0123 HOW TO BE A HYPOCRITE

HOW TO KNOW YOU’RE A HYPOCRITE

I present this podcast as a public service on HOW TO BE A HYPOCRITE, based on the symptoms of hypocrisy that Jesus points out in the Pharisees in his day. This all comes from the 23rd chapter of Matthew, which contains the “seven woes” that Jesus says to the religious leaders of the Jews in his day. It is scathing and painful. But you would be very wise to see the signs of hypocrisy and avoid the behavior in your own life. 

It’s popular these days especially toward religious leaders to call someone a “hypocrite.” The word itself means “two-faced,” someone who is facing two ways at the same time. In other words, it is someone who talks one way and behaves a different–maybe even the opposite–way. Quite often, a hypocrite is blind to their own hypocrisy. 

Of course, when I see hypocrisy in someone else, but not in myself, that pretty much guarantees that I am a hypocrite. So, let me use Jesus’ descriptions of the religious leaders of his day to help you know if you, too, are a hypocrite.

Ready? Fire! Aim. 

1. Do not practice what you preach. Whatever you say with your words, don’t do it with your life. This is pretty much the definition of hypocrisy, so we’re off to a pretty good start here.
2. Tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but do not be willing to lift a finger to move them. This is very effective, and we recognize it in politicians in our generation all the time. I also think it is very easy for teachers and college professors (ahem!) to give assignments that are far more difficult than they realize, since they are already familiar with the material. And children complain about this in their parents all the time, right? You lay down strict rules and guidelines for others, but you don’t help them.
3. Do everything for people to see. Dress for respect. Love the place of honor and the best seats in the house. Love to be greeted with respect and to be called rabbi. In short, Exalt yourself, and encourage others to join in. Today, we might label such people narcissistic. In any case, I’m glad I’m not like them. I don’t need affirmation everywhere I go with everything that I do, or with every social media post I make. You probably do.
4. Shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. Do not enter yourself, and don’t let others enter who are trying to. Go to great lengths to win a single convert, and make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. One simple question: How do you gain by someone’s conversion? If there’s something in it for you, you’re probably a hypocrite.
5. If you find yourself saying something beyond a simple yes or no, you show that your simple word is not enough. So you swear on a stack of Bibles, cross your heart and hope to die, or in some way you try to say, “This time I really mean it.” Jesus says that anything beyond that comes from the evil one. If you have levels of credibility, you are a hypocrite. 
6. Be particular about what you obey. For example, you might be a careful tither. But while you do that, neglect the more important matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness. Do you judge others who don’t share your personal standards? Congratulations, you hypocrite!
7. Here are other ways to describe your selective holiness: Somehow you appear as holy, but your heart is a mess. You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. You clean the outside of the cup, but inside are full of greed and self-indulgence. Your public image is like a whitewashed tomb, but inside full of dead man’s bones and everything unclean. (Jesus isn’t saying don’t be clean. He is saying start with becoming Clean inside, then clean outside). 
8. Here is the final test: Do you honor the martyrs and victims of past history, while imagining that you would have been a hero who would have delivered them back in the day? In your imagination, you win twice, once with each face! You rewrite history while distancing yourself from it. Well done, you hypocrite! But I’m not like that. If I had been a Pharisee in Jesus’ day I would have repented right away and challenged my fellow religious leaders to do the same. . . . I would have. I swear it.