DP Tripp says, "Sin lives in a costume." I concur. Consider Tripp's findings of the "sin costumes" that we wear:
"Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom." (32).
I suppose very few of us will "dress up" to celebrate halloween & its activities. Yet, I wonder how many of us dress up every day? I submit that we all do. And I reflect that we will never see ourselves for who we are until we are exposed by the Word of truth (a mirror) & the sincere love of those we live in community with. Otherwise, as Tripp says, "We're all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good...sin causes us not to hear or see ourselves with accuracy." (32).
People desire to be different but not disciplined; it must begin with the discipline of accurate self-awareness.
This is so true. I have began to pray that God would open my eyes to see the costumes that I put on in different situations. I pray that with God's help, the costumes will be tossed out the door, and I will be covered more and more by the grace and righteousness of Christ.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ben for reminding us of this.
Thanks, Ben. Curious - how would you interpret the one phrase in the quote in your post: "Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart."?
ReplyDeleteI think this may describe me but I am not sure that I totally follow what he is saying here. I do know that it is easy to try to blame idleness on personality traits and not take responsibility for my weak faith.
Jim, sorry to just now get back to you. You pose a great question. My initial interpretation of the phrase "fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart" is that many of us are so fearful of what others would think of us that we hide behind our insecurity by taking a behind the scenes role. This way, we are comforted by not being confronted. Rather than deal with the heart of the issue, it seems much easier to hide behind a "mask" of humility. Does this make sense? I would love your thoughts.
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