What is Hypocrisy?
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2011 · 26 June 2011
Let us come back to the book of Matthew again as we are starting a new series this evening together with RBC that will last through the summer. We are looking now at chapter 6 where Jesus is still preaching the Sermon on the Mount and He is teaching us now the importance of doing good while no one but God is watching.
What we need to remember is to seek the approval of God over the applause of men. Let us start to read beginning in Matthew 6:1, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
Jesus continues in giving us examples of that which were part of the Jewish life and they are three closely related examples dealing with giving, praying and fasting. And Jesus teaches us that the Pharisees were only interested in the applause of men rather than in worshipping God and He called them hypocrites.
Why do want the applause of men? Well because we want to look good, but actually we want to look better than what we are, especially if there are some truly holy people around us. We want to make a good first impression right? So we get good at being phonies playing the game of hypocrisy.
Let us study tonight how that hypocrisy relates to the hypocrisy in the church today. How many of you think there are hypocrites in the church? Raise your hand. Well I see that is most of us, I hope that this is no surprise to us.
What might be surprising is who those hypocrites are that are mentioned in the bible. If you have in the past invited people to come to church, the excuse that has often been given is, “No I won’t come because church people are just a bunch of hypocrites.” Or “There are too many hypocrites in the church.”
This is understandable hearing it from unbelievers, but I have heard this excuse also from believers who use this as a reason for not going to church. They say, “Well, there are too many hypocrites in the church and I do not want to be a part of that.” They're anti-church, they're anti-organization, they just want to be pious by themselves. They want to be moral in a social way.
Well Jesus addresses this in His sermon and I think Jesus also would agree with the statement that there are hypocrites in the church. We need to acknowledge that and need to deal with that in our life and to reduce that in our spiritual life and that is the reason Jesus taught it.
So first let us talk and define what a hypocrite really is and then we can learn how to reduce that in our life. There are some of us who just confirmed that there are hypocrites in the church, and they might be surprised to find out that we all are among them also.
Let us really pay attention again to what Jesus says in Matthew 6:1, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
This is the thesis statement that is the underlying thought for all the 18 verses for our study. Everything comes back to this statement. Beware of doing good deeds before people because you want applause from them and not because you want approval from God. God looks at your heart’s desire and pure motives first.
What you have in the next 17 verses are three examples of how you should practice righteousness in the world. These were considered the three most important things that a Jew usually does and that is: giving (verses 1-4), praying (verses 5-15) and fasting (verses 16-18).
This is obviously not a complete list of all good deeds but in every example Jesus stresses the same things. Here we learn that God looks first at the motives of your heart in doing good deeds and not just at the deed itself. How many times do we give, pray and fast for the wrong motives?
How often do we pray and fast only when we want something badly? I know many people that do not spend a lot time with God’s Word and rarely even think about God, but when they have to come to court for their asylum, or lose their job, they suddenly start praying and fasting to persuade God to help them.
When do we give and pray to God because we are thankful for what He has done for us? Do we pray because we have a relationship with Him and He is truly our Father? Do we fast because we want something for ourselves or do we fast to come closer to Him, to be more like Jesus and to learn to be more loving?
So according to the bible what is a hypocrite? It is a person without God that is trying to act as a person with God. Think about this carefully, do you realize that this is just the opposite of what most people think a hypocrite is?
What people mean when they say there are so many hypocrites is that there are so many Christians in the church who act like they do not know God. They are Christians who are not living consistent with what the Bible teaches, they lie, they focus on themselves and they do not love people, etc.
But let’s be honest, we all are hypocrites, are we not? There is none of us who is able to live consistently 24/7 without sin, doing good all the time and never breaking the law of God, true? And that is what people say a hypocrite is; a person with God who is living as if he is a person without God.
The truth is that there are hypocrites all through the bible. There are hypocrites in Genesis. There are hypocrites in Revelation. There are hypocrites when the world begins and there are hypocrites when it ends. There are hypocrites in every form of religion and even in Christianity, its true form. There were hypocrites among the 12 disciples. There are hypocrites in the leadership of the church. They're always around. It's just part of the sinfulness of man to play the game of religion.
But when the bible is talking about hypocrisy what is meant is just the opposite. The bible is talking about a person who is not a child of God, but claims he is a child of God and tries to act as a child of God to make people believe he is. The Bible here is referring to false teachers!
