Outward manifestation

Recently I came up against an issue in my life that had me on two sides of an issue…rather, it had me facing two sides of an issue. On one side I had something presented to me that seemed to me to have several different points all rolled into one. On the other side I had my own thoughts and what I see in Scripture. But I found myself in the situation of having to confront this issue at times without truly confronting it.

As I told my husband…it was a situation that was much like the situations I find myself in when I talk to family members and friends that profess to know Christ and yet I know that there are many of the deeper truths of Scripture that they don’t know. In those times I find myself wondering…should I say something? Should I point out where Scripture says they are wrong? Should I speak up?

And the answer is never easily found.

It wasn’t found in this issue either. The more I thought on it the more it hurt my heart and my head. I didn’t want to hurt the person presenting the issue but I couldn’t betray my own conscious by saying anything that went against the way I see Scripture.

It was in the midst of all of this that I read a short passage in a book that made me want to say…this is what I’m trying not to say.

This book made mention of how old styles of parenting and ‘church’ discipline created children that were outwardly obedient. Their behavior, the book implied, was cooperative and obedient, while their hearts and thoughts were anything but cooperative.

In other words they had created an outward system of works that showed someone to be something they weren’t.

My husband was telling me about a young woman that is the daughter of a reformed man. He said this young woman claimed to be reformed also. Whether she is or not isn’t for me to know or decide. There are, however, behaviors that this girl engages in that might suggest she isn’t living out the beliefs she claims to hold.

During that conversation I told my husband that I thought it would be easier for a child of reformed parents to fake a belief they did not hold then it would be for someone that had not grown up with a parent with those beliefs.

Quite simply…a child with a reformed parent grows up hearing and seeing what it means to be reformed, they may grow up in a reformed ‘church’, they may see and hear so much of what it means to be reformed that it could possibly be much like a child memorizing a long passage for school. In other words it may have been pounded into them in so many ways both obviously and subtly that that child may be able to outwardly show a faith they do not hold. They may even be able to maintain a deep conversation on Scripture, their replies and comments may show a reformed person, but it could be possible that they are simply so influenced by what they’ve seen and heard that they are outwardly manifesting what they know to be Truth whether or not they truly have that Truth in them.

I’m not saying that this is the case…I’m saying it could be the case, in some cases. My mind turns to the many different denominations where children grow up in them, they learn the ways and beliefs of that denomination. If they stay in that denomination as adults it may be that some of them live and speak the beliefs of that denomination without ever considering whether or not they, as an individual, share those beliefs. It’s simply a part of what they do because it’s all they’ve known.

Beyond that are those that may well know they don’t share a belief in something but they continue to profess that they do because they want the approval of those they love and care about. I have a family member that did this for a long time. She claimed a belief in Christ that she did not feel because she had grown up with that belief presented to her as what she should believe in. She took this fake belief so far as to join a ‘church’ when her family did, she went to services several times a week. On the outside she appeared to share the beliefs her family did but on the inside she held no hint of those beliefs.

I have a family member that by looking at her one would think she’s a part of some kind of ‘Christian church’ because she dresses in a way that is connected with some denominations of ‘Christian church’. This is an outward manifestation that many would take for a symbol of inward belief. In this persons case…the many would be wrong. The way this person dresses is based on her own personal style and personal beliefs and nothing else. It is in no way connected to any inner belief in God as many think.

How many times as parents do we get our children to confirm to what we want because we are the parent? ‘Because I said so’ seems to be a staple in every parent’s vocabulary…sooner or later it gets pulled out and used. A child may cooperate with whatever it is that we insist on but that doesn’t mean they aren’t inwardly resisting.

There are many ways in our lives that we may outwardly show an agreement that we don’t feel. How many times do we keep quiet even as we disagree with what’s being said or done around us?

Just because we outwardly show something doesn’t always mean it’s a reflection of what’s going on in the heart.

I have encountered areas in my life lately where I have been presented with the idea that if we can just get enough of the information into a person we can convince them to see things our way.

Can we?

Sometimes. It depends on the information being presented. I remember a conversation I had with someone several years ago in which this person told me that we can make our children believe the same things about the Lord that we do. This person was very adamant that this could be done. The implication was that if they failed to believe what this parent was teaching then enough discipline would change their mind.

It might change their mind…for a time…but would it change their heart?

Our children aren’t just our children, they are vessels placed on this earth for a purpose we will most likely never know. Scripture tells us that some vessels are to be instruments of God’s mercy, others are vessels of destruction.

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,…

Romans 9:22-23

We were all someone’s children.  We all had parents. Those parents, for the majority of people, tried to raise them according the beliefs, whatever they may be, that they, as parents, as people, held.  

