DO NOT (PART 8) – BEWARE THE INSINCERE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. ^“Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments.

Proverbs 23:6-8          

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

NOTE: Will be at sea for the next two weeks and may be off the grid. If I can post, I will. If not, I will begin posting again as soon as I get to where I have connectivity.

Have you ever had an encounter with someone who was insincere?

You know the kind of person I’m talking about, don’t you? The kind of person who is two-faced, able to say one thing and look like they mean it when in their heart they don’t.

A person who is insincere will act like they are happy for you when good things happen when inside they really resent the fact that the good thing didn’t happen to them. Their words reek of disingenuousness; their emotions personify artificiality. This is the kind of person that Solomon speaks about in the ninth of thirty Sayings of the Wise when he wrote the following:

Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. ^“Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments. Proverbs 23:6-8

In this saying, Solomon is highlighting an insincerity experience. In it, there is a host who is feigning hospitality by having a person in for a meal. Note the word used to describe the host. It’s not welcoming or kind or cordial. No, the host is begrudging. They are serving you but really don’t want to be doing so. They are not thinking about being generous but rather thinking about how much they invested in the meal you are eating. They would much rather have kept their money vice serving you a meal but they will never let you know that. They encourage you to eat and drink what they have provided but it’s not from the heart. They speak with words that are fake and dishonest. And if you really knew how they felt inside, you would be sickened by their deceitfulness knowing that every compliment you issued to them was wasted as they didn’t really care about you like they led you to believe they did.

So what is the caution here, the eighth in my series of “do not” statements found within the thirty sayings of the wise?

It’s “do not” be deceived by the insincere.

But how can we do this? How can we know whether or not a person is legitimate in the way they are treating us when we can’t see inside to their hearts?

We can do it by turning to the One who can do it. We can do it by turning to the Lord.

I say this because we know the Lord sees into the deepest depths of our hearts. He knows everything about us. Nothing is hidden. And so when someone displays one kind of behavior to mislead another while they hold a different attitude inside, the Lord knows of it and can expose the falsehood through the Holy Spirit to the one being victimized.

To expose insincerity, we simply need to turn to the only One who will be able to expose it each and every time.

Friends, isn’t it a comfort to know we serve a Lord who watches over us and is able to save us from the sin of deceitfulness?

And isn’t it an even greater comfort to know that this Lord we serve is perfectly sincere in all He does for us, always legitimately caring and always wanting the best for us?

Today, and every day, let us rejoice and be glad for all the Lord does for us, and let us always do it with the utmost sincerity.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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