Be Thou Sincere

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Phil. 1:10 “That you may prove all things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.”

The word “sincere” here came from the Latin word “sin” which means “without” and “cere” which means “wax”. So this word literally means “without wax”. In Paul’s day, people were fascinated by marble statues. If there was a flaw in a marble sculpture, the seller would sometimes fill that flaw with wax. You might buy a beautiful marble statue, take it home and put it where everybody could see it. But as the heat of the day came, those statues mixed with wax would melt revealing cracks on them. So genuine sellers would first “heat-test” their statues by exposing them to the sun so that people will see that no wax is melting. They would put a sign “sin-cere’ on the bottom of each statue to tell the people that they are made of genuine marble and are heat tested.

In the verse above, Paul encourages believers to prove all things to be excellent and to be sincere or without wax. This means that he is encouraging us to “heat-test” everything, expose them to the sun to prove that they have no wax. This is especially applicable to the things that we believe in. To those things that we think are revelation from God. Don’t accept them unless you proved them “sin-cere.” Expose everything in the light until the day of Christ’s return.