“What is hypocrisy?”

July/August 2022 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: What is hypocrisy?

ANSWER: The Random House Dictionary Of The English Language defines “hypocrisy” as:

1. 1. A pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not possess.
2. 2. A pretension of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.

The dictionary traces the origin of the word back to the ancient Greeks. In their language a hypokrites was “a stage actor, hence one who pretends to be what he is not.” Plain enough; more straightforward it could hardly be.

Our Lord Jesus openly called the Pharisees, members of an elite sect of the Jews, “hypocrites” and gave reasons why He was denouncing woes upon them (see Mt. 23 NKJV for several examples). The common people customarily looked to the Pharisees to teach them right and wrong for daily living. In the Gospels the Pharisees are often linked together with the scribes, the men who centuries before the invention of the printing press copied the Scriptures by hand. They were very meticulous in copying God’s Word exactly, but they rejected the One of whom the Scriptures speak.

The Lord pointed out in the opening verses of Matthew 23 what the Pharisees were like. He said that they “have set themselves down in Moses’ seat” (v.2 JND). They had assumed the place of Moses, to whom the people came to be judged and to be taught the statutes of God and His laws (Ex. 18:13-16). In consideration of that seat, the Lord went on in Matthew to tell the people, “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do” (v.3). Then He mentioned some glaring examples of their works, illustrating their hypocrisy (vv.4-7). The scribes and the Pharisees could coldly and accurately teach the letter of the law, but their lives and actions showed attitudes quite the opposite from how God wanted His people to live.

In Matthew 15:1-20 the Lord showed how, by leaning on their traditions and reasoning, they would make void the plain teaching of Scripture. Their traditions were more important to them than the Word of God. Sad to say, this is a very common feature in Christendom – the professing Church – today. Much of what the Bible plainly teaches was first distorted, and then given up completely by leaders in the early centuries of the Christian profession. This is especially true of truth about the Church, more accurately termed “the Assembly.” The Bride Christ loved, for whom He gave Himself, whom He is sanctifying and will present to Himself (Eph. 5:23-32), was rightfully in the minds of most people a living being or organism with Christ as Head and every truly saved person a member. Sadly, the Church often shows itself now as a human society or organization run by people in various manners, with a membership generally consisting of both saved and unsaved alike.

In Matthew 6 the Lord pointed out some of the customs of the Pharisees, referring to them as “hypocrites” (vv.2,5,16). Rather than praying to be heard by God, they prayed in public places to be seen and heard by men. When they fasted, they made sure by the sad appearance of their faces that men would notice that they were fasting. As they gave alms, they sounded a trumpet before them to make sure that people would see what they were doing. In Matthew 23:5 the Lord commented on how, rather than having a small blue fringe or tassel on the corner of their garments as God had commanded the Israelites in Numbers 15:37-41, they made wide stripes of blue. What they did was not to gain God’s approval but to impress people with their piety. They tried to cover their unscrupulous, or unprincipled, ways by their long public prayers and their insistence on correctness in tiny details such as tithing the leaves of the herbs they used in cooking. It is commendable to be conscientious even in the smallest details of life but not at the cost of neglecting “weightier matters … justice and mercy and faith” (Mt. 23:23).

How about us today? Do we try hard to impress people with how religious or how good we are, while in reality we are lawless, self-willed, and only trying to put on a good front? This is hypocrisy, which God condemns. He is the heart-knowing God. There is nothing hidden in the deepest recesses of our hearts that He does not see and know, and that He cannot expose. Read the Gospels. Look at Pharisees who invited Jesus to their homes for a meal, seemingly to show their hospitality; but the invitations were really to find grounds to criticize Him. He in His wisdom dealt with them, always confounding them.

We have seen that most Pharisees were hypocrites, but Scripture tells us of at least two who were honest and whom we will meet in heaven one day. Nicodemus was a seeker, who in John 3:1-21 came to Jesus by night with his questions. Later we see him cautiously defending Jesus (7:50-51), and in John 19 he was fully committed, assisting Joseph of Arimathea with the burial of the Lord’s body, taken down from the cross (vv.38-42).

Saul of Tarsus, better known as the apostle Paul, was by his own admission in Philippians 3:5 “a Pharisee.” In Acts 26 he told how he had done all he could against the name and followers of the Lord Jesus. After the Lord appeared to him and he was saved, he applied his tremendous zeal to serving the Lord for years, and finally sealed his service with his martyrdom. Other Pharisees also became believers, but they found it hard to give up their Pharisaic thinking (15:5). Yet, don’t forget, God is willing to save hypocrites too, and make wonderful saints of them!

May the Lord help us who have trusted in Him not to be hypocrites, but rather to be honest and straightforward in our ways, living lives that will be to His glory and praise!

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.