Sincere

In ancient Rome, sculpting was a popular profession. The market was flooded with sculptors, so quality was sometimes lacking. Less qualified craftsmen would cover their flaws and errors in wax, and frequently the customer could not see the cover-up. To compensate for this practice, authentic sculptors would mark their statutes with the words “sine cere”, which means, “without wax”. Today, we frequently use the same term to close our letters: “sincerely”.
          It is so easy in our “fast-food” world to be tempted to take shortcuts. It is hard to wait. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus, “Don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Don’t get drunk on wine which leads to wild living, instead, be filled (the word literally means to “keep on being filled”) with the Spirit.”
Our work will not earn us one moment of eternity—that was bought with the blood of Jesus. However, once you become a Christian you are called to the long obedience of following Jesus. But it is not work as we often think of it. It is nurturing the life of Christ inside us. That is not as easy as it sounds. It is so much easier to fill our lives with the appearance of being like Him, rather than going deep to truly become like Him. In fact, to really be like Him, we must die to ourselves.
What we die to is our inauthentic parts—like the errors on Roman sculptures that were fixed with wax. God wants to mark us “sine cere”; sincere followers of Christ that don’t cover up their flaws with the wax of religious language or actions. God wants a real and genuine people who follow a real and authentic God.
-Pastor Dino Griffin