August 8
August 8
Hypocrisy is the mortal enemy of the work of God’s amazing grace.
Hypocrisy confuses many of us. It is not hypocritical to commit to live as God commanded but to fail. On this side of eternity all of us have done and will continue to do this. That’s why we always need God’s forgiving and restoring grace. Hypocrisy always involves intentionality. Hypocrisy is making a public confession of allegiance to God while having no intention of living out that public confession. Hypocrisy settles for public religious displays while the heart is far from God. The hypocrite makes public confessions of sin while pursuing the very sins he confesses. The hypocrite throws around his theological knowledge without any real intention of surrendering to the one who is at the center of that theology. The hypocrite demands of others what he has no intention of doing himself. The hypocrite is quick to point out another’s sin, while carefully hiding his own. The hypocrite claims to worship God while living in constant pursuit of God-replacements. Hypocrisy is the enemy of the work of God’s grace because the hypocrite is satisfied with external religiosity rather than the true surrender of heart that grace alone can produce.
Jeremiah 7 records God’s redemptive anger and discipline of his people. One thing God charges his children with—something that he will not tolerate—is hypocrisy:
If you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are delivered!”—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. (Jer. 7:5–11)
God makes strong charges here in order to instruct and convict us. His children do not offer love, which he has given to them, to those around them. His children benefit daily from his holiness, but have no commitment to holiness in their own lives. And those who stand before God in the court of the temple make offerings to false gods at the same time.
Here’s the danger of hypocrisy: it leads you to forsake God, while doing enough “good” things to convince yourself that you haven’t truly forsaken him. Hypocrisy is rooted in the deceitfulness of the heart.
May we pray for rescuing and empowering grace, so that we will never become comfortable with the spiritual duplicity of hypocrisy. It is only by convicting, rescuing, and empowering grace that we are able to surrender our hearts solely to God.