We were looking at Luke 6 in church the other day, and it got me thinking about hypocrites. More particularly, am I one?
The old gag suggests that I am: “The church is not full of hypocrites—there’s always room for one more!”
On this understanding, hypocrisy is an unavoidable description of the normal Christian life. We all say one thing, but do another. We preach against lying, and yet find ourselves telling porkies. We rail against greed and materialism, and then chat about it all the way home in our Audi A4.
Or, as Luther famously said, we are all “simul justus et peccator”—at the same time, justified and yet, sinners. And so, if hypocrisy is the sin of preaching or believing something, but doing the opposite, then all true Christians are, by definition, hypocrites. Our performance always falls short of our confession.
But this presents us with a problem as we read the New Testament, because, according to Jesus, hypocrites are children of hell who do not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 23:13-15). Hypocrisy is not an unavoidable state—it’s the leaven of the Pharisees that must be avoided at all costs (Luke 12:1).
I think this is because ‘hypocrisy’ in the New Testament is a little different from how we often use the word. For us, hypocrisy is failing to practice what we preach. For the archetypal New Testament hypocrites (the Pharisees), it was failing to believe what they practised. It was not their performance that was the problem, but their hearts.
“You hypocrites!” said Jesus to them. “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Matt 15:7-8). The Pharisees strove to appear righteous externally, and to behave impeccably, and to be seen and approved by men as they did so (Matt 6:2, 5). And yet, for all whiteness of their exterior, inside they were full of corruption and dead men’s bones (Matt 23:27-28).
To be a hypocrite in the New Testament sense, then, is to be a pretender, a fake, a phoney—a moralistic Sunday Christian who outwardly appears to obey the rules, but who, in reality, has a hard and corrupt heart that refuses to fall before Jesus in humble repentance and trust. This will emerge in behaviour, of course, but it may not be so readily or publicly apparent.
So perhaps we should be relieved. Maybe we’re not all hypocrites after all!
In reality, it is a far more sobering challenge, for the first disciples had to beware the leaven of the Pharisees, and so must we. Outward religiosity as a cover for internal spiritual deadness: it’s a deadly combination. And we drift towards it when our hearts grow cold and selfish and hard, even while our outward performance remains respectable and impressive.
May the Lord keep us from hypocrisy by applying his gospel to our hearts by his Spirit.
Galatians 2 also provides what I think is a good definition of hypocrisy. When Paul opposes Peter in Antioch (Galatians 2:11-14) he says that “their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel”.
Hi Tony,
This is a helpful clarification of the NT concept of hypocrisy. If I’m hearing you right, hypocrisy isn’t that we fall short of God’s standards when we’re not meant to, but that we then pretend (to God and others) that we actually haven’t. It’s a superficial sense of righteousness that doesn’t accord with the inward reality.
Rather than pretend we’ve got our lives all figured out, God would rather we confess openly our failings to one another, thereby protecting us from a hypocritical existence. The problem, of course, with initially being dishonest about something is that we then have to perpetuate the lie in an ever-increasing game of keeping up the facade. Not surprisingly, the life of integrity is far less stressful!
In applying this to how we treat others, it has occurred to me that there are countless occasions when we might inadvertently encourage hypocrisy in another. Too often, I prefer others to be “doing fine”, rather than actually know what’s happening in their lives. In the busyness and tiredness of everyday life, it is easier to presume that someone is fine rather than that they need to confess something. Sadly, by keeping the conversation superficial, through subtle cues and tone of voice, we express our being open only to positive responses. By denying another the possibility of things not being right, our “encouraging conversations” may achieve the exact opposite, furthering the other person’s inability to feel safe enough to share their deeper inward struggles.
To prevent against an increase in hypocrisy, let us work at being Hebrews 3:12-like communities!
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.