Hypocrisy

Written By Melvin Jones

   If you have been a Christian for any length of time, and you have sought to live the life rather than just run the traditions, you’ve probably had this experience. You let other people know that you have become a Christian and that your life is different now. You want Christ to work in you (Philippians 2:13) and you begin to grow as a Christian. But then you mess up. Worse, you mess up in front of one of the non-believers you’ve been talking to. The result: A loud resounding accusation of being a Hypocrite. But are you? No.

   Often, we don’t want to hold each other accountable. Why? Well, gee, I mess up too. Who am I to tell someone else they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing? That would be hypocritical. Wouldn’t it? Well, no. It wouldn’t be. And you limit your usefulness to the body if you hold what could be considered such a shallow view of hypocrisy.

   Jesus rarely called people names. But when He used the “H” word, it was for some really significant reasons. Take a look at what he says about His most powerful nemeses – the scribes and the Pharisees. Aside from calling them snakes and vipers (Matthew 23:33), He was rather plentiful in his reference to them as hypocrites. Notice what He says about them along the way:

• They lock people out of the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 23:13)
• They are children of hell (Verse 15)
• They ignore the importance of justice, mercy and faith (Verse 23)
• They are full of greed and self-indulgence (Verse 25)

   The scribes and the Pharisees lived in a pretend world. They pretended they were seeking the Kingdom of Heaven when actually they were just seeking the riches of this world, no matter the cost. And they pretended they wanted to help others to God when actually they just wanted to add to their political faction, increasing their own clout.

   They were not really righteous. Jesus describes them as children of hell, not children of Abraham, who were made righteous by faith, not works. As many people do today, they were playing at church (or in this case, temple). They came in and said all the right things, even did all the right religious practices but there was no real relationship with God in all of it. As Jesus points out, if they were truly seeking to serve God they would have listened to Him (John 10:26-27) rather than trying to kill Him. They tried to put on all the appearances of the righteous and were enraged when Jesus confronted them with their hypocrisy.

   They were more interested in appearances and their own reputations in the neighborhood. Thus they were very accurate in figuring out how much to give to the Temple treasury, right down to the amount of spices and impressing people by their tithing. But when it came to treating people with compassion and trying to do right by them, the scribes and the Pharisees were found wanting. They were more interested in impressing people than truly pleasing God.

   Despite their “I’m-more-righteous-than-you” act, they were greedy and self-indulgent. They talked about heaven but they chased riches. They talked about humility but they outdid each other to see who could be the most powerful, the most influential. They talked about righteousness but were more than willing to lie, cheat and steal. They were willing to set up some poor woman for a stoning (John 8:3) in order to try to trap Jesus, while they pretended they were interesting in defending the law. They got upset because the Son of Man healed a man on the Sabbath. They got twisted out of shape because He had dinner with sinners and publicans, behaving as though they weren’t sinners as well.

   When the unsaved claim the church is filled with hypocrites, they are probably right. There are people in the church who are just like the scribes and the Pharisees. They use the church as a source of riches and power. There are pastors and elders who see it as a ready source of babes trusting enough to be taken advantage of by him or more than willing to be a bunch of church going groupies. How many church people go to church just to find a wife or husband? Or worse, just to find a sex partner? Hypocrites? They’re all around you.

   Are you a hypocrite if you fail to live up to the standard you have committed to? No. Are you a hypocrite if you believe you are better than another simply because you don’t do some of the things they do as obviously as they do them (Luke 18:11)? Yes.

   A hypocrite presents one face in public, another in their private life. But he has neither the intention nor the desire to obey God’s precepts in private. The righteous man seeks to be obedient to God no matter who is watching or not watching. The righteous man depends wholly on God’s work in his life and is grateful for what God has done for him. The hypocrite thinks God should be grateful for what he has done for God.

   Is the man who truly and sincerely struggles with a stronghold of pornography in his life and calls out to God daily to remove the addiction, a hypocrite? Or is it the man who pretends at righteousness, while all the time purposely and joyously filling his life with those things God has clearly condemned when he is away from the church?

   It is very difficult for a real life, honest to goodness, born again Christian to be a hypocrite. After all, he has a new heart and that heart wants to obey Christ. If a person can take joy in disobeying, then odds are he isn’t a Christian to begin with.