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Lorenzo Scupoli (1529-1610) was an Italian priest and presumed to be author of The Spiritual Combat. St. Francis de Sales called the little book his "spiritual director." He carried it with him constantly for thirty years.
Scupoli, in The Spiritual Combat, speaks of "false virtue." He says, "Outright sinners can be reformed with less difficulty than those who hide under a cloak of false virtue." And, "The spiritual life does not consist in holy practices that are mere outward appearances."
An entire church or Christian communion can be defined as having "false virtue." Revelation 3.1 addresses the church at Sardis: "And to the angel [or, messenger, pastor, bishop] of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead" (ESV).
A person or religious association of persons can, likewise, be defined as having a deceptive "false virtue." In Matthew 23.26-28, Jesus speaks to the religious elite of his day: "You blind proud religious law-keepers! Clean the inside of the cup and plate, then the outside will be clean also. It is bad for you, teachers of the Law and proud religious law-keepers, you who pretend to be someone you are not! You are like graves that have been made white and look beautiful on the outside. But inside you are full of the bones of dead men and of every sinful thing. As men look at you, you seem to be good and right but inside you are full of sin. You pretend to be someone you are not" (NLV).
Let us humbly admit how easily any one of us can deceive himself or herself, thinking oneself more right or more faithful than we are. Let us discern, not only wisely about other persons, but also about ourselves. We as Body of Christ can live together in peace through honest self-examination. Pervasive is the "form of godliness" alone--both inside and outside our churches--, so common, like the pollution of air to which one can become accustomed, we can become asleep to other persons' and our own lack of spiritual depth or true commitment.
2For people will be [in the last, or in latter days] lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people (II Timothy 3, ESV).
Spirit of Christ, I pray to be humble, so as to more readily see my own failings than that of others, my own lack of trueness more readily than that of others, and my own need to grow much more to be like Christ than that need in others. Amen.
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
The Peace of Christ to All!
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