Be not conformed (Grk signifies outward confiormation) to the world, but be ye transformed (outward representing who you really are inwardly, like Christ on the Mt of Transfiguration), through the renewing of your minds. (Rom 12:2.
Authenticity, not being a hypocrite, is NOT revealing your flesh, being "honest" by revealing your inward depravity, outwardly, and acting like the world, dropping bombs in the pulpit.. in the hope that being "real" will win people to Christ... Not at all! Authenticity is simply displaying outwardly who we really are inwardly in the new man. That's authenticity!
Great quote from Wuest on the subject (taken from Wuest's Word Studies, by Kenneth Wuest):
Authenticity, not being a hypocrite, is NOT revealing your flesh, being "honest" by revealing your inward depravity, outwardly, and acting like the world, dropping bombs in the pulpit.. in the hope that being "real" will win people to Christ... Not at all! Authenticity is simply displaying outwardly who we really are inwardly in the new man. That's authenticity!
Great quote from Wuest on the subject (taken from Wuest's Word Studies, by Kenneth Wuest):
The English word "masquerade" fits this Greek word exactly. When Christian women adorn themselves in the coiffures of the world, copy the world's lavish and gaudy display of jewelry, and don the apparel of the world, they are masquerading in the garments of the world. They are playing the part of another. They are, in the language of the Greeks, hypocrites, acting the part of another on the stage of life. They dress like the world and act like the world, and the world thinks them to be people of the world. Then when they come with the news of the gospel, their message
