"Sincerely
Yours"
For years people would end a letter with the phrase “Sincerely” or “Sincerely Yours”.
It always meant that the person writing the letter was “genuine” and not being “hypocritical” in their affection to the person they were writing to. Among other meanings; to be “genuine” means to be “authentic” or “unadulterated”. Hypocritical means deceitful or false.
Let's
Open The Word of God
Philippians 1:1 - 11 (KJV) 1Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 7Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. 8For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
9And
this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment; 10That ye may approve things that are
excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of
Christ; 11Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which
are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Paul wanted the followers of Jesus to be “Sincere”…
Vines Theological Dictionary tells us that the root of the Greek word sincere means “tested by the sunlight”. So, what was Paul saying when he said he wanted us to be “sincere”?
It is said that ancient pottery could be tested for cracks and imperfections by holding it up to the sunlight so if there were cracks or flaws in it that were being covered up or filled in with wax, they would be seen.
In China today the term “sincere” is still used to denote pottery that is without flaws.
Let’s hold our lives up to the light… and be Sincere.
