have established that we must allow ourselves to be transparent before God.  As believers we must transparent before men as well to different degrees, be able to pass inspection. If anyone wanted to accuse you of being a christian would they find any evidence?

I believe that there is a huge problem in our lives if we are Christian only publicly and not privately. And that public display might only mean attending meetings and talking the talk. If an investigator or an elder goes to our family members and asks for evidence of our faith in the private sphere, they better be able to give a good report without lying!  If they can't then we walk not in the truth.

There are actually three levels of public life. ( family life crosses over into private as well.) Some deceivers are able act falsely in all three. They are the self we present to our family, the self we present to our church and the self we present to the world. We  must walk in truth consistently in all three to be a faithful witness. 

It is also a problem of equal magnitude if we are champions privately and freeloaders in church and sinners to the world. Our witness to the world is vital if we are to for fill the Great Commission and make disciples.

  Oh Lord grant us more of you Grace that we might repent of our shortcomings,failures and pride and live truly and faithfully as your representatives, your image bearers, that the light of your Glory might shine brightly in us and pierce the darkness around us.