Don’t Do As I Do, Do As I Say

“Help LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.  They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.”  Psalm 12:1-2

This was one of the Psalms that King David wrote at the place in his life when he felt like everyone had deserted him, but he knew that he could call on God to help him.  Paraphrasing the Psalm, David asked, “Did you ever think that you were the only one who gave a rip about anything?  Do you ever think that everyone around you are liars, cheats, and hypocrites?”  Apparently this was the way that David felt.  He was tired of the boasting of his enemies and their confidence that they could get away with their crimes.  He was tired of their “saying one thing, but doing another”, the simple definition of a hypocrite.

Continuing with David’s lament, he understood that the Lord gets weary of the hypocrisy of His creation.  He will not put up with it much longer.  He has all power to keep those who love Him and to annihilate all those who hate Him.  His word is not to be forsaken; it is the most pure thing there is.  God’s word is not only purifying, but preserving.  Only that which is pure can preserve.  Anyone who has ever canned fruit or vegetables or made jam or jelly knows that the jars to hold the contents must be sterile.  Otherwise the contents will spoil and become useless.  The vilest rulers are like the unclean jars.  Everything within spoils.

Jesus had plenty to say about hypocrites in Matthew 23:13-33, calling them some choice names besides “hypocrites”:  blind guides, fools, serpents, and vipers.  You know that if Jesus calls us one of these names, we have to own it.  Of course these Pharisees, scribes, and other religious leaders refused to own up to the fact that what Jesus said about them was the absolute truth.  That’s probably why He called them “blind”.  They refused to see themselves in the light of the truth.  In Matthew 23:15, probably one of the most damaging of all the hypocritical actions of the religious leaders was that they would search high and low to bring non-Jews into their “fellowship” (and I used that term lightly), but were really only looking for numbers to support their own agendas.  That sounds awfully familiar.  They didn’t really care about teaching them to honor God.  Another example of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders is found in Luke 18:10-14.  A Pharisee went into the temple to pray, and the words that he said would make one think that he was as pure as the wind-driven snow.

In Matthew 15:1-14, some scribes and Pharisees spoke to Jesus and criticized His disciples for not washing their hands before eating.  It wasn’t just the fact that they didn’t wash, it was because they didn’t do the burdensome ceremonial washing of which the religious leaders had made a tradition and treated it as if it was part of God’s commandments.  Was this the most serious offense with which they could charge Jesus’ disciples?  However, Jesus did something that He was really good at doing, He turned it around on them by asking them why they had made laws to keep from taking care of their aging parents.  Jesus then said to everyone, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”  After He said that, the disciples were upset that the Pharisees were offended.  Jesus told them not to worry about it.  He said, “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.  And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

There is much to learn from every passage in scripture, but one thing to think about in these verses concerning those who are hypocrites, they are hurting no one but themselves.  Most hypocrites can be recognized as shallow personalities, with low self-esteem, and a lack of integrity.  What we all should do is to make sure that we are not one of them.