Episode 210: Why God Hates Hypocrisy? (Part 2) - How to Diminish Hypocrisy
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APPRECIATE THAT HUMAN NATURE IS INFECTED WITH HYPOCRISY

All of us are prone to the sin of hypocrisy. It is part of the deceitfulness of our more selfish nature.

 

Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

 

Everyone including members of the true church are sinners. If we deny this truth we are further deceiving ourselves. People are prone to say one thing and often ignore their own contradictory behavior.

 

1 John 1:8-9 (KJV)

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

We should never think that we are better than others because of various religious works. The Pharisees demonstrated this arrogance and Jesus condemned for it. We are not better than others who are not yet called by God.

 

NEVER THINK THAT YOU CAN IMPRESS GOD WITH YOUR GOODNESS

All of us should try to sincerely obey God. We are obviously works in progress. We have ups and downs. We must repent of mistakes and strive for being more like Christ. It is essential to maintain a humble approach to this process even when we are perceived to be doing well. The great Apostle Paul understood all of this.

 

Romans 7:23-25 (MKJV)

23 but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin being in my members.

24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

Paul explains that we win the victory over sin only because of the grace of God and the power of the Spirit of God managed by Jesus.

 

Romans 8:1-4 (MKJV)

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

2 But the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;

4 so that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

 

When we ask God for help to see our hearts clearly and reveal any imperfections remaining, remember to do it from a humble perspective. Some people have misused the following verses. Believing themselves to be spiritual giants.

 

Psalms 139:23-24 (MKJV)

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts,

24 and see if any wicked way is in me; and lead me in the way everlasting.

 

ONE MUST PRAY THIS PRAYER WITH HUMILITY! God wants to see humility even when we are doing fairly well in our own eyes. GOD SAW ARROGANCE in Satan and will not tolerate it in us.

 

NEVER LOOK DOWN ON OTHERS IN A JUDGMENTAL MANNER

It is erroneous to think that we are inherently better than others. Never condemn others in a judgmental fashion like the Pharisees. It is the major reason Christ condemns them. They did not respect the people they were given to lead.

 

Matthew 9:10-13 (MKJV)

10 And it happened as Jesus reclined in the house, behold, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Him and His disciples.

11 And when the Pharisees saw, they said to His disciples, Why does your master eat with tax-collectors and sinners?

12 But when Jesus heard, He said to them, The ones who are whole do not need a physician, but the ones who are sick.

13 But go and learn what this is, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

 

The spiritual leaders of the nation should have been trying to help and heal the sinners. Instead they were condemning them from a position of superiority. We know from the Bible that they were legal thieves. They as rulers, set in motion a system whereby they abused the people financially and exempted themselves.

 

They confiscated the estates of widows and made long prayers to impress men but God was not impressed. They had lost all real spiritual insight. They were made spiritually blind by their hypocrisy.

 

Matthew 23:23-24

23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and you have left undone the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. You ought to have done these and not to leave the other undone.

24 Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

 

Christ is clearly upset and angry with the religious leaders of his nation. They were petty misguided, judgmental and THE world's greatest hypocrites , SPIRITUALLY BLIND AS BATS.

 

TRY WALKING IN OTHERS SHOES BEFORE CRITICIZING THEM

Realize that if we had been born with the same set of genes and parents and environment we would be like them. All men have a fallen nature.

 

Matthew 7:11-12

11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

12 Therefore all things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, do even so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.

 

Jesus is saying of course we are evil but we must try and fulfill the essential message of the Old Testament which is love others as we love ourselves. See Lev. 19:17-18. Our goal should be to be compassionate to others. This includes people with problems. Remember but for the grace of God go I. We want to help and encourage others as Jesus said, who need a doctor for their sins and not condemnation. The more compassionate we are the less we will be hypocritical.

 

BE CAUTIOUS OF PRESSURES TO MAKE ONE MORE HYPOCRITICAL

Positions of power are pressures toward hypocrisy. The famous statement that absolute power corrupts absolutely has been proven many times over. Any level of power and leadership can lay the ground work for hypocrisy . People who hold power tend to judge others more harshly than they judge themselves. Studies have proven that it is easy to start seeing yourself as “better” than your subordinates.

 

Further, if one becomes a teacher the same temptations present themselves. The Bible warns that as teachers we face stronger evaluation from God because of the problems our words can produce.

 

James 3:1-2

1 My brothers, do not be many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we all offend. If anyone does not offend in word, the same is a full-grown man, able also to bridle the whole body.

 

James is referring to public teaching not a private conversation. He is warning that everybody in the church should not be striving to be public teachers. Teachers face pitfalls such as a greater tendency toward hypocrisy. One should not strive to be a teacher unless the person believes that God is calling him to that work. It is safer to not become a teacher.

 

All of us should let our actions speak more and before our words. People will know that we believe what we say believe because our actions prove it. We should try to act first and then speak. A lot less hypocrisy would arise in such a situation.

 

James 1:26-27 (MKJV)

26 If anyone thinks to be religious among you, yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is vain.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

 

A BRIEF DISCUSSION OF THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET SHORT AND LONG-TERM