Overly polite! That was the give away! I met a lady who was overly polite with me, even calling me “Sweetie,” as if she really might care about me. We’ve all encountered people who are not authentic, but this lady was over the top. One of my core values is authenticity, so that behavior flipped my recoil switch. I wanted to politely get away from her as quickly as I could. Do you recall ever being less than authentic with someone?
It’s no secret that we all put on artificial masks at times. Unfortunately, we can wear them so often we begin to confuse our true identity with who our mask shows us to be. Could it be that we are even inauthentic in our love for God and like Moses wear a mask to hide God’s fading glory? We say we love God, go to church and even contribute our time and money. But is authentic love for God defined by what we do? Really? I believe genuine love for God or another person is far more than how they behave. I’ve counseled couples going through the motions of being married while their words and behavior betray what they feel in their heart. A person can discern when their spouse is just going through the motions—just as God can and does.
Peter’s first letter was especially written to believers whom he called elect exiles who were passing through severe trials and enduring serious persecution. Their homes and property were being stolen leaving them with nothing. Some were imprisoned or even killed. Their love and faith were being tested with fire. Peter’s purpose was to comfort them in their trials so they could bear up under their heavy emotional load.
One of the ways to know a person has authentic love for God is how they respond when they face serious abuse, mockery, rejection, or physical pain. To reassure them as they faced these conditions, he pointed out 1 Peter 1:8 (ESV) Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. When I read this verse, it causes me to pause to consider, how many Christians today would still love and believe in God to the point of literally rejoicing with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory if they were living in that condition? I ask myself, would I have that kind of joy in those conditions?
There must be other qualities in the definition of authentic love and belief these believers had that are unfamiliar to us today. I’ll never forget visiting a bedfast woman who had such severe MS her body hardly raised the sheet covering her. She had to blow in a tube to turn the TV on. But like those in exile, she had the most incredible joy and loved to talk about God’s goodness. It is when our belief and love are put to the acid test that we know if we really believe and love Him and subsequently experience the joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. It will look and feel like the joy we experienced when we were genuinely regenerated at our point of salvation.
What might it say to us if our joy has lost its luster? Is it a symptom of having left our first love? I suspect that the cares of life slowly choke out or otherwise fossilize our first love. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 13:5 (NLT2) Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. When David discerned his love for God had failed the acid test, he cried out to God, Restore unto me the joy of my salvation (Ps 51L12). If you were to superimpose an acid test on your love and belief in God, would those virtues turn out to be as genuine as you want them to be? If not, I’m sure David would urge you to cry out to God as he did and have your authentic joy restored today.