The scene opens with Dorothy and the rest of her companions entering into the great arena where the throne of Oz sits. A terrifying and intimidating face appears as flashes of fire and puffs of smoke fill the air. While they plead for Oz’s promised help, Toto pulls back a curtain to reveal a man operating a console of buttons, levers, and pulleys. The powerful image of Oz was a fabrication, a façade, built out of the fear of being found out.

Isn’t that what we do as believers? We work behind the scenes in secret, pressing buttons and pulling levers, convincing people that things are good when they aren’t.

Religious Words as Masks

I remember a conversation by text about Romans 13:12-14, which came from my devotion:

“The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

The response stood out to me: a polite “thank you,” an admission that it was precisely what they needed to hear, and an acknowledgment of what they should be doing versus what they actually were doing. The words sounded religious and contrite, but I realized it was really a mask. We can make an outward show, but if our hearts are immersed in idolatry, then there’s no way to put on anything except that fake image. People can respond with godly phraseology without any intent to change. We humans sure know how to fool people, don’t we? We work hard to throw people off track, to protect the doors we keep open to sin and addiction.

The Deceitful Heart

Jeremiah 17:9 is a true testament to the foolishness and wickedness our hearts can harbor—reminding us that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” That’s a hard truth to take in. Even in our best intentions, we can fall into sexual sin and then smokescreen everyone around us into thinking we really want freedom. I once was that man. But no longer.

The freedom I now walk in from pornography addiction was not easily won. It was a battle. It took transparency, boundaries to keep me protected, ongoing accountability, and people in my life who challenge me to keep walking out this journey. It’s what 1 John 1:4-7 calls us to, saying:

“And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Learning to Walk in the Light

Recently, I was discussing 1 John 1 with a man. He struggled with the verse that says those who claim to walk in the light but walk in darkness are lying and not practicing the truth. This hit me in a fresh way: if we are walking in the light, then we are not walking in darkness—we are practicing the truth!

Masks and Fig Leaves

How many of us in the body of Christ hide behind a mask or an image? I once read in a Bible study plan on YouVersion that “when you meet a man, you meet his fig leaf.” I believe that. Many of us are trapped in prisons of our own making. The trauma that happened to us is not our fault, but our response to it is.

Aaron’s Golden Calf Excuse

Exodus 32 gives us a vivid picture. Moses had been gone a long time on the mountain. The people, weary of waiting, grew impatient and pressured Aaron to make them idols to worship (gods). Seemingly afraid of what would happen if he said no, he used gold earrings and an engraving tool to fashion a golden calf. The people declared, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.” All the great things God had done for them somehow went right out of the window.

But Aaron did something that I think we may have all been guilty of in one form or another. He built an altar before it (the idol) and made a proclamation saying, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”

Do you see it? Aaron appears to be covering his tracks by making this bold proclamation, but he dressed rebellion in religious language.  Later, when confronted, Aaron excused himself, saying, “The calf just popped right out of the fire.”

How often do we try to project a different image than what God sees? How frequently do we use religiously inspired words to cover up our rebellion, our secret sin? No one likes to admit they love their sin, or that they make room for it, carefully crafting ideas to plan out how to get away with it, and descend deeper into darkness.

Sin’s Grip on Us

Pornography, for example, even erodes the physical structure of the brain. That makes the permissiveness by which we make room for it even more dangerous, because it warps our ability to choose against it. But Scripture is clear:

• 2 Corinthians 6:16: “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the Living God. And God has said: I will dwell in them, and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be My people.”
• 2 Corinthians 7:1: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Beloved, I conclude with Hebrews 12:1, which exhorts us:

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

The Lord is calling us to honesty and freedom. Let us not be like Aaron, covering sin with religious language, or like Oz, hiding behind smoke and curtains. Instead, let us walk in the light as HE is in the light, cleansed and strengthened, running the race with endurance.