One of my daughter’s projects for school this year was to make a notebook on the state of North Carolina. I was quite taken by the NC State Motto which is found at the bottom of the State Seal. It is Esse Quam Videri which is latin for “To be, rather than to seem”. I was quite taken with it.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says of this motto: It is found in Cicero's essay "On Friendship" ("De amicitia", chapter 98). ("Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt." roughly "Many are not so endowed with virtue as they wish to seem.")

We do have a tendency to want to appear more virtuous than we really are, and for the sake of this post, we also, but not limited to, like to appear to be better, more spiritual, more in touch, more together, farther along, than we in actuality are.

God says we are play actors when we pretend to be something we are not. Actually, He uses a stronger word … hypocrite.

Dictionary.com defines a hypocrite as a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

Mark 15:7-8 says: You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

These folks were saying one thing but living another. Their mouths said one thing, but their hearts another. They said they were in allegiance with God, but their lives said they were in allegiance with another. Their mouths said they belonged to God, but their hearts belonged to another, and their lives proved it.

The oblivious message for us as Christians is don’t be a hypocrite, don’t put on an act, be sincere, be who you appear to be, be real, be in reality who you are in presentation, don’t be a pretender, a play actor. Our hearts, our affections, are to belong to God and are to be evidenced in our lives.