The Bible tells us of the necessity of walking in both sincerity and in truth.
Sincerity is the quality of being free from pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy. Truth proceeds from God, and as Jesus prayed to His Father in heaven, “thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
Some of Joshua’s parting words to Israel were, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!” (Josh 24:14). Israel of old was required to serve God in sincerity and according to truth.
Saints in Corinth were exhorted to “keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8). They were guilty of being puffed up in their fellowship of a sexually immoral brother who was among them. They needed to not only withdraw themselves from him in order to save his soul, but they themselves needed to live a life in sincerity and according to truth. That instruction clearly applies to Christians today.
Sincerity alone does not take one to the goal of pleasing God. Sincerity must be coupled with truth. We understand this necessity in so many realms of life. Is sincerity enough for the surgeon who truly believes that it is your right arm that needs to be amputated when it is really your left? Is sincerity enough for the pharmacist who sincerely, but mistakenly, dispenses the wrong medicine to you?
Prior to his conversion, the apostle Paul was sincere in his persecution of Christ and the church (Acts 9:5; 26:4-9; 23:1). But his sincerity then was not coupled with the truth of the gospel, and thus he was sinning.
The Bible is replete with people who were sincere but were wrong. Consider the man of God in 1 Kings 13 who was courageous in his prophecy against wicked Jeroboam. He had explicit command from the Lord regarding the way he was to return home, but he ended up believing a lie that led him to disobey God. He was sincere, but he did not act according to truth, and he perished for it.
Then there are the people Jesus describes in Matthew 7:21-23, who believe they had done many good works in the name of Jesus. But they stood condemned because they practiced lawlessness. Sincerity was not accompanied with truth but was joined with works outside the law of God – “lawlessness”.
Loving Jesus in sincerity pleases Him: “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen” (Ephesians 6:24). Although truth is not mentioned here, loving Jesus involves keeping His commandments (John 14:15). Again, to please Jesus we must live in sincerity and in accordance with truth.
The Bible nowhere suggests that sincerity is enough to please God; rather, the Bible teaches us by both precept and example that sincerity alone is not enough. Living in sincerity according to the truth is the way to pleasing God.
-Larry Jones