This kind of hypocrisy has far more serious consequences in our churches today. And Jesus warns us that we need to be on guard against this! Did you notice the first words in Matthew 6:1, “Take heed” or better said, “Beware” or better not do good before other people in order to be praised by them, for then you will have no reward from your heavenly Father.
He says, watch out, be careful! This is a word of warning to pay close attention, in fact it means to be on guard, be prepared for war! Jesus says this one of the most deceptive tools of our enemy, Satan!
Yes, Satan wants to undermine and weaken your witness for Christ to where we disappoint people as hypocrites, but what he wants even more is that people appear to be religious, to have people give their whole life to appearing to be a godly person leading a church, but in fact being a false teacher. The stakes of these two conditions are totally different.
For a person who is a child of God but who does not always live up to that godly standard, he can influence and discourage others. But compare that to the influence of a person who looks like he is chosen by God and becomes a false teacher in the church.
Because when they lead others astray, it can make the difference of going to heaven or going to hell, this affects their eternal condition, right? That’s why Satan is much more interested in false teachers. This all affects our flesh as human beings; the applause of men is very appealing indeed.
We like to be noticed and we like to be thought of as godly and we like things immediately. Everything in these three warnings is about getting attention for what you do now versus what God approves of in God’s own time that you cannot see or feel immediately.
So a hypocrite is a person who does not believe that acts as if he is a believer. And Jesus is warning us about that each time He gives us an example. 2“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets...5“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites….16“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.”
The word “hypocrite” means being an actor that assumes another character, you play the role of another person and you act as if you are that other person. If you have seen a play or watch TV or a movie you see many actors. They play a role and they are not like that in reality.
So a hypocrite acts as if he has something that he really does not have, he acts as if he has spiritual power from God but in reality he has demonic power from Satan. And he is there to influence you. So let us look at what a hypocrite is according to Scripture.
You might be a hypocrite if you do things for the applause of men instead of for the approval and love of God. Jesus in every example shows us people who are willing to trade in the love from God for the praise of men.
So you might be a hypocrite if:
You are blind to your own faults.
Matthew 7:5 — You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Do you know people that always know what is wrong with other people, the pastor, the loudness of the music and the food but somehow never can see their own shortcomings?
You put tradition over the Bible.
Matthew 15:6–9 — 6he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8These people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
There are people who put more emphasis on their traditions than on what the Word of God says. Many churches have very strong traditions, and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as everyone knows what the word of God teaches and that that takes precedence over any human tradition.
People often pay more attention to their particular customs: to their type of church music, how to dress, how much to give and what their church in Indonesia allows but pay less attention to the core of God’s teachings like love, justice and mercy.
You influence others for religion instead of for Christ.
Matthew 23:15 — “15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”
You are more interested in religion rather than a relationship with Jesus. You are more interested in changing a person to become more like you rather than to genuinely become a person that believes and is becoming more like Jesus Christ.
You put on a religious front to cover up an evil heart.
Matthew 23:25–28 — 25Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
You are a hypocrite if you are more interested in what other people think rather than what God thinks of the inside of your heart. Some very mean people have come from inside a church. Think about the sharp words that have come from Christians when churches have split or fights have occurred.
You refuse to acknowledge the similarity between you and your predecessors.
Matthew 23:29–32 — 29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.”
Look at the history of the church, we do not want to be like those who have made the Word of God secondary, we do not want to become lukewarm for God, we do not want to loose our first love. And yet Christianity is being attacked from all sides.
Look around Denver, Colorado. On any Sunday, the percentage of people that go to church is only at 12 % of the total population. We know that with every generation each new one is farther from God than the previous one. We are not living in a Christian country anymore; we are living in a country where most young people have never opened a bible.
Hypocrisy is never treated lightly in Scripture. All of the religious acts mentioned by the prophet Amos had been prescribed by God; but because they were performed insincerely and were not accompanied by righteous living, they were not acceptable to God. The sacrifices, offerings, and songs were not given to God’s glory but to the people’s own glory and self-satisfaction.
Let us look at ourselves and let us examine our own hearts. Why do we do what we do? Is it truly to please God or is it just a habit or a place to meet your friends? Are you in church to honor God and do you treat God like He deserves? Are you faithful even when nobody is around to see it? Let us pray!