Don’t be a hypocrite—be true to your spirit!
We often wonder how we can reconcile the conflict between acting in an appropriate way towards people when we think or feel quite differently. For instance, there might be someone we don’t really like, but the person wants to shake our hand and greet us. So we smile, shake their hand and greet them, and feel like a hypocrite inwardly. Or perhaps I’ve been having a rough day emotionally, but someone greets me, asking how I’m doing, someone not close enough for me to share my inner struggles. So, I say, “Fine,” and feel like a hypocrite or liar.
On thinking about such situations, I realized that to think in this way is to act as if man only has two parts, a body and a soul. This kind of thinking is actually according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that merely considers whether a situation is right or wrong according to my own reasoning, feeling, or assessment. This is contrary to the tree of life, which determines the rightness of things according to the principle of eating God, becoming one with God, and living out God–when we live out God, God is always right, and we are right in Him, not apart from Him.
How I might think or feel inwardly is according to my soul, that is, my mind and my emotions. To consider that this is what I am sincerely is to consider that my soul-life, my self, is the primary and real aspect of my being. But no! In addition to my body (actions, including my speech) and my soul (my inner thoughts, feelings, and decisions), I have a spirit! My spirit is the aspect of me that can be one with God and that can contact God.
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