Being Sincere

Sincerity:

A sincere person is honest and always keeps their word.  The word "sincere" comes from the Latin word "sincerus" which means "clean and pure".  The ancient Greek word for "sincerity" carries a similar meaning. The Greeks made clay statues which they baked in kilns, and these usually emerged with small cracks.  They tried to hide the cracks by filling them with hot wax.  Once in a while, a statue without cracks would appear.  On these perfect statues they wrote "sinceros", which means "without wax."

Is your leadership "without wax"?  In other words, are you always honest and sincere in what you think, promise and do?

Insincere Saul:

David had fled into the desert to escape from king Saul.  (Read the story of David and King Saul in 1 Samuel 26:1-25).  David had an opportunity to kill king Saul while he was sleeping and surrounded by his army.  Instead of doing this, David took Saul's spear and water jug, and used these to prove that he had spared the life of his enemy.   David said to Abishai his friend, "The Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord's anointed".

 

Saul then promised to stop chasing David and said, "I have sinned, so come back, David my son.  Because you considered my life precious today, I will not try to harm you again."
The king might have been sincere - at the moment he made his promise!   But, sincere words are not sufficient evidence of a changed heart.   Saul's promise was empty words and he continued to try and kill David.

Our Best Example:

When God made a promise to Abraham to bless him and multiply his descendants.  God kept His promise, but could find no better way to show His good faith than to use His own name, and that settled it!   And after waiting patiently, Abraham received the promise.  God has also promised us many things in the Bible and He will keep these promises, because God does not lie!

Good Leaders:

God is sincere and showed this by keeping His promise to Abraham.  Why did God take such pains to confirm His promise?  Because He knew how often we doubt and fear.  Everything that God has promised us in Christ is ours.  What a gracious God we have and how little cause we need have to doubt Him! Sometimes we are sincere when we make promises, but we then need to carry through and do what we promised.  What about you?  Are you a sincere person?  I hope you are!

God Bless.