There’s and old television commercial featuring a character who speaks to the camera while his amazing life is displayed to us[1]…
“I’m Stanley Johnson. I’ve got a great family. I’ve got a four-bedroom house in a great community. Like my car? It’s new! I even belong to the local golf club.”
The ad ends with Stanley telling us how it does it all while cleaning his inground swimming pool, then barbequing, then riding his new lawn mower…
“I’m in debt up to my eyeballs. I can barely pay my finance charges! Somebody help me!”
It seems to us that Stanley has a fantastic life when in reality none of it is paid for.
It’s so easy to be a “seemer” today. We see it a lot, don’t we, on social media and television? Amazing vacations, perfect houses and families, popularity. We can post and tweet our “deep” thoughts and showcase our good works. We can virtue-signal at any time. We even see it in many of our politicians, influencers, actors, musicians, even some of our friends and acquaintances. Seemers are everywhere.
We see women who are unrecognizable after removing their makeup, men and women who dye their hair, both using shapewear to appear fit, wearing color changing contact lenses, and using myriad beauty-enhancing devices. And that’s just on the outside.
What about on the inside? Do you just appear to be a Christian? Do you act faithfully, selflessly and benevolently in social settings? Do you just carry your Bible to church? Is that who you really are at home?
Do you actually read the word, or do you know enough to get by? Do you go to church and actually praise and worship the Lord, or are you just keeping up appearances? Do you hear the Word and then leave it there? Are you an idolator, blasphemer, or gossip at home or among your closest friends while appearing to be a Christ-follower?
A little history…
About 130 years ago, the great state of North Carolina, my adopted home, got its first and only motto: Esse Quam Videri, “to be rather than to seem.”
There is an occasional debate over the origin of the phrase. It seems it could have come from a Greek play 446 B.C.; or from Socrates’ Apologia in the 390s B.C., or from Roman historian, Sallust, in 49 B.C. Ironically, though the sentiment is conveyed in those works, the actual phrase does not appear in them. It does appear in an essay by the Roman statesman, Cicero, in 44 B.C. when he wrote that most people wanted to appear virtuous but didn’t want the burden and work of actually being virtuous.[2]
So, being a seemer is nothing new.
The Word…
Though esse quam videri appears throughout Greek and Roman literature hundreds of years before the birth of our Savior, the phrase itself does not appear in the Bible. However, the poignant sentiment of the concept is throughout all we are taught.
When we confess that Christ is our Savior, the Son of God, the one who died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, and was resurrected, what then?
We repent, we confess, we forgive, we love and serve others, we aspire to live like Christ as we praise and worship the Father.
Now, there have always been a lot of seemers (I know it’s not a legit word, but it works really well). Jesus told us not to be like the Pharisees who make their loud public prayers and wear their suffering on their faces, He even called them out as hypocrites numerous times:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. (Matthew 23:25)
Let’s not forget that, on the heels of people receiving heaps of praise, Ananias and Sapphira sold their land and wanted to seem as if they had given everything to the church even though they held some of the money back. Now, they could have given whatever they wanted but they desired the public praise of their virtue more than they actually wanted to give to the Lord. They were each struck dead. (See Acts 5.)
Just as the pharisees were called out, we are also reminded that we must be doers of the word instead of hearers only (James 1:22).
Let’s face it, following Jesus is hard. We are to be shining lights that point others to Christ and all that we do should be to glorify God, not ourselves. They way we act in front of others is also the way we are expected to act in private and vice versa. We cannot be those who worship with our lips but not our hearts (Matthew 15:8).
Remember, in the end, our secret lives will be exposed:
For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. (Luke 12:2)
Don’t be a seemer, it’s so tiring to keep up appearances and there is no joy in it… and it will catch up to you on the judgement day. It will rob you of the security, peace, and joy you receive in your relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you’re going to follow Christ, then follow Him publicly and privately, on the outside and on the inside. This also lets us help each other grow and hold one another accountable. True repentance requires it, and you don’t want to find yourself in sin-debt up to your eyeballs when it’s too late.
Consider:
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:22-23)
[1] This commercial is for illustration and humor. 2 Shirts in no way endorses the advertiser or has an opinion one way or the other about them. We have received no compensation and have no relationship with the advertiser or the person who shared the commercial online.
[2] Loose translation of “Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt” which is literally “For indeed not so many wish to be endowed with virtue as wish to seem to be.” Discussed in Clark, Walter. “Our State Motto and Its Origin.” North Carolina booklet : great events in North Carolina history [1910 : January, v.9 : no.3].