Authenticity
Authenticity requires honesty—not putting on a mask; not coming to church and acting okay when I’m not. It is weeping with those who weep; rejoicing with those who rejoice; bearing one another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. God forbid our churches would ever become a place of pretense and mask-wearing and acting like I’m fine when I’m not.
So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not
practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:6-7 NLT
