by Pastor JR Cuevas

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

I’m under no assumption that we will ever be a perfect church. Neither am I under any assumption that I will ever be a perfect person, nor should you. Apart from the person of Christ, no one ever walked the planet in perfect sinlessness, nor will anyone ever do so. One manifests the Spirit’s working in him not on whether he is free from sin, but on whether he fights sin. A Christian is nothing less than a soldier who wages war against the sinfulness that is dead in him yet still present in him. He who claims sinlessness calls God a liar, and the truth is not in him. Be aware of ever thinking that you have arrived, and guard yourself from becoming so insecure about your salvation every time you feel yourself struggling against your body of death.

Yet, as I followed the life of Christ and observed the way He treated sinners and handled different situations, oh so clear it has become that the Lord did not treat all sins equally. Every sin is worthy of condemnation – yet some sinners Christ still deemed as sons of God while some He deemed as sons of hell. True, we all struggle with sin. Yet, why is it that there are certain sinners in the Bible to whom Christ displayed His wrath? Every encounter that Christ had with a person – from his disciples to the Pharisees to the lepers to the adulterers – was an encounter with a sinner. And to many, He showed mercy. Yet, to some, He was harsh and condemning. True – God hates all sin. But is there a particular sin that, when unchecked, can almost surely lead him to being a vessel of wrath? All sin must be mortified, but is there one to which we must be particularly wary of and acidify all the more at its earliest roots? Christ seemed to think so, for He had a particularly intense aversion towards the sin of hypocrisy.

If you disagree, listen to the words of Christ Himself in Matthew 23, as He confronts the Pharisees for this very sin. In no where else do the Scriptures record such a wrathful condemnation of sinners as in this discourse of Christ’s condemnation of the Pharisees. To the tax collector Matthew, he simply told him to follow him. To the woman caught in adultery, He told her to sin no more. To the prideful and quick-to-speak peter, He rebuked him. But to Pharisees and the scribes, He called sons of hell. And, amidst all the things He mentioned in this long condemnation, the following was His main accusation: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” Seven times he repeated this, and thus you and I must heed. You who call yourself a follower of God, beware – BEWARE! – of hypocrisy. The sinner of a humble and contrite spirit He will not reject, but the sinner who breeds hypocrisy of the Scribes and the Pharisees He will condemn.

The word “hypocrite” in the Greek literally means “actor,” or “stage player.” One of the most appealing things about the “Behind the Scenes” or “Bloopers” section in the DVD of a movie is seeing the stark difference between the personality of the actor when in front of the camera and the one behind the scenes. The sin of hypocrisy, then, is this – a lack of wholeness in character that results in an inconsistency between who a person make himself out to be versus who he really is. It is the act of staging – pretending to be someone before people whom you are really not. Thus, spiritual hypocrisy is the staging of godliness that one does not have nor wish to have.

Listening to Christ’s several accusations against those hypocritical Pharisees and scribes, one learns much about how hypocrisy is manifested. Hypocrisy is the external staging of caring for people’s spiritual growth coupled with the internal reality of apathy and even animosity towards people. Hypocrisy is seen when one engages in so many external Christian activities such as praying and singing and teaching only for the sake of impressing people. Hypocrisy is being overly zealous about upholding certain aspects of Christian living such as tithing while neglecting the more important aspects such as justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Hypocrisy is pretending to be worshipful externally, when internally one writhes in self-worship, pride, and hatred for people. Hypocrisy is seen when one aligns himself with certain keynote theologians in their doctrines, yet fail to emulate them in their living. Hypocrisy is when one flatters people before their faces and slanders them behind. Hypocrisy is seen when one engages in spiritual activities and yet harbors unrepentant sin. Hypocrisy is when one assumes a different identity or personality before different people with the intention of pleasing them rather than serving them (a.k.a. acting). Hypocrisy is seen when one pretends to be without sin when inside he is swimming in it. The hypocrite is the one who claims to love God yet hates his brother. The underlying message that Christ had to these Pharisees: “Woe to you hypocrites, because you pretend to be godly externally when your hearts are filthy internally.”

Fighting for integrity, then, is a non-negotiable pursuit in Christian living. Everyone has the tendency to be hypocritical in one area or another, but not everyone is willing to fight it. One may have the sin of hypocrisy in him, but one becomes hypocritical when he refuses to fight the sin and allows it to master him. The man of integrity, then, is not so much the man who is absolutely free from hypocrisy but one who passionately fights against it and contritely repents when he exhibits it. Take heed, then, and flee from all hypocrisy. Pursue wholeness in character; pursue integrity in speech and action. Let the person you are before God be the same person you are before people – regardless of whom you are in contact with. Beware of hypocrisy, oh fellow saint, lest Christ say to you on the day of judgment, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?”