PART TWO: Individual Sins 

Hypocrisy

"Woe,to you, hypocrites!" This cry resounds seven times in Jesus' address tothe scribes and Pharisees. "So you also outwardly appear righteous to men,but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity!" (Matt. 23: 28). Thesame is true of us Christians today. It often happens that others think we arebelievers, but really our hearts are full of sins such as bitterness, judging,pride, lying, strife, etc.

Jesuscalls this hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is pretending to be pious when we are reallynot. It is an especially ugly type of deceitfulness, since piety is supposed tobe a life with and for God, who is Light and Truth. That is why Jesus says thehypocrites will come under serious judgement. He tells us in advance what theterrible fate of the pious hypocrites will be: "You serpents, you brood ofvipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?" (Matt. 23: 33).

Jesus' warning shows us that Satan, the liar from the very beginning, wants tomake every effort to catch people who have escaped from him by believing inJesus. Now he wants to catch them in the fishnet of hypocrisy without theirrealizing it. Satan usually succeeds very easily, because we who know JesusChrist as our Redeemer are in danger of becoming too certain that we live forJesus, in the realm of divine truth through the word of God. But in reality ourChristian life is often just a facade. Behind it there is a different reality.

Forinstance, we can say that Jesus has reconciled us and we can preachreconciliation to others, and yet be unreconciled with someone, concealingbitter, critical thoughts in our hearts. We do not hear Jesus pronouncingjudgement over us, "You hypocrite!" (Luke 6:42), because He knowsthat we are not living what we preach.

Furthermore,the "woes" that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees will also apply to us ifwe hypocritically maintain that we are disciples of Jesus and yet refuse totake up our cross. We complain about every burden, need and type of suffering.We even grumble when the smallest things turn out to be unpleasant. Or we rebelwhen we think we are not treated well enough by people, when we are sick orother difficult things hit us. Yet Jesus has said, "Whoever does not bearhis own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14: 27).

Wemay have a special talent for preaching and seem to be accomplishing a greatdeal in the souls of men, or we may put much time and energy into service andprayer for the kingdom of God. Still Jesus has to threaten us with judgement.Why? Because our ministry for Jesus was just a show. When we worked for theKingdom of God, we were not really interested in Jesus and His honour, aspeople thought we were. We did not perform our ministry out of love for Him,but rather to satisfy our own ego, or to gain the admiration of others and tomake a reputation for ourselves. That is, we had ulterior motives.

Yes,we can do great deeds for Jesus, perform miracles, heal the sick and stillbecome Satan's prey, if we do not do the will of God at the same time, as Jesusclearly taught us in His interpretation of the Ten Commandments in the Sermonon the Mount (Matt. 7: 22 f.). The enemy is triumphant, if he can findcriticism, slander, sensual desires, perhaps some type of licentiousness, lackof love for parents, and similar things in our lives. The greatest trick of theenemy is to keep us Christians from realizing that we are leading a two-tracklife.

Tolive hypocritically means to think that we are committed Christians, to praymuch, read the Bible, be active in a Christian fellowship, perhaps even domissionary work, yet not practise what we read in the Bible, pray about andtell others to do. As hypocrites we do not realize that we have fallen into thesleep of the self-certain, who are sure that they have been saved and will goto heaven one day, while Satan laughs scornfully. 

To a great extent we do notpractise what we preach. This is a shocking fact; it ought to shake us up. Whenwe live such a hypocritical life, we become guilty towards our fellow men. Wenot only destroy the credibility of the Gospel for others, but we even causethem to reject Jesus. And we ourselves will be struck by Jesus' shockingverdict, "The hypocrites will be cast into outer darkness; there men willweep and gnash their teeth" (Matt. 24: 51). As hypocrites we will becomechildren of hell (Matt. 23: 15).

Ourhypocrisy provokes the wrath of God, because He is only pleased when we leadour everyday life according to His Word. There is scarcely any other sin thatJesus threatens to judge so severely as the sin of hypocrisy. Therefore, wehave to put all our efforts into being freed from the chains of this sin.

Howdoes this happen? First, by recognizing the root of hypocrisy. Jesus called thepious, hypocritical Pharisees "blind" (Matt. 23: 16). What were theyblind about? Their weaknesses and their sins. They thought they were perfect.So whenever we think we are good Christians, we ought to be filled with holyuncertainty and ask ourselves whether we are leading a hypocritical life. If wedo not want to fall into this sin, we have to ask Jesus ever anew, "Placeme in the light of Your truth-reveal in Your light everything in my life thatis not pure!"

Tobe saved from this sin and to be kept from falling into it entails asking forthe light of truth over and over again. Our eyes have to be opened so that wecan see our blindness, our self-certainty and sleepiness. For only if we cansee our sins and be frightened by them, can we bring them to Jesus and befreed. A sick person can only be helped if he recognizes and admits that he issick. 

Otherwise he would not go to the doctor and the disease would get worseand worse, and, if it is dangerous, it could lead to death. Disciples of Jesusshould follow this advice: Do not be sure that you are all right. Unknown to usthere may be a very serious sin in God's sight that is covered up by a piouslife. Only if we have a holy uncertainty and alertness, can we deal with thedanger of hypocrisy.

Wewill probably all experience the same thing. Whenever we bring our thoughts,words and actions into the light of truth and measure our lives quiteconcretely according to the standards of Holy Scripture, we will be amazed andfrightened at the difference between pretence and reality in our lives. We knowwhat is in the Scriptures, yet we do not practise it in our lives. We confuseknowledge and action. If we use the Holy Scriptures as our standards,* we willbegin to hate hypocrisy, and our repentance will drive us to a battle of faithto lead a genuine life of discipleship.

Beingalert in our effort to live up to the standards of the Word of God, requirestime for meditation. It is advisable to take one Sunday every month, or anyother definite day (besides the usual daily quiet time) to settle accounts.Then we will have several hours of quiet when we can do our spiritualbookkeeping, using the commandments of God as a mirror of conscience, andasking God to test the genuineness of our discipleship. His light will fallinto our imaginary world and we will recognize the truth about ourselves andwill once again recognize sin for what it is.

Itwill also help us if we ask those around us to tell us what we do and say thatis wrong. Only those who are willing to hear the truth about themselves will befreed from the sin of hypocrisy. Those who admit their hypocrisy will becompelled to go to the Physician, who alone can heal this disease: Jesus, whois the Truth. His redemption is the guarantee-if we claim it in faith-that wecan be freed from all untruthfulness in our pious lives.

*It may be of help to read the pamphlet Mirror of Conscience by M. BasileaSchlink.