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1Tim 4:15-16 . . Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.
A church officer can progress in only one of two directions. If he goes downwards, as the Laodicean pastor of Rev 4:14-20; that's not progress, that's regress; which Webster's defines as: movement backward to a previous, and especially worse, or more primitive, state or condition.
This doesn't mean that a church's facility needs paint and its weeds sprayed with Roundup. We're talking about an officer's personal spiritual condition. He may be the head honcho of an illustrious, impressive, big-city church campus, and still be in a condition of regression because it's not the outside of a church that testifies to his true spiritual condition, but rather, his own insides; for example:
"You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and all kinds of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." (Matt 23:27-28)
The koiné Greek word for "hypocrisy" is hupokrisis (hoop-ok'-ree-sis) which means acting under a feigned part. Hypocrisy is a lucrative profession for people employed in movies, sit-coms, and soaps. But that's okay because it's all above board. We know they're just playing roles and they're not trying to get by with anything; but a church officer is not supposed to be an actor; he's supposed to be a man of integrity.
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