Tag Archive

There’s a fascinating medical reality facing many of us today called TOFI. Thin on the outside, fat on the inside. Scans have revealed that many people who have normal body weight are “carrying around hidden layers of fat. Stored up around vital organs, they can put outwardly healthy people at risk.” If that isn’t the perfect metaphor for many modern day Christians, I don’t know what is!

How many of us are walking around, looking all thin and healthy, while harboring affliction?

It reminds me of the passage from Matthew 23:25-26 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.”

Continuing in verse 27, Jesus describes them as whitewashed tombs. Beautiful on the outside but housing dead men’s bones and all uncleanliness.

The most obvious truth here is that in our hypocrisy we create stumbling blocks for others who are outwardly in pain. We create and maintain the illusion that we are a-ok, that we’ve got our stuff together. This creates a horribly unsafe and unwelcoming environment.

But our hypocrisy also damages us as well. We walk around in denial. We look fine. Others tell us we’re “righteous” or that we’ve got it all together. While on the inside, we are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanliness.” We’re obese in our own sin, placing our spiritual health in jeopardy.

I encourage you, as I’m encouraging myself. Stop the hypocrisy and step into the light. Let people in. Be transparent. Be real. Be healed.