Hypocrisy and the Sin of Not Doing
By John Fanella
“For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. Thus they have committed adultery with their idols and even caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through the fire to them as food. Again they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths. For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and lo, thus they did within my house.” Ezekiel 23: 37-39
There are three dangerous roads that every grace-saved person faces:
The first is the road of legalism. For the legalist, grace turns into self-righteousness. This road is full of travelers who think they are earning God’s favor by strict obedience to petty rules. Rarely will a legalist reveal this motive, but deep down inside, the legalist does not really trust the free gospel of Jesus. So to ease his distrust, he adds his own works, filthy as they are, to tip the scales in his favor once and for all.
The second is the road of lawlessness. For the lawless one, grace turns into self-indulgence. Paul warned of the potential misunderstanding of grace. From the outside, grace gives the appearance that holy living is irrelevant. Since it is powerless to save, why pursue it all? But such a response to grace betrays the vileness of the human heart. To look a gift-giver square in the face, spit in it, and then proceed to keep the gift is a treachery beyond description. It is like a husband who, knowing his wife’s undying commitment to him, desecrates their marriage through adultery, then returns to the wife expecting full acceptance, forgiveness and love. A cheap, lawless response to grace is not true participation in grace; just as a marriage between three people is not a marriage.
The third is the road of hypocrisy. For the hypocrite, grace turns into self-propagation. Hypocrisy is doubly wicked because it combines the wickedness of the other roads into one. Its goal is not merely saving or indulging self; its goal is to exalt self. Christian hypocrisy is the participation in divine ordinances while at the same time trampling God underfoot through unholy behavior. Hypocrites, because they believe God and man are impressed by their participation in holy ordinances, attend services of worship merely because of social expectation or personal gain. They have no intention of honoring God with their bodies outside of the place of worship, but they feel it necessary to make others think they do. The combination of ungodly living and participation in worship is a crime that God will punish with vengeance.
JONATHAN EDWARDS AND HYPOCRISY
Jonathan Edwards, in his rather unknown essay called, A Warning to Professors or The Great Guilt of Those Who Attend on the Ordinances of Divine Worship, And Yet Allow Themselves In Any Known Wickedness, addresses this issue of Christian hypocrisy. In the essay, Edwards makes the point that participating in holy worship while living in known sin, “profanes the holy worship of God and defiles the temple of God and those sacred ordinances on which they attend.”Edwards points to three sins associated with Christian hypocrisy:
1. Irreverence. Hypocrisy is a sign of deep and spiritual irreverence to the holiness of God. When a person attends a service of worship, participates in sacraments, bows his head in prayer, lifts his voice in praise, hears of the glorious gospel of Jesus, then walks from that place into sin and disobedience, that person displays a horrible contempt for God. Their contempt is multiplied the following week, when they return again to the worship of God without fear.
2. Mocking of God. Hypocrisy turns the sacred worship of God into a self-glorifying act and thereby mocks God. It is mockery to show great respect, reverence, love, loyalty, and obedience to God then at the same time declare the reverse in actions. Edwards makes a frightening observation of such actions, “He who lives in willful wickedness and does not enjoy the ordinances of God, is not as guilty of so great presumption as he who attends these ordinances and yet allows himself in wickedness. This latter acts as though he came into the presence of God for the purpose of affronting Him.” The thought that hypocrites come into the worship of God for the purpose of mocking God is horrifying to consider. It assumes that the mocker is superior to the thing being mocked, and nothing could be more worthy of God’s terrible wrath.
3. Profaning the Ordinances. The ordinances are those things God has appointed as means of grace and worship, such as the reading and preaching of the Word, the sacraments, prayer, and praise. Because of their divine purpose, they are holy ordinances. Because their aim is to give honor and glory to God, they are divine. When a person participates in the ordinances without truly participating in their holy use, they profane them. Their use of the ordinances is not to give glory to God or to be made holy by them. They participate in order that others may see them participate, and so self becomes the object of the ordinances. Hypocrites merely do not want to suffer the earthly consequences of not attending the ordinances (rejection and distrust by others, the pastor’s rebuke, and his family’s scorn). But to so disregard the glory of God in ordinances is to invite God’s wrath to be outpoured.
What’s even more wicked is that hypocrisy breeds contempt for God in others. When people see you participating in the ordinances with little or no holiness of life, it causes them to see the ordinances as less sacred and prompts them to follow you. The dread that awaits the hypocrite who has dragged others into contempt of the glory of God will be awful to behold; and yet hypocrites will behold it without regard of its crushing weight.
