Both Sides

I ran a quick errand to a small business, only to stutter-stop at the door. A new sign on the door read: "Door is locked for safety. I will open when you knock." Why this new procedure? Because the sole employee just learned that a frequent customer  had been officially castigated for abusing women. As she is alone at that business site, she is understandably wary and took what precautions she could. The sign is, hopefully, a deterrent to any evil intents. A quick prayer later I left, to return home to ready for the funeral of an esteemed friend, a man who loved the Lord and lived a life worth emulating.

Two men, two very, very different lives.

There is an interesting verse in Exodus 32. Right after God tells Moses His people have gone berserk and He wants to wipe them off the face of the earth, Moses stands up for them, begs God's mercy for them, and earns them a new lease on life. Fortunately for them, God acquiesces, then He gives Moses the stone tables with the commandments to take down from Mt. Sinai. Verse 15 contains an unusual tidbit about those tablets written by God. It reads, "And the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written." On both sides. The tablets were written on on both sides. Not just one side. Both sides, front and back. Something of which those snarky Israelites should have taken note.

David wrote, "I will walk within my house with a perfect heart" (Psalm 101:2). I think it safe to say that we  are all guilty of presenting a public face versus our let-it-all-hang-out face at home. In the privacy of our home we tend to be more relaxed, not worrying about what people will think if we don't have a smile plastered on our face, and so on. Hopefully we take after David, that man after God's own heart—while he might have loosened his tie to be more relaxed at home, he was committed to living by godly principles even within the secret confines of his home (and we all know what happened that one time he didn't). "I will walk within my house with a perfect heart." Where there are no onlookers, no cameras, no one to verify that I am walking as I should, even there I will walk with a perfect heart.

The Hebrew word for perfect in that verse is tamiym. It means "completeness, integrity, or being wholehearted." David's private life was to be a reflection of the values he espoused in public. Paul puts it this way: "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men" (2 Corinthians 3:2). We are God's living tablets. We should be written on front and back. Seen and unseen. In public and in private. Wherever we are, whoever sees or does not see, our principles and integrity do not shift or waver. Even when it seems that there is no one there to see. Because the truth is, even when we don't see anyone around, there is Someone who always sees.

Joseph put it this way. When accosted by Potiphar's wife, no witnesses around to see any goings-on in the inner sanctum of the house, Joseph cried, "How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:8-9). And he resisted, ultimately fleeing from temptation. Later, much later, God turned all the resulting devastation in Joseph's life around, but it didn't come by happenstance. It was validation for a life lived to the fullest in integrity. Holding on to his morals in public and in private.

May we never be like those against whom doors are locked in fear. Rather, may we all join the ranks of those whose lives are venerated for living a life well lived. Living tablets, written on, both in front and back, read by all men to the glory of God.

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12).

"In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you" (Titus 2:7-8).