Two-Faced Christians-
by Pastor Ricky Kurth
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Our month January is named after Janus, the mythical Roman god of gates and doorways. Janus had two faces which looked in opposite directions, just as January looks back on the old year and forward to the new. Hypocritical people are often called "Janus-faced" or two-faced.
Abraham Lincoln, not known for his good looks, was once called
Janus-faced. He responded, "If I had two faces, do you think I'd wear
this one?"
We can avoid being Janus-faced spiritually
by putting off the old man and putting on the new man (Eph. 4:22-24).
But many Christians find this difficult. Some feel they could more
easily muster up the spiritual fortitude to live a consistent Christian
life if they could just speak to the Lord "face to face" on a daily
basis, as did Moses (Ex. 33:11). This blessing is of course not
available to us during this dispensation--or is it?
When
Paul told the Corinthians that one day they too would see the Lord
"face to face" (I Cor. 13:12), he spoke not of the day when they would
see His face in heaven, but of a face-to-face relationship with the Lord
that they actually lived to see and enjoy. You see, as Paul wrote these
words the Bible was not yet complete. Consequently, men were able to
see God only as "through a glass, darkly." The crude glass of ancient
days gave men an unclear view of what was on the other side.
It
reminds me of how before the launch of satellite telescopes,
Earth-based telescopes labored under the limitation of having to peer at
the stars through the earth's atmosphere, which distorted man's view of
the heavens. One scientist likened it to bird-watching from the bottom
of a lake! But the launch and perfecting of the Hubble telescope gave
science a crystal clear image of Creation.
In
much the same way, the addition of Paul's last epistles completed the
Word of God (Col. 1:25), and launched our understanding into the heavens
(Eph. 1:3). Now as we look into the pages of God's completed
revelation, we are able to see God Himself "face to face."
Paul
used yet another metaphor to drive this point home. Looking into the
unfinished Word of God was also like looking into the crude mirrors of
those days. Mirrors in Paul's day gave imperfect reflections, and so
while everyone else knew exactly what Paul looked like, Paul himself
knew what he looked like only "in part" (I Cor. 13:12). Similarly, with
the Bible incomplete, men had an unclear view of the image of God. But
once the Word of God was complete, Paul predicted: "then shall I know
even as also I am known," i.e., then he would know God as clearly as men
knew him.
Thus
there is no excuse for us to be two-faced Christians. As we peer daily
into the pages of the written Word of God, we can see God "face to
face," and can sculpt our lives into His image:
"But
we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord" (II Cor. 3:18).
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