Why Are There So Many Hypocrites? Series

In the meantime, God through the Holy Spirit provides some divine housecleaning in our lives. When we mess up, He prompts us to confess it. He gives us the courage and humility to ask for forgiveness. He gives us the power to live the way the Bible teaches. He develops the character of Christ within us and causes the fruit of the Spirit to ripen in our lives.

As authentic Christ followers, we experience forgiveness of sin and life-change as we surrender to Jesus on a daily basis. Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” That’s why being a Christian gives me hope: God’s not finished with me yet. I’m in process. I’m not what I used to be and I’m becoming what I will be.

You see, there’s a dissonance in all our lives between what we know is right and the way we’re currently living. Most of us seek to present an image of ourselves that is better than we really are. In that sense, we’re all hypocrites. As a Christian however, I have some inside information that keeps me from being discouraged with the reality of this discrepancy in my life. I know that God is at work narrowing the gap between what I should be and what I am, between how I should be living and how I am living. As such, there’s no need for cover-ups. I’m freed from hypocrisy. I can take my mask off.

Hope for Hypocrites

Having said all that, is there any hope for hypocrites? What if you’re a hypocrite? What should you do?

John Stott said this about hypocrisy: “Hypocrisy is hideous. What cancer is to the body, hypocrisy is to the church. It’s a killing agent. Unfortunately, hypocrisy is also addictive. And even though Jesus reserved His most severe words of condemnation for the hypocrite, we still seem to prefer that lifestyle to truth and authenticity.” ( “Sermon on the Mount”)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sternly denounced the sin of hypocrisy. In fact, he reserved his harshest criticism for those who are hypocrites. If you’re bothered by spiritual counterfeits, you have some good company. Jesus lashed out at mask-wearers 20 different times in the Gospels. Listen as I read a few verses from the Gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 6:2: “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by men…”

Matthew 6:5: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men…”

Matthew 6:16: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting...”

Matthew 7:5: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Matthew 15:7-8: “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”

Some of the harshest words Jesus ever spoke were directed toward professional religious pretenders. In just one speech, in Matthew 23, He called them: