Truth Bar

For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose. - Philippians 2:13 ESV

I admit it. I like a good candy bar. I almost never eat one, but when I do, I never eat the wrapper. 🥸 This may seem like an absurd comment, but allow me to share a family story.

One time, back when my parents were young, one of my great-grandpas was visiting them. For dessert, Mom made cupcakes. Each cupcake was in its own paper container. This was something that was totally foreign to Grandpa, having been born back in the 1800s. When Mom gave him one, he started eating it, paper and all. Mom tried to tell him to take the paper off, but he was so hard-of-hearing, he had no idea what she was saying. He just continued eating the cupcake and the paper. So, now you understand my opening comment about my never eating the wrapper!

It is not Paul or Apollos

Well, I began thinking about wrappers and their contents, and that gave me a picture of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and me. One of the disciplines I try always to do is to make sure that when I am praying for someone, that person understands that I’m just a candy bar wrapper. It is Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, who ministers and changes times and circumstances. I don’t want them to start looking to me AS their answer. I’m just the wrapper. The goodness is Jesus.

This may seem obvious, but I have known people who only want so-and-so to pray for them. They put their faith in a believer instead of the person of Jesus. Paul, the Apostle, learned of this kind of thing happening in the church in Corinth.

4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.

— 1 Corinthians 3:4-5 NLT

As Christians, we are all just candy bar wrappers. When people see God working through us, and the good deeds we do in the name of the Lord, they are like the words and images on the outside of the wrapper. They are there to communicate the goodness of God. God is inside us, and it is He that people hunger for and He that meets the needs of people.

We are Just Wrappers

If we use a bit more of the candy bar metaphor, the wrapper contains a list of ingredients, the number of servings, and the calories per serving. It shows us the contents inside the wrapper. Paul wrote, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV) The Scriptures show us about God, His nature, His commands, and His promises.

So, you see, we are called to be wrappers. Showing God to people while making sure they don’t confuse the wrappers with the delicious goodness inside. And that is how we use the candy bar as a metaphor for how we present God to people while preventing them from thinking that we are the goodness they seek.