Representing the King or Representing the Facade - Damon J. Gray
I received an email this week that was so bad, I literally laughed out loud after reading it.
Hi contact,
AM I CURRENTLY SPEAKING TO THE AUTHOR OF THIS EMAIL?
IF SO THERE IS AN IMPORTANT MATTER THAT REQUIRES YOUR ATTENTION.THANK YOU.
Do you find that convincing? Are you persuaded? Or, did you laugh as well?
There are at least seven glaring issues in that brief email body that make it such an eye-roller. Now, as someone who publishes a written blog post every Monday, I’m quick to admit that I have let some embarrassing typos and grammatical challenges slide through. It is inevitable. There may be some in this blog posting. But the email above is not going to move anyone to any course of action.
I receive thirty to forty spam and phishing emails every day. Those are the ones that slip through. That count does not include the thousands that are caught by the email spam service and the additional thousands that are already in my blocked list. You probably experience similar bombardments in your inbox.
Most of the garbage mail that comes through is easy to detect from the Subject or the opening line. With improvements to Artificial Intelligence, however, the scams are increasingly difficult to detect.
Representation
The emailer above did not represent himself or herself well. He or she wanted to persuade me that they had some legitimate, pressing matter that I needed their help with. Maybe I’m in legal trouble. Perhaps I have won some lottery I never entered. I could be the long-lost relative of a deceased Nigerian prince. Whatever it is, they wanted me to believe them to be something that they clearly are not.
When you stand before another person, who are you? Whom do you represent yourself as being?
Years ago, I had a friend who said, “You’re not who you think you are. Neither are you who I think you are. You are who you think I think you are.” It was his convoluted way of saying each of us “becomes” who we believe the other person expects us to be. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.”1
Representing the King
Regardless of how we may respond to everything above, one reality we cannot escape, and dare not try to escape, is that we are representatives of the King, and the King is Jesus. We are the means by which the world will know King Jesus. As the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world,”2 everything we do is done through Christ, for him, in his name, and for his glory.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
– Colossians 2:17, ESV
When we act and when we speak, we do so as appointed representatives of Jesus. This is both a tremendous privilege and responsibility. When we speak of Jesus, we do so as his ambassadors, his representatives. This is a great honor for us, and to be candid, those to whom you speak of Jesus should also count it a great honor that an ambassador of the King is speaking with them.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
– 2 Corinthians 5:20, ESV
As ambassadors for Christ, we are those who proclaim his excellencies among the unbelieving.3 We never stop being Christ’s ambassadors, so we must always behave in harmony with that calling.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
– 1 Peter 2:12, ESV
There is a standard for that conduct. Above, the apostle Paul says there is conduct that is honorable and dishonorable. When writing to the Philippians, he said there is conduct that is worthy and unworthy of the gospel of Christ. “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.”4
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
– Titus 2:7-8, ESV
Representing the Facade
There is a different representation going on as well. This activity is carried out by those who want us to believe they are something they are not. They are putting up a front, a false face, and they are quite good at doing so.
It is a mistake to believe charlatans are easy to spot. They are not. I’ll refer you to the infamous case of Ravi Zacharias.5 He had everyone fooled. He was revered by thousands, and his disgrace was not made public until after his death. The man was the embodiment of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, yet no one knew it until he was gone.
Jesus says we will know the pretenders, not by their appearance, but by their fruits.6 We cannot accept that a man is a Christ-follower simply because he says so, or because he has a large following, or because his personality is magnetic. What is his fruit? Three times, later in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus warned his audience, “See that no one leads you astray!”7
The apostle Peter warns us…
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
– 2 Peter 2:1-3, ESV
Not only were there false prophets, but Paul warned of false apostles, deceitful workmen, who would disguise themselves as apostles of Jesus. Such deceivers are among us even today, and we must remain vigilant so we are not deceived. Note in the passage below, Paul warns of deceitful distguises not once, but three times!
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
– 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, ESV
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
– Jude 1:4, ESV
Please do not miss what Jude says here, that these people who bring destruction with them “crept in unnoticed.” He said this in the context of “contending earnestly for the faith.”8 The disrupters are among us, and we don’t even notice them! Jesus tells the parable of the tares where a farmer sowed good wheat seed, but another man sowed tares (weeds) among the wheat seed. As the seed grew, no one could tell the difference until it was too late to uproot the tares.9 They “crept in unnoticed.”
Be alert, and represent well.
1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship,” in Essays: First Series (1841).
2. Matthew 5:13–16
3. 1 Peter 2:9
4. Philippians 1:27 5. Lynsey M. Barron and William P. Eiselstein, Report of Independent Investigation into Sexual Misconduct of Ravi Zacharias (Miller & Martin PLLC, February 9, 2021).
6. Matthew 7:15-16
7. Matthew 24:4–5, 11, 24
8. Jude 1:3
9. Matthew 13:24-30
