Make Hypocrisy History

How many times have you heard non Christians joke about the hypocrisy of Christians? How many disillusioned people have you met that have been burned by a fake Christian?

Preachers falling have become so common place that we no longer even bat an eye do we? People aren’t stupid. They see all this that goes on and it just keeps adding to their ideas that Christians are all hypocrites. They say and or portray one thing but live privately in a different way.

Matt 6:1 …definition of hypocrisy. Practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.

Hypocrisy in any form, giving, praying, fasting. Hypocrisy seems to touch a raw nerve in Jesus doesn’t it? Jesus didn’t just speak out against it he went on a full on assault. Jesus assaulted it, he attacked it over and over again throughout his ministry here on earth.

Jesus attacks it so often because the insiders have such a tendency towards hypocrisy.

Listen to Jesus’ words in Matt 23:33 to those he was confronting the Pharisees with hypocrisy…
33"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Jesus hated hypocrisy and left not grey area for misunderstanding.

But unfortunately, for far too many people being a Christian and being a hypocrite go hand in hand. We could try to say that the outsiders just have misunderstood those in the church but sadly most of their perceptions are true.

Religious artificiality is a disease of the soul that can only be healed by having an authentic relationship with the great healer.

Let’s look at the Old testament –

Isaiah 29:13
13 The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.

Their reverence is a tradition learned by rote. Down deep in their hearts they are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Sound familiar. This sounds eerily like many of the legalistic churches out there I described.

I don’t blame non Christians from being turned off from Christianity because hypocrisy is rampant isn’t it? When a Christian is authentic he can’t help but stand out because it is different.

I have been a around Christians my entire life and authenticity is rare.

Ezk 33:30-33
30 "As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, 'Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.' 31 My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. 32 Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.

Like a performer, you have great words, you bring out the urges in us to do what is right but in the end no life change really happens.

Scary isn’t it? God was condemning them because they came, heard the words of the Lord, expressed devotion with their mouths but in their hearts nothing was changing, they put nothing into practice.

Do we act one way with some people and another with others?

Now let’s go back to the passages we’ve been looking at.

Matt 6:1 Warning right off the bat…beware…definition of hypocrisy. Practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Don’t do that, say’s the savior, otherwise you’ll get your reward right then and there.

At the time this was written there were 3 great works among the Jews of the day…giving, praying, and fasting. Understand Jesus doesn’t dispute these as good works. He is all for giving, praying and fasting. His concern was that this had degenerated into a masking of evil motives. He attacks their motives.

Look at the Beginning verse
3, 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
5 5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
16 16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.

When you give, when you pray, when you fast. Don’t be hypocrites. He is attaching the hypocrisy surrounding these acts not the acts themselves.

Give generously but keep it to yourself. When you announce it in your own ways no matter how subtle we may be that is your reward. Motivations can be so deceiving can’t they? What’s at the heart of your giving?

Hypocrisy is about the heart. What is your motivation. To discover our hidden motivations are often more and more difficult the older we get. The more we do things the more we are blinded by our ways. We get so used to putting on the masks that we get to the point where we have deceived ourselves. We’ve all seen these people in our older people. Put an end to it now while there is still a chance. Don’t be part of the problem, be something different.

6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray

Take a look at your prayer life. How much of it is phony? How much of it is real? Is it hard for you to just get real with God all by yourself?

16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do
And fasting. Whenever you fast don’t put on a gloomy fase. That tells you that Jesus’ face was not gloomy. Why are all the pictures of Jesus so gloomy? Don’t do it to be seen. I don’t think this is a problem we struggle with but we have our own ways of displaying pride. Just fast for God’s glory.

Three practical tips and two warnings…

1. Exposing hypocrisy is helpful. Overexposure to Christianity will produce hypocrisy. Don’t model a pias religious front.

2. Practicing hypocrisy is natural. It appeals to our old nature. So watch yourself, it can creep up on us before we know it.

3. Breaking with hypocrisy is painful. Someone who is steeped in religion for many years is painful to train. It starts with an admission by saying I am a hypocrite.

Warnings:

1. Evaluate your private life vs. your public persona. If you’re doing these things, giving, praying, or fasting in public only something is wrong. Evaluate your heart. Why do you do the things you do? Is your private life dead as a door knob? Don’t hide behind a mask. Be real. Ask for help. Admit your weaknesses. Jesus loves when we admit our weaknesses and ask for help but he hates hypocrisy.

2. Watch how strongly you embrace your traditions. Hold them loosely. Things that aren’t the essentials of the faith you should hold loosely. Ask yourself, is my holding on to this turning others off? Is my holding on to this burdening my children?