3 Bible Tips: Sincerity
Several Greek words are translated sincerity and sincere. These three verses use the words eilikrineia (Strong's G1506), which means "clearness" and "purity," and eilikrines (G1506), which means "judged by sunlight, that is, tested as genuine." (Have you heard of testing pottery for cracks filled with wax by holding it up to the sunlight? See more in the suggested reading below.)
1. God wants us to do everything with sincerity and truth—a right heart and right mind. (He doesn't want hypocritical truth or sincere falsehood.)
"Therefore let us 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; Joshua 24:14 also puts sincerity with truth).
2. Paul contrasts pure, godly sincerity with selfish, worldly wisdom.
"For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you" (2 Corinthians 1:12).
3. Sincerity can help us avoid stumbling or causing others to stumble as we approach Jesus Christ's return.
"So that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble]" (Philippians 1:10, Amplified Bible).
For more about sincerity, see "What Is True Sincerity?"