Post by Murph on Aug 26, 2023 6:43:10 GMT -6
The Cure for Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy and Sincerity
Of all the spiritual dangers to which Christ alerted His disciples, few of them outweigh His warnings concerning hypocrisy. And our Lord left little room for confusion about what He meant. One need only read the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ calls out the dangers of hypocrisy when it invades prayer, fasting, giving to the poor, or practices of righteousness (Matt. 6:1–6, 16). He is even more explicit in the Seven Woes, where He hammers the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who “preach, but do not practice”; do their religious deeds “to be seen”; love seats and titles of honor; are blind to worldlines, justice, and mercy; strain out gnats while swallowing camels; and appear clean without but are unclean within (Matt. 23:1–36). This is the spiritual hazard that Christ described as “leaven,” which spreads invisibly and thoroughly (Luke 12:1).
By talking about hypocrisy, Christ was invoking a familiar and graphic image to illustrate when you and I pretend to be something that we are not. The root of the word hypocrite refers to an actor. In ancient Greece, actors wore masks to indicate what parts they were playing. Those in the audience would see the facial shell, which hid the real person underneath. This illustrates the concept of hypocrisy—what others see makes a pleasant impression, but it is false. Our religious mask betrays what is truly underneath. The thin veneer of our religious hypocrisy hides the cheap material within. It is a lie.
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