|
The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies |
THE UGLINESS WITHIN
By W.
Resume
All Scriptures quoted are from the New International Version-UK, unless noted otherwise.
Whitewashed tombs . . . full of dead men’s bones.
Matthew 23: 27
IT IS REPORTED THAT Winston Churchill was once accosted by an irate woman who accused him of being ‘very, very drunk’. Churchill is said to have replied, ‘and you, Madam, are very, very ugly . . . but shall be sober in the morning.’
The external appearance of almost anything conceals a less attractive insides. Few homeowners would choose to live in a house with the rough lumber that supports the walls and floors on display. Paint and wallpaper, and numerous decorative features dress things up and make a pleasant and homely façade, covering up the crude reality and spider-filled cavities behind it.
In order to maintain its atmosphere of fantasy, Walt Disney World in Florida conceals from tourists the rubbish containers and various electrical and mechanical devices which make the park function. Such mundane components are consigned to a network of interconnecting tunnels situated below the ‘Magic Kingdom’. Like the entertainment world in general, the success of the deception is in persuading the audience to step out of reality. So successful is the ploy, that many people prefer to live in a fictional world.
Spit And Polish
The art of ‘finishing off’ is a human instinct. The careful cook prepares her meal with an eye to colour and variety of taste, and when serving it doesn’t simply chuck it on the table, like a bucket of slop, but arranges it for eye appeal. The craftsman sands his furniture smooth, then stains and lacquers it. He runs his fingers across the surface and smiles, pleased with the effect. The jeweller cuts and buffs the diamond to perfection, then mounts it in his chosen setting to enhance its lustre. When you come to sell your car, you probably wash the bodywork and hoover the rugs, touching up the odd rusty spot, all in order to get a good price and to be well regarded by the purchaser. This approach is an honest, human trait.
Perhaps it is God-like, too.
Rising From The Rubbish
A construction site on which a skyscraper takes shape usually looks a mess, littered with wood, masonry, pipes, cables, and strewn with piles of rubble, caked mud everywhere. But after some months, like magic, the ground is cleared, the bushes and grass go in, the concrete pavements are poured, and the building, shiny and new, windows glinting in the sunlight, soars tall and proud.
The allegory is a useful one.
According to Genesis, planet earth looked like a giant building zone until it was dressed up in green and the rivers ran and the trees flowered, and it became hospitable to human life. Even human beings created with their outsides suitably facing out. For who would want to see the human body turned inside out?
Along this line, so much of organic life and the built world is a benign deception. We see the final result, not the mechanisms which bring about the result. We cannot, for instance, peer into our teacup and observe microbes or atoms, at least not without special devices. And we may be truly glad that most insects do not come in a large scale, for we should find their appearance quite repulsive and frightening.
So . . . What Are You Really Like?
In our personal lives we tend to emphasize only the most attractive side of our personality and character. Who wants to be known as grumpy, selfish, or rude? Our proper desire for approval prompts us to mask our uncomplimentary side. This is normal. We all do it. But if it’s overdone, we can become self-deceivers . . . or hypocrites. Such were the Pharisees, on the receiving end of our Lord’s denunciation. They were all outsides. Or wanted the people to think of them that way. In matters of dress and posture, they cut a good figure. But on the inside they were graves full of rotten corpses.
The Scriptures affirm that there is none righteous, reinforcing the fact with ‘not even one’ (Romans 3: 10). The text further depicts the human race as having mouths ‘full of cursing and bitterness’ and speaking deceit (vs. 14, 13).
The bald truth that we are not as good as we think we are is a shock to those who first encounter it in the Word of God, and who realise it is so. Of course, most people don’t acknowledge it, not having the humility which is rooted in faith. But the biblical writer makes his point for the benefit of those who can face the fact and learn from it. These are the individuals whose hearts are penitent, and who know that they are separated from fellowship with God by a great gulf of sin. For each one of us is born in sin and shaped in iniquity, all aspects of our humanity having been affected by the Adamic curse of sin and death. Only Christ can supply the route to forgiveness and mercy, and the rehabilitation of the human spirit.
Hey . . . Look At Me
It is normal to want to be likeable and ‘cool’. This tendency more or less lies at the root of society and friendship, and keeps the wheels of benevolent interaction turning. The same is true of the Christian man or woman. But this normal expression of pride becomes sin when we put on a false face saying one thing, but thinking and doing the opposite. Most of us have gone through phases of life which we would rather forget. Sometimes we look back on things we have done, and wonder how on earth we could ever have condoned such behaviour. It’s like looking at a different person. Perhaps we were different then. But if we are now the Lord’s own, He will put us through the wringer of experience and make us humble, often through humiliating and stressful experiences.
It is necessary that as Christians we recognise our faultiness and learn to adjust not only our outward actions, but to control our inner thoughts, to bring the mind into conformity with Christian principles. God’s object is to make us more like Christ who, though He was great, subjected Himself to the suffering of the Cross in order to redeem mankind.
‘Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith which God has given you.’ (Romans 12: 3)
Copyright July 2012 by
ukbiblestudents.co.uk
You are free to reprint this article, but please let us know if you do so.