UNFEIGNED, sincere — literally 'un-play-acted': a-, 'not', + hypokritēs, 'an actor, a stage-player' (the source of 'hypocrite'). ⚠ To call faith or love anypokritos is to say it is not a performance, not a mask worn for an audience — the metaphor is straight from the Greek theatre, where the hypokritēs answered from behind a mask. It describes Timothy's 'sincere faith' at 2 Timothy 1:5, love 'without hypocrisy' at Romans 12:9, and the wisdom from above at James 3:17. The word quietly recalls Jesus' charge against the Pharisees as hypokritai — actors performing a righteousness they did not have. → first discussed at 2 Timothy 1:5