Dante and Virgil walk amongst the hypocrites, from Canto XXIII of ‘Inferno’ from ‘The Divine Comedy’, Amos Nattini
I have my doubts about the modern use of the word ‘hypocrisy’, “I do not think it means what you think it means”. Jesus calls people hypocrites quite a few times, like everything he said if we want to follow his example and his wisdom we need to understand what he meant by it. Of course we can use the word however we want but we can’t pretend to have his authority behind our use if we make up our own meaning.
I think this is a good verse to clarify the meaning a little: “So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” Matthew 23:28. Hypocrisy and lawlessness are two different things. Neither is good but in different ways. Breaking God’s rules is not hypocrisy, it is lawless evil but not hypocrisy. Trying to meet a high standard is not hypocrisy, Philippians 2:15 tells us our goal is to be blameless. Even trying to meet a higher standard of morality than you are able, is not hypocrisy. We see Paul wrestling with this reality in Romans 7
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!
This is the very idea of conscience, we know we should do something yet we don’t do it, and as a result we feel bad. We might blush, or get queasy, this is the speaking of the conscience. This is the reality of the war with sin, but it’s not hypocrisy. I think a lot of people work this backwards today. If you feel shame in anyway, it can’t be legitimate, it must be bullying by those religious types forcing their narrow theism on us. “Judging us!” “Hypocrites!” “Just like the kind Jesus warned us about!” Ah, not so fast. Oh how easy it is to twist truth into a lie. A good conscience is proof of the work of God in your heart, Acts 24:16, Romans 2:15 and we are warned against harming the conscience of others I Corinthians 8:12.
Chesterton said “but the man who treats every human inconsistency as a hypocrisy is himself a hypocrite about his own inconsistencies.” And so this is the place of the modern man. Many try to look consistent by trying to throw out every standard of right and wrong; who are they to judge? But they just undercut their argument because they do judge the Christian. They hold the Christian to an impossible standard. This is in fact real hypocrisy, that is, holding someone else to a different standard that you hold yourself. They think they can justify it because they don’t ever judge anyone and they are just holding the Christian to their own standard, really they are just boring old hypocrites.
Look at the one situation in Mark where Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites. In chapter 7 the religious leaders come down from Jerusalem to judge. What a contrast to the God of heaven to who came down to earth to die. Anyway they come up and criticize Jesus and his disciples for not following the hand washing procedure correctly. Now there is nothing wrong with the ceremonial cleansing laws in the Old Testament. Many of the things that qualified you for ceremonial cleanness, also made for good hygiene, which was not as well understood as it is today. It was a blessing by God to his people who didn’t have microscopes. He made the world and he gave his people rules so that they could prosper. There is also nothing wrong with making up rituals, or even making up rituals to help you avoid sin. Jesus tells us sin is serious and “if your hand causes you to masturbate, cut it off”(Mark 9:43). Jesus then accuses them of leaving the commands of men to follow the commands of God. This is a sin, this is lawlessness as mentioned above, but it is not hypocrisy. The hypocrisy is that these men come to question Jesus about his following of the law while they don’t even try to follow the law. The hypocrisy is not about the relationship between the religious leaders and the Law or God. The hypocrisy is about their relationship with their fellow Jews and Jesus. As in Matthew 6:2, 6:5, 6:16, the hypocrite does everything in the sight of others so that he can look down on them, it is a form of ridicule for not following God’s law but really they are the ones not following the law. Exhibiting fake adherence to the commands while accusing others for their adherence is hypocrisy.
I think getting this right is very important. Because the world tries to throw our standards back in our face as proof of our hypocrisy, when really it is only proof of theirs. Our failures are actually proof of the truth of our faith. We can’t do it on our own, we need the grace of God, it is not we who do the work of the Church but Christ who works in us. They reject the Law as a burden, a mere system of rules, because the do not see the grace in it to guide man into proper living. God is no hypocrite, he held his son to the same standard he holds every man to. When he judges he understands the real temptation of sin.
So, don’t let the world redefine the Gospel for us. They don’t know what hypocrisy is because they are blind. It is our job to show them the light.