Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk

You see it every day, around every turn. You see people that don’t live the way they talk. We all do it at some level. We say one thing and then do another. For Christians this can drive others away from Christ. That’s because all others see is our hypocrisy.

Brethren, our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world, and still more toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God. For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand; I hope you will understand fully, as you have understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be of you, on the day of the Lord Jesus. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double favor; I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say Yes and No at once? For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. 2^nd Corinthians 1.12-20

Saint Paul was many things. He was not a hypocrite. He was strict yet forgiving. He was bold, yet compassionate. He held everyone to a higher standard, but never higher than he himself was willing to rise. Saint Paul walked the walk and talked the talk.

When he says he behaved “with holiness and godly sincerity,” he was calling us to the same standard. The reason so many trusted Saint Paul and embraced the Gospel was his sincerity. He admitted his sinful past and lived his repentance.

He also admitted his weakness when we wrote to the Romans his admission that he didn’t always ‘do’ the things he wanted to ‘do’ for Christ. He admitted he didn’t always ‘not do’ what he was supposed to ‘not do’. (see Romans 7)

Hypocrisy turns us away from the smallest commercial. Of course it would turn us away from Christ. I might say that is one of our main goals for Be Transfigured Ministries. We want everyone to know you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be authentic.

As Orthodox Christians, ‘walking the walk and talking the talk’ means we admit our weakness and fight against it. That is not the same thing as throwing up our arms and giving up. We confess regularly to our spiritual father and engage in the battle against sin.

Hypocrisy is pretending we don’t sin. Hypocrisy is acting as if we have defeated temptation. Read anything from the Saints and elders of the Church and you find one thing in common. The people we consider the holiest, consider themselves sinners needing repentance.

Although Christ never sinned, His taking on human flesh was the ultimate ‘walk the walk and talk the talk’ for us. He has not asked us to do anything He wasn’t willing to do. This is why we can be comforted in admitting our weakness.

We can’t get stronger if we don’t admit where we are weak. So, as we close the Feast of Transfiguration and look ahead to the Feast of the Dormition, I invite you to reflect on your weaknesses. Then turn around and commit to doing better.

Have you fasted for this season yet? If not, start today. Have you ‘wanted’ to attend Church but didn’t get around to it? Start by committing to attend the next service in your local Orthodox Church. If you’ve been sitting down on the job, start walking the walk today.

You never know who is watching you. Our children, our co-workers or neighbors, even the total strangers in the grocery checkout line, are all watching us. Every one of them will judge the Church by whether we walk the walk and talk the talk TODAY.