- If you believe in God’s mercy but believe in karma…
- If you believe in the Holy Spirit leading to God’s will
- If you believe in horoscopes, fortune cookies, dream books, drawing straws, or go “eeny, meeny, miney, mo” to make decisions…
- If you believe in eternal security but believe a person goes to hell when they commit suicide…
- If you believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ but teach your children that the Easter Bunny is real and take them to hunt colored eggs…
- If you believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God, but teach your children the same traits exist in Santa Claus…
You might be a hypocrite!
I know what you’re thinking. I was a hypocrite about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, too. When you have children (and now grandchildren), it’s easy to justify having fun over teaching a false doctrine. That’s what it is though; a false doctrine. The Greek word for ‘hypocrite’ is ‘hupokrite’. It didn’t change much for modern English. It means to act under an assumed character or to pretend to be what one is not. This fit me to a tee back then.
Jesus called the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites seven times in Matthew 23:13-36. Most people don’t clearly understand who the Scribes and Pharisees were. Scribes were more than just writers. They were experts in interpreting Scripture, which they called the Law, and since many of them were members of the Sanhedrin, they helped decide how the Law was applied in religious cases. We might see them as scholars, lawyers, district attorneys. The Pharisees were basically a Jewish, religious party. [The Pharisees believed that in addition to the written Torah recognized by both the Sadducees and Pharisees and believed to have been written by Moses, there exists another Torah, consisting of the oral laws and traditions transmitted by God to Moses orally, and then memorized and passed down by Moses and his successors over the generations. The Oral Torah functioned to elaborate and explicate what was written, and the Pharisees asserted that the sacred scriptures were not complete on their own terms and could therefore not be understood.] We might see them as the politicians who supposedly represented the Jewish people. The other Jewish, religious party was the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a little less pious and less educated. Jesus told his disciples and those following him to do and observe what the Scribes and the Pharisees said but not to follow the example of their lives. They were hypocrites. Jesus didn’t call the Sadducees hypocrites because they lived what they believed. However, He warned his followers to not believe their doctrines.
If, in ignorance or knowledge, you believe a false doctrine and live it, does it make you any different? Jesus said in Matthew 23:33 that these Pharisees and Scribes would go to Hell. James said in James 4:17 that if someone knows what is right but then doesn’t do it, it is a sin. The reason the Bible has stayed around all this time is because God wants us all to know how to be righteous. Jesus said it was wise to hear and act upon His words (Matthew 7:24 – 27). If you have a Bible, or even have access to one, there’s no reason you should know what you believe. Don’t be seen as a hypocrite.
2 Timothy 2:15-19 reads, “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. This kind of talk spreads like cancer, as in the case of Hymenaeus and Philetus. They have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred; in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith. But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil.”