Sincerity

"For we are not like so many, peddlers of the word of God, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in christ" - 2 Corinthians 2:17.

I have been reading 2 Corinthians lately, and I have seen myself dwelling more and more on this passage. To think what it would be like as a "peddler of the word of God" ... Well I remember a couple summers ago I was an exterior painter and when it was raining we couldn't paint so we went door to door in the rain giving free appraisals. It wasn't that I did not care about my job, but it was a means to an end that would result in my pay cheque. That is the picture in my mind that I think about when the apostle Paul says "peddler". The way that we treat the gospel and even sharing our faith, or living out a seemingly proper moral code is merely a means to an end that I might find my heavenly reward.

I listened to a sermon frond Paul Washer not too long ago. He said something to the affect of: "Christianity is not you rejecting all the things you love and embracing all the things that you hate in order to get into heaven. No that's a dead man practicing a dead religion." Rather, I am praying that the truth of the gospel and my faith in Jesus The Christ would be sincere. That my love and pursuit for the Father would be genuine and real, and not peddling a fake, dead, religion in order to escape hell.

So the thought would then naturally ask, how do I do that? Well a peddler would not embrace the thing itself as the end but look for it to be the means to an end. I don't want to look at the powerful word of God as a means to get into heaven. But I want to see it and embrace it as Jesus said it: "if anyone loves me, he will keep my work, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." John 14:23

To that end I want to be a sincere student of the word of God. Because I know there is freedom and live in the Word of God. Having been given my commission by God as all the church has, I want to speak the name of Christ and the Word Of God with sincerity.