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Oct 09, 2023 18:30pm

Hypocrisy

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Sometimes you just get a “hankerin’” for something, don’t you? You’ve got your mind and heart set on it.

A commercial plays and it makes the craving worse. A big cheeseburger appears in the screen with all the fixings making it look like the best thing you’ve ever seen in your life. Every detail about that burger in the commercial looks perfectly delicious.

So, you grab your keys, hop in the car and make your way down to the local burger joint. The Golden Arches greet you as you enter the parking lot and pull up to the drive-thru. You came for one thing, so your order is simple. A short while later, you’re headed home with a sack full of wonderful in your hand.

Excitement, expectation, joy, so many emotions run through you as you peel back the wrapper to the sandwich you’ve been looking forward to.

Disappointment floods over you. Emotions are far different than they were a moment ago.

Something is not right here.

There’s nothing like the feeling of opening up that anticipated treat to reveal it’s not what you thought it was. First of all, it’s never like the commercial. Second, where’s the beef? You paid for a cheeseburger and you got a cheese sandwich. This is not at all what you thought you were going to get.

“In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
Luke 12:1-3

Hypocrisy. What appears to be, is not at all truthful. The outside doesn’t match the inside. In this case, the Pharisees were good at putting on public displays of holiness but on the inside, they were far from God.

Jesus warned the disciples about the Pharisees’ hypocrisy. However, He also shared that their secrets would be revealed eventually. Although the Pharisees may have thought they were playing the part perfectly, the Lord is not fooled. He is all-knowing. Even about matters of the heart.

So, what does hypocrisy look like? Could it be in our own lives?

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 129:23-24

1. Do our actions match our words?
2. Are we the same person in public as we are when no one is looking?
3. Do we know the truth and obey it?
4. Do we live a self-serving life but portray ourselves as a Christian?
5. Are we truly worshipping God or tradition?

The list could continue. Where is the Spirit convicting our hearts today? Notice what the scripture says “ lead me”. Not “and I’ll fix it”. When sin is discovered and change needs to take place in our lives, it must be led by the Holy Spirit. Only He can change us from within and create something that lasts. Our little fix-it jobs will only mask the problem temporarily. Turn to the Father for help.