(In consideration of the accusations recently leveled against Ravi Zacharias, which I hope will be found untrue, this meditation is offered. Untrue or not the temptation of hypocrisy surely encroached upon him and his ministry and does upon us as well. We don’t want to succumb to the temptation. Beware!)

Luke 12:1-3 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ² For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

At the time Christ walked upon the earth, the Pharisee’s were a two-hundred-year-old movement formed to lead Israel in preparation for the coming of their Messiah. They had become that nation’s most popular order. Josephus wrote that the Pharisees “owned the crowd.” Yet it is the Pharisees who will stoke the people to cry out for the crucifixion of Jesus. The Lord diagnoses the reason for the failure of this once noble cause. They had succumbed to the spore (leaven) of Hypocrisy. It had started slowly but now it had permeated the whole with rot and decay.

Hypocrisy is to play act, to pretend, to wear a mask, to conceal a true identity. It is in essence, imitation without substance, and it foists a deceit or lie upon those it comes before. At the root of hypocrisy are person motivated to seek some advantage for themselves, i.e. influence, acceptance, power, prestige, honor. The hypocrite seeks to take from those he or she comes before something they think they could not take if the internal truths about themselves were truly known.

With that in mind consider: When hypocrisy tempts; How you can protect yourself from it; Why the hypocrite is a fool. And what is the alternative future for the servant of Christ who avoids it.

1^st When should you be most aware of the dangers of Hypocrisy?

It is when you are before others to gain influence or maintain your influence that this temptation to hypocrisy intensifies. The more persons you can impress with your life the more will grow the temptation to hold onto that ability by concealing from those persons anything in your heart and life that might undermine your impact. Josephus had said that the Pharisees ