City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler.

The Word

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

-Luke 12:1–3

Reflection

Jesus says to “beware” of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a dangerous thing. 

As Jesus said, hypocrisy is like leaven—it spreads from within without being seen. Because others can’t see the unrighteousness in our heart and in our thought life, we see no immediate need to deal with it, as long as we present an outward righteousness. 

So, we let the unrighteousness within remain. The longer it remains and we get away with it, the safer we feel in it. We then think if we can get away with hypocrisy in one area of our life, we can get away with it in another.  As the hypocrisy spreads, we go from being merely hypocritical to being a hypocrite. We become whitewashed tombs.

Hypocrisy is also dangerous, Jesus says, because it will be found out. We think because our unrighteousness is tucked away secretly in our heart, no one knows and no one will find out. But God knows, and Jesus says, others will know as well. Hypocrisy may spread in the dark but it eventually is seen in the light, and not just on judgment day. 

Application

Fortunately, Jesus does not leave us there, merely warned about something dangerous. On another occasion, Jesus addressed the issue of hypocrisy directly with the Pharisees and told them how to avoid it.  He told them to first clean the inside of the cup, and then the outside of the cup would take care of itself. (Matthew 23:25-26). We get it backwards, though. We focus on what people can see first, instead of what God has always seen.

This is the same concept Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount, when He told His disciples to focus on not hating and lusting instead of just not being murderers or adulterers. (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28). If we do the former, we will never have to worry about the latter, and more pertinent to this post, we will not have to worry about being hypocrites.

Prayer

Lord, please give me the grace and power to see unrighteousness in my heart and deal with it promptly and permanently. In Jesus’ name, amen.