The King’s New Clothes
By
Wanda Ritter
Once upon a time there was a king
who was very vain. He was going to have
a great procession through the village and lead it himself. He wanted to look so grand. Two tailors came to the palace and told the
king about this beautiful new cloth that was invisible. Only royalty and important, intelligent
people could see it, so he had the tailors making him a suit of the
material. When it came time for the
king to try on the new suit, they asked the king what thought of it. The king just stared at it with a strange
look on his face. He could see nothing,
but couldn’t say so because if he couldn’t see it, who could?
The day of the procession came and
the tailors pretended to help the king into his new suit. Believing he looked magnificent, head high, he
walked from the palace into the street.
Everyone was making remarks about the wondrous new clothes. But a young boy sitting on his father’s
shoulder pointed and cried, “Look, there comes the king and he hasn’t any
clothes on.” Soon all the people began to laugh and point at the king marching
down the street in nothing but his crown and long underwear. The king realized he had been made a fool of;
all because of his pride.How easily we can be deceived because of pride. In the book of Acts we read about King Herod who sat on his throne and mouthed great words. So the people began to claim he was a God. Herod must have been pleased and the Lord sent an angel to strike him down and he was eaten alive by worms. God saw through to his heart.
During the time of the apostles, there was a magician who boasted how great he was and the people called him a god. But Phillip came and preached about Jesus, so the magician went to Peter and offered money if they would give him the Holy Spirit so he would have power to build his reputation. People can appear to be soothing they aren’t.
When Paul was preaching in
We can look like we are Christians by talking the talk and yet live a life of deceit. I John 1:6 says, “If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”
We have a daily battle in which we are tried; tested and tempted. But the bible warns us how we should behave and not think about how to gratify the desires of our sinful nature. (Romans 13:13-14)
If we took a person from the gutter and dressed them in expensive clothes, taught them how to walk and talk properly, but never gave them a bath – they would still smell. They would look good, but the dirt would still be there. Up close the truth would be revealed. We laugh at the story of the King’s New Clothes and think how foolish he was, but before we laugh to long, let’s look at our own parade. We may think we are dressed in a marvelous suit of Christianity, but if we still dabble in the ways of the world, Satan is making a great fool of us. God sees our nakedness.
We need to ask God to show us our hearts and if there is some sin there. Then when he shows us we must repent. “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does no do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” James 1:21-24
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