The human race is easily influenced by political and religious hypocrisy! Many whom present themselves as honest, truthful, and authentic outwardly do not always have sincere motivations and pure intentions within their hearts.
When Jesus walked the earth, it was no different. In Luke 11, Jesus was invited to come for a meal at one of the religious leader’s homes. When everyone had been seated, one of the “separated ones” noticed that Jesus hadn’t performed the cleansing ritual before he began eating, and was shocked! The Lord, who knew their hearts said, “You Pharisees are religiously strict to your customs and obsessed with the peripheral issues. You are like one who will wipe clean only the outside of a cup or bowl, leaving the inside filthy. You are foolish to ignore the greed and wickedness within you! Shouldn’t the one who cleans the outside also be concerned with cleaning the inside”? Jesus revealed what was hidden in their hearts: greed, cheating, crushing people beneath the burden of obeying impossible regulations in order to gain financial, political, and religious control and power. Jesus admonished them to “walk in the love of God, and readjust their values.” But the religious leaders and experts of the law became enraged and began to furiously oppose him- wanting nothing more than to find a reason to entrap him with his own words.
In Luke 12, Jesus warns his chosen disciples against hypocrisy “Make sure you are not influenced by the hypocrisy and phoniness of the religious leaders. It permeates everything they do and teach, for they are merely serving their own interests. Be alert and guard your heart from greed and always wishing for what you don’t have.”
Even though Jesus warned the disciples against hypocrisy, they sometimes got pulled into its clutches, because of the duality, pride, and fear in their human hearts and minds. In Luke 9, Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “This is very important, so listen carefully and remember my words. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed and given over to the authority of men. The disciples were unable to perceive what he was saying, for it was a veiled mystery to them, and they were too embarrassed to ask him to explain it.” When the embarrassed, fearful disciples realized they did not have the wisdom to understand, their ego (the big I) was offended, and they felt less than, and not wise enough. Then these men, who knew Jesus and his teachings intimately, tried to cover over the insecurity in their heart, and denying the uncomfortable fear within, by arguing with one another, acting out, and becoming preoccupied over who would be the greatest one among them. Jesus was aware of their innermost thoughts, and pulled a child to his side and said to them, “If you tenderly care for this little child on my behalf, you are tenderly caring for me. And if you care for me, you are honoring my Father who sent me. For the one who is least important in your eyes is actually the most important one of all.” The disciples listened to the Lord’s words, examined their prideful and selfish motives – then turned their hearts to the Lord, because their true heart’s desire was to inwardly and outwardly follow Jesus- this was quite different from what the religious and political leaders did when Jesus confronted them.
As true followers of Lord, it is our desire to walk in Truth; that is we long for the motives of our hearts to match what we act out in our outside lives. When we are willing to look within our heart, and allow the Holy Spirit to examine our heart, while showing us what motivates our actions, we will be able to judge ourselves in Truth and recognize if there is any hypocrisy abiding within. The Lord will show us the truth if we really want to know. Then we will have the choice to react like the arrogant religious Pharisees, or the disciples who humbled themselves and turned to Jesus for help, and healing power to overcome, and become pure of heart.
We must fasten our hearts to the love of God and receive the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives us eternal life. “Now, to the one with enough power to prevent you from stumbling into sin and bring you faultless before his glorious presence to stand before him with ecstatic delight, to the only God our Savior, through our Lord Jesus Christ, be endless glory and majesty, great power and authority-from before he created time, now, and throughout all the ages of eternity. Amen!”(Jude 24tPt)
