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`Sincere and without offence' (Phil. 1:9,10).
Tested by sunlight.
Under the last heading we commenced to examine some of the terms used in the New Testament that indicate
`what manner of persons' we ought to be who have been blessed as we have been, who are to be presented as we
shall be, who have been `made meet' and `accepted in the Beloved'. In Philippians the apostle prays for the believer
saying :
` That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment: that ye may approve things
that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ' (1:9,10).
`Sincere and without offence'. This is a goal towards which we all should press, `a consummation devoutly to be
wished'.
Eilikrines `sincere'. Helios is `the sun' considered mainly as the source of `light'. The righteous are to shine
forth `as the sun' (Matt. 13:43), and the risen Lord appeared to John with a countenance like the sun shining in its
strength (Rev. 1:16). The believer has been made meet for the inheritance `in the light' and so we find that the word
`sincere' is a compound of eile `the light of the sun', and krino `to discern' or `to judge'. `Tested by sunlight' is a
good translation of eilikrines.
While the etymologists do not favour the popular notion that the word sincere comes from the Latin sine
`without' and cera `wax', yet it is such a good illustration that if it be not true, it seems that it ought to be. However,
the believer is not driven to invent meanings, there is generally some provision in the Scriptures themselves that
provide illustrations. This we shall find upon investigation to be the case with the word translated `sincere'.
It is used with the term `unleavened bread' in 1 Corinthians 5:8, the leaven needing to be `purged out' being
unclean, the leaven moreover being called `old' in contrast with the `new lump', and also made comparable with
malice and wickedness, and finally the unleavened bread is used to typify `sincerity and truth' (1 Cor. 5:7,8).
In the second epistle to the Corinthians the apostle uses the word, not this time in connection with the leaven of
immoral living as he had in the first epistle, but with the adulteration of the Word of God, an immorality that is
perhaps deeper, but not so abominable in the sight of men.
` For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly
wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward'
(2 Cor. 1:12).
` For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God
speak we in Christ' (2 Cor. 2:17).
The apostle expounds the meaning of the word `sincere' in the chapters that follow :
` We use great plainness of speech' (2 Cor. 3:12).
` Not handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God' (2 Cor. 4:2).
We have extended the context of these two occurrences for the apostle explains himself.
Elsner, a Prussian divine of the seventeenth century concluded that eilikrines does not refer to the persons but to
the cleanness or perspicuity of the mind or understanding, and he cites examples from the classics. Clement in his
first epistle to the Corinthians has the sentence: ei tie kath'hen hekaston EILIKRINOS KATANOUSE `if any one shall
distinctly and accurately consider'.
In the context of the word sincere in the first chapter of Philippians we have a strong emphasis upon `sense', as
the word `judgment' of verse nine is given in the margin; and in 2 Peter 3:1 the apostle uses the word `sincere' in
connection with dianoia `the mind' or `understanding'. Philippians 1:10, however, appears to refer to the person, and
there does not appear to be any evidence that a man is ever denominated eilikrines in respect of his understanding.