The Emperor’s New Clothes is a child’s story designed to illustrate the empty façade of vanity.
In the tale, two tailors pretend to possess a cloth that can only be seen by the most cultured eyes. Hence, if the emperor can’t see the fabric, then he shouldn’t be emperor. So, the emperor pretends, and so do his courtiers, royal hangers-on, and other court aficionados.
They all want to be seen as brilliant, and so they pretended to see something brilliant. Yet, that something is nothing at all. It’s an empty promise that leads the emperor to walk about town clothed in nothing more than his underwear.
It’s as if he clothed himself with windowglass, and let the whole world peer through to see what he thought was hidden.
Our spiritual lives are the same. We clothe ourselves in Sunday morning worship, Wednesday evening prayer, and visits to the sick. We put on modest clothing, strip our jewelry from our hands, and bind our hair to look properly religious.
It’s all windowglass. What we are underneath is obvious to everyone we meet. They’re not fooled, even if they pretend to see our manufactured godliness as the real deal.
Isaiah 3:18 tells us:
“In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents.”
This verse is pulled from a longer passage that decries Israel’s dependence on anything other than God for her self-worth. What it tells us is that God will strip away anything false from his people, and they will be revealed as they really are. If they are idol-worshippers, their idols will be revealed. If they chase false sensuality, the nations will see. If high standing in the community drives them, their underpinnings will be taken away.
Only what is true will remain.
Who are we when exposed by our windowglass wardrobe? What truths come out about us?
Jesus gave us the ultimate wardrobe: Love your brothers as yourself.
Is that what people see in us? It’s what forms our underwear, and through the windowglass of our pretentious Christianity, it’s all the world will see even when we think we’re dressed to the nines in the best we can manufacture.
When we wear Jesus, his presence outshines everything else in our life.
Copyright © 2015 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO..F.06.15.vp.esv
Originally Published in Relationships on 9-27-15