THE ANATOMY OF HYPOCRISY
The objective of this article is to awaken you to battle hypocrisy in your own life. Many who are trapped in the clutches of hypocrisy don’t even realize it. You must know what kind of hypocrisy you practice before you can seek to overcome it. There are at least five kinds of hypocrisy:
1. Grace-Denying Hypocrisy. If a person feels they must pretend to be more holy than they actually are, it may reveal that they do not accept the grace of God in Christ. Grace releases a person from the need to merit God’s favor. In turn, it enables a person to be genuinely imperfect, yet striving toward holiness. A person who really accepts grace does not feel the need to demonstrate levels of sanctification that aren’t genuine. Hypocrisy that’s rooted in works-righteousness is a sign that a person is unconverted.
2. Law-Escaping Hypocrisy. Some hypocrites deny the claims of the law on their life. They claim to be partakers of grace, children of God, and disciples of Jesus; yet they deny that their behavior must strive to conform to the law. Their contempt is with the law’s claim on their life. They are ready to receive the grace of God in Christ, but are unwilling to bend their knee to the law’s rule over them, like a rebellious citizen unwilling to submit to civil law. Lawless people have no right to claim grace, as their rebellion evidences a complete rejection of the Lordship of Christ, who was the law incarnate.
3. God-Blaspheming Hypocrisy. Some hypocrites believe that God is not aware of their behavior. Or that He is not worthy of their holy living. They see that God’s presence abides only in the church. So when they are at church, they try to behave like Christians, but as soon as they leave church (God’s presence) they drop the show. To deny that God is present everywhere and that his holiness is absolute and abiding is blasphemy! When God’s character is defamed as a result of your hypocrisy, you have crossed a dangerous line for which you must thoroughly and sincerely repent.
4. People-Deceiving Hypocrisy. Some hypocrites’ motive is acceptance in the world. Attending the worship of God manifests some things that are beneficial to a person in society. It implies honesty, integrity, uprightness of character, commitment to family and community good, etc. But to participate in worship for these reasons actually implies the opposite. Deceiving people is far worse than being guilty of dishonesty alone. People-deceiving hypocrites are guilty of all the sin they wish to evidence they are not guilty of, plus the sins of deception and defaming the name of God.
5. Self-Glorifying Hypocrisy. When the exaltation of self becomes the motive, hypocrisy has reached its worst form. When worship becomes an avenue for you to display your strides in holiness, however extensive they may be, you tread on thin ice that is too weak to bare your weight. Even if your behavior is holy, when you seek to be honored or recompensed by men for your holiness, you are worse than unholy. You are a stench in the nostrils of God because you do not “keep your right hand from knowing what your left hand is doing.” The Pharisees were your forerunners, and Jesus condemned their behavior more vehemently than that of prostitutes and thieves.
MARKS OF A HYPOCRITE
Here are eight questions you can ask yourself to discover if hypocrisy is making its way into your life:
1. Do you feel the need to tell people how holy you are? For example, do you brag about your Bible reading habits, your prayer habits, your tithing and giving patterns, your church attendance, your witnessing efforts, your ability to withstand temptation, your parenting ability, or the fact that you homeschool your children? Do you think any strides in these areas are worth bragging over, when the standard is perfection?
2. Do your religious convictions cease when you leave church? In other words, when Monday morning comes, does your faith go with you to work? To school? To your home with your kids?
3. Do you make endless promises to God that you don’t keep? Vows are not meaningless in the eyes of God. If you constantly promise God to do something, but then find yourself powerless to do it, hypocrisy is gaining control over you.
4. Do you refuse to allow the Word of God to penetrate you? Do you see its application to everyone but you?
5. Do you constantly stand in judgment of others’ behavior? This is always the sign of hypocrisy, because it is merely an opportunity to exalt self.
6. Do you continue in known sin against God or others? Why do you go on profaning the name of God each Sabbath by coming with dirty hands and a filthy heart? Do away with your sin!
7. Do you neglect the care of your soul? Do you refuse to examine yourself daily, to know where you personally stand in relation to God’s holiness, and to carelessly assume that all is well without inquiry?
8. Do you fail to maintain communion with God in prayer? No failure evidences a sick soul more than prayerlessness. If God does not mean enough to you to maintain daily communion with him, it should not be assumed that you are his child.
Answering yes to any of these questions indicates that hypocrisy may have a grip on you. We must beg the Spirit of God to purge us from hypocrisy so that our witness is pure and genuine, like wool refined from all of its impurities. Then it will shine with a glittering white, telling the world of the glory and purity of our Sovereign. Make yourself the object of deep inquiry, and allow the glory of God to consume the dross of your hypocrisy. God’s glory will be your strength!
John Fanella is Pastor of Beulah Congregational Church in central North Dakota. He is the author of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Made Easier to Read, published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing.
