Who is God? Approving of the Authentic, Furious at Fakes

True story.

“Oh, what an interesting horse drawing! Eleanor, did you do this?”

My mother, an avid art enthusiast, much enjoyed visits with her friend, who also shared the same passion. One afternoon when Mom saw the newly framed sketch of a horse on Eleanor’s wall, she hastily asked Eleanor if she had drawn the impressive but slightly strange piece. Although most agree with the adage, “There are no stupid questions,” Mom sure wondered about four seconds after hers if she’d managed to create an exception.

Miss Eleanor, as I remember her fondly from my childhood, was a stunning widow in her mid-70s with a pencil-thin frame and silky salt-and-pepper hair that, when not in a perfect bun, reached to her waist. Eccentric and opinionated, but without fail warm and friendly, she usually greeted Mom and me at her front door wearing knee-high Italian leather boots, a soft, mid-length designer leather skirt, and a tailored white blouse. Although I never remember seeing Eleanor in anything but a skirt, there were occasions when she didn’t wear fashion boots. When cutting her grass, she’d hop on her riding lawn mower and rumble through her yard in the same skirt, a light jacket, and black stilettos.

Eleanor exemplified poise and elegance at all times, so when Mom asked “the question” about the horse drawing, with a smile (and probably a gentle sigh), Eleanor gracefully pointed to the scrawled name in the corner. Mom leaned in close and read each letter aloud:

P-I-C-A-S-S…OH!

And no, it wasn’t a copy, but a genuine Pablo Picasso. Mom confided she had been a tad embarrassed by her confusion, but she still marveled at seeing an original Picasso.

The authentic, whether in art form or other, stirs within the human soul joy and excitement. An imposter, on the other hand, always gives rise to heartache.

Years ago, I remember watching a TV program named Treasure Detectives. On the show, experts evaluated “rare” items to determine with near 100% certainty whether these perceived treasures were real or fake. I’ll never forget a young man who gingerly (with specific demands of protocol) handed over his 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card, apparently worth two to three million dollars. The man had spent a small fortune on the card and believed he and his wife would soon be millionaires. After a slew of precise tests, including laser scans and X-rays, I gasped when the expert explained, without doubt, that the card was bogus. The back of the card was a correct era “Piedmont,” but the seller (long gone) had masterfully glued a pristine copy (using 50-year-old paper) of the famed Wagner on the front. My heart sank. The man sadly declared he’d “failed” and would have to tell his wife.

Holiness Hoax

No one enjoys being duped, and since Genesis 1:27 explains we are “made in God’s image,” it shouldn’t surprise us He placed in us His own disdain for fakery. While fabricated baseball cards are extremely annoying, phony people remain far worse.

Proverbs 26:24 in the NIV version reads, “Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit.” The Good News Translation says it this way: “A hypocrite hides hate behind flattering words.” The origin of hypocrite actually comes from the Greek language and literally means “an actor.” Jesus showed incomparable love, grace, and mercy to everyone who met Him when He walked the Earth. However, to paint Jesus as weak or timid is as wrong as crediting Miss Eleanor for Picasso’s paint strokes. I searched scripture for verses on hypocrisy, and was stunned at how often Jesus blasted pompous religious leaders and scribes who staged themselves as holy while, underneath the actor’s garb, ignored God’s Word for themselves.

Here is a sampling of Jesus’ dictates on duplicity:

Matthew 6:16 (NLT) “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.”

Matthew 15:7-9 (MSG) Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”

Matthew 23:27-28 (The Passion) Great sorrow awaits you religious scholars and Pharisees—frauds and imposters! You are nothing more than tombs painted over with white paint—tombs that look shining and beautiful on the outside but filled with rotting corpses on the inside. Outwardly you masquerade as righteous people, but inside your hearts you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Mark 12:38-40 (NLT) “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be more severely punished.”

Luke 6:42 (NKJV) And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

And after Jesus ascended to heaven and His followers continued to represent Him, they, too, warned against counterfeit Christianity. I could list many verses from the New Testament by Jesus’ disciples on hypocrisy, but this one by John is succinct and summaries all others: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6 NASB)

Catastrophic Sin vs. Legitimate Fear (Respect) of God

If you, like me, have pretended piety—repent. Biblical holiness versus holier-than-thou are as vastly different as a ten dollar rolled-up poster of the Mona Lisa compared to the behind-bullet-proof-glass-in-the-Louvre original. God knows we aren’t perfect. Only Jesus, conceived by Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, earned this lonely title. He’s never required perfection to follow Him, but He does expect sincerity.

Acts 13:22 notes the Lord's accolade of King David: "God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart." However, did you know this “man after God’s own heart” messed up so spectacularly that 70,000 men died from a plague (1 Chronicles 21:1-17)? Remember, ancient Israel only counted the men in these situations. With the addition of women and children, what was the total loss of life? This was quite the epic failure! Still, we read in 1 Chronicles 29:27 that David ruled Israel for 40 years. The 70,000+ dead plague—because of David’s arrogance in conducting a census—according to Bible scholars, occurred about 35 years into his reign (1).

Why would God allow David five more years of life (let alone five seconds) after such a catastrophe? My only guess is David repented with real sorrow (1 Chronicles 21:8-17).

No phoniness
No excuses
No hypocrisy

The wages of death required to pay for his census sin shattered King David. He admitted his foolishness. He asked for mercy. And, in a very un-deity-like thing to do, God forgave and stayed. After ruling seven years in Hebron and 33 in Jerusalem, David “died at a very old age. His long life was full of wealth and honor.” (1 Chronicles 29:28 NOG)

Candid counts.

The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. (Proverbs 11:3, NIV)

(1) https://hpbcwiw.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/190129-chronology-of-davids-life.pdf