Sine cere

Yesterday, the pastor at a church I've been going to was talking about the word sincere. He said it came from the two Latin words “sine,” meaning without, and “cere,” meaning wax. Apparently, when pots got cracked they would sometimes fill the cracks in with wax and paint over them so you couldn't tell. You can imagine the trouble this would cause when you begin to cook with these pots. Melted wax... ruined food... you know, pretty unfortunate. So, craftsmen started advertising their pots to be “sine cere,” without wax.

Paul prays that the Philippians' “love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that [they] may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ”(Philippians 1:9-10). Not only are we to love, approve of the things that are excellent, and be blameless, we are to be sincere. The word sincere means 1)free of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness; 2)genuine or real; and 3)pure, unmixed, unadulterated. I think 1 and 3 are pretty well covered in being blameless and approving of what is excellent. It is number 2 that really stands out to me. In that we are to be sincere, we are to be genuine and real.

This is where those pots come in. We all have cracks. We have areas of struggle. We have sin. We have a choice. We can fill up those cracks with wax and paint over them so no one can tell. I think we've all done this. We put on a happy face. We say we're fine even when we feel like our world is crashing in around us. Or we can choose to be genuine and real, to be sincere, without wax. We can let our cracks show to the Lord and to our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we are real about our struggles, our Potter fills them in, not with the quick fix of wax which melts away, but with the blood of His Son. We are also to be real with our brothers and sisters in whom Christ dwells (an accurate description I find helpful in being vulnerable with other believers). We are called to bear one another's burdens. How can we do this if we all cover up our burdens with a happy face?

Even as I write this, I am convicted by my lack of sincerity. The Lord is teaching me to go to Him when I'm not doing well. He is also teaching me to be open with the body of Christ. Let us go to our Potter and let Him dig the wax out of the cracks we've filled up.