As an adult there are many things I remember from my childhood, many things were I can remember my mother holding a belief in that I did not hold. I can also see many areas where I believe things now that my mother doesn’t believe. As I think of those areas…I also think of the many ways in which my mother could have forced her beliefs on me, areas where she could have at least gained an outward display of agreement from me whether or not I truly held the belief she did. But how many of those beliefs, if she had forced them on me, would I hold today? How many of them would have been outward manifestations of a belief I may not have held?

I have a relative that speaks of her upbringing as not being allowed to like something even if they like it. This relative saw the restrictive side of their upbringing and pointed out how there are things that their parents don’t like and so therefore they weren’t allowed to like it…even if they did.

There are many things in life that put us on one side of something or the other. The situation that arose in my life did just that to me. It wasn’t the first time I’ve found myself on one side or the other of a situation. But it was the first time I found myself stuck in that situation. I longed to point out my side of the situation to the person I was speaking with, and did wind up doing just that, but I also found myself strangely reluctant to point it out at the same time.

This situation had me trying to walk the line between earthly relationships and eternal beliefs. It had me defending all that I believe and disputing opposing beliefs at the same time. And through much of the situation it had me learning and strengthening much about my own beliefs because I was forced to understand exactly where my own beliefs stood on a subject before I could explain my side of things.

Several months ago I had a very brief encounter with an atheist. This person values education above all else I was told and will discount anything anyone says unless the person saying whatever it is can do so in an intelligent…educated…way. That didn’t concern me. The entire conversation didn’t concern me. This was a person I had never met and would probably have no other contact with in my life. But what did concern me was the fact that everything I said needed to be well said. I needed to understand well everything I said before I said it so that I wasn’t immediately dismissed as uneducated and therefore not worth listening to.

I knew there was a purpose to that conversation even as it made little difference to me at the time. But what I didn’t know was that that conversation would show me much in how to voice my own beliefs when in situations where others may challenge what I believe.

It was something of an added lesson to what I had learned in the situation in my life that put me on two sides of a fence. I had my side. I knew where I stood. I learned a lot about my side of things but I also walked a land mine as I tried to gently dispute the other side and to expose the other side to the Truth’s of Scripture.

I wonder now…who those conversations were for. Them…to plant seeds? Or me…to grow me?

And still…I was presented with an issue…an idea…that we need to gain that outward showing. And I stood on one side of the issue while understanding the other side. I didn’t share that opinion or belief but I understood it.

Oh how simple it would be, if like the person that told me we can make our children believe what we believe, if we could only pump in enough information to get the response, the behavior, the belief, that we want from someone.

If we can only raise them the right way. If we can only tell them the right things. If we can only live out the right example for others to see. How wonderful that would be. If we could only do those things and gain the salvation of those we love.

But salvation doesn’t work that way. Salvation comes through the Lord and it’s nothing of us.

We can outwardly manifest the deepest most sincere, most perfect, faith imaginable…and those we love can still spend their earthly lives lost and their eternities in hell.

Their salvation is nothing of us and all of Christ.

Yes, we can plant seeds. Yes, we can water. Yes, we live our lives by the will of the Lord as He has mapped them out for us. And who knows when our faith may be the seed the Lord uses to save someone.

A friend of my husband’s recently told me that my husband is the greatest testimony for Christ there is. “And he doesn’t need to do anything.” This person said that all my husband needs to do is be himself to witness for Christ.

There are so many times that we, as people, think we must do something. We feel the need to do something. That is our earthly side speaking. The Lord uses the just and the unjust to fulfill His purposes. We, as we are, as the Lord has made us, will be used by the Lord as He wishes.

And as I stood on one side of that issue, loving the person standing on the other side of the issue, I kept thinking of the child that grows up being taught its parents beliefs to the point that they can say them back, live them out, not through their own faith but because it’s what they were raised in.

Outward showing is often nothing. Scripture tells us that…

25"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26"You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.… Matthew 23:25-27

We can outwardly manifest so many things…even a faith we do not truly have. We can force our bodies and minds to give responses and to act in ways we do not feel but those things in no way change what’s on the inside.

The outside of the cup may be sparkling clean but the inside…oh, the inside. That is where we need be concerned. Forcing an outward showing for the purpose of knowing that others see our faith does nothing when the inside of the cup is dead…filthy rags. When the heart is still stone.

If we have true, saving, faith, if the Lord has saved us, He will change us so that we live out a faith that shines before men. We will need do nothing for others to see that we are different. We will need do nothing for them to see Christ through us. Our faith will come from a changed heart, from the inside of a cup that has been cleaned from the inside out.

And those around us will feel the difference because of beliefs in us that we cannot help, that we do not put on a show to display. And even if no one ever fells the difference…once the inside of the cup is cleaned by Christ it will be what He wants it to be. It is His cup to display as He sees fit. Whether anyone around that cup sees it’s cleanness or not.

It doesn’t need to be polished and shined on the outside when there is rotting food on the inside.

An outward showing of faith is nothing but an act that is put on for those that see it. It is the inward workings of the stage that make all the difference.