A Counterfeit Man

“A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame” (Proverbs 13:5). Lying is the very essence of hypocrisy. When we lie, we make a false representation of ourselves to others. The locker room boastings of youth are far too often carried into adulthood with men competing to outdo one another and pressuring others to conform to a worldly view of manhood. Authentic manhood is godly manhood, and it is far different from the picture we have been given. As Christians, we lie every time we go to church, put on our happy Christian masks, and act as if everything is wonderful, even as our world crumbles around us. It is easy to lie to others, when we are so used to lying to ourselves. Christians are no different from the world, in that we are afraid to be vulnerable, honest about our problems, and transparent in our struggles out of fear that we will be judged or perceived as weak. Instead of confessing our faults to one another (James 5:16) and having the strong lift up the weak (Romans 15:1), we play the church charade and hope that no one sees us for who we really are. When tragedy strikes, some Christians refuse to allow themselves to grieve because of a distorted belief that they need to show the world that they are “strong in the Lord”. However, they forget that Jesus wept, laughed, grieved, and experienced the entire gamut of human emotions that we experience. Suppressing how we truly feel is another form of lying and hypocrisy. Men of God, let us ask God for the courage to be real men and not merely a guise of the real thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If it is a crime to make a counterfeit dollar, it is ten thousand times worse to make a counterfeit man.”