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Luke 12:1-3  Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying:  “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.  There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.  What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

Most, if not all, of Jesus’ teaching is very confronting and therefore challenging. These words are no exception!  Perhaps two of our most subtle, and harmful, sins are hypocrisy and gossip.

Every time we try to lead others to believe that we are more God-fearing or prayerful or spiritual or kind or generous or forgiving or compassionate or humble or … etc than is actually the case, even if we try desperately to do it in a very godly, humble, self-effacing way, we are, according to Jesus, putting ourselves in a very vulnerable position.  One day, even if it is not until the Day of Judgement, we will be called out publicly.

I find this rather scary – and I’m so glad I have a Saviour who has borne the punishment for all my sin, but it is good to keep it firmly before us 24/7.  Even as I reflect on this truth I think about the potential danger (especially, but not exclusively, to young people) of involvement in social media.  Do we use facebook to broadcast how blessed or prosperous or accomplished or good-looking we are, perhaps with a bit of clever ‘photo-shopping’?  The internet defines ‘photoshoppng’ as “altering (a digital image) with Photoshop software or other image-editing software especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes)”.

And every time we talk about someone negatively behind their back, even if it is on the (often shaky) pretext of sharing a ‘point for prayer’, we need to take into account that our words/opinions ‘shared in secret’ will one day be exposed to general view with our name attached to them.

Let us always, as followers of Jesus, strive to be ‘what-you-see-is-what-you-get’ people, desiring always to ‘build each other up’ and ‘encourage one another’, putting all our comments through the ‘Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?’ test our mothers taught us, and the ‘proclaimed from the roofs’ test Jesus taught us, before we take the liberty to express them.

– Bruce Christian