Hypocrisy
March 10, 2002
Dear Friends,
Surely one of the great epithets someone can cast at a believer in Jesus Christ is that of hypocrite. It conjures images of the most despised Pharisees saying one thing and doing another. Maybe we loathe being called a hypocrite because deep down, we feel it is true.
Can anyone honestly trying to live out their life in service to Christ and understanding the tremendously high level of commitment and morality not feel that on some level they say one thing and do another? This nagging feeling has on more than one occasion given me pause in preaching the Gospel. Who am I to talk of the things of God? Surely God cannot be pleased for someone like me to speak of the Gospel for to do so makes me nothing less than a hypocrite.
The word hypocrite comes from two Greek words hypo meaning “under” and krinesthai meaning “to contend.” It means “to play a part” as in an actor on a stage. In other words, to be a hypocrite is not to try and fail, but to pretend to something without the real intent to be that person.
Christians, in adopting the teachings and values of Christ, are setting themselves up for a certain degree of failure. The ideal (sinlessness) is unattainable in mortal men or else we would have no need for Christ. One reaction to the high standard of Christ is to change the standard. If we can’t live up to “thou shalt not kill”, then change it to mean something that we can attain. Another unacceptable reaction is to give up trying because the standard is so high. Yet another alternative to living the high calling to which we have been called is to fake it; in other words hypocrisy. Accepting the call of the Gospel is to agree to try to attain the ideal and depending on the mercy of Christ when we do not. Trying and failing is not hypocrisy but everyday living for the servant of God.
Hypocrisy is lying. We may not be lying in words, but in deeds. Jesus, in speaking on hypocrisy, gave the examples of those praying on the street corners or to make themselves known during periods of fasting for all to see. There is nothing recorded of what these people said, but only what they did. Hypocrisy’s motivation is self promotion. I want you to think better of me even though what you believe concerning me may not be true at all. True piety dictates not that they feel good about us, but about God and Christ. Hopefully, our actions are preaching louder than our words. When we preach a standard which we willingly and deliberately do not uphold, we are a hypocrite. When we preach a standard that, through the failings of the flesh, we do not uphold but pretend that we do, we are a hypocrite. When we preach a standard that we try to uphold and our motivation for preaching is not the promotion of self, we are doing exactly as we should.
The Bible tells us to be transformed into new creatures. The word for transformed is metamorphoo from which we derive our English word “metamorphosis.” Like a caterpillar completely changes into a new creature, a butterfly, we are to transform ourselves into a new creature in Christ. This process cannot be playacted in us anymore than a caterpillar can pretend to be a butterfly. We may all be in different stages of this transformation and none of us the final product, but the process remains the same. Sure, we can fake it to others. Wolves can masquerade as sheep and wheat as tares, but the one who is “able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” knows what we are and what we are trying to accomplish — be it our glory or his.
O, blessed Lord, who art above, Deal with us gently in thy love;
And help us this and every day To live more nearly as we pray. (Hymn 310)
Have a great week!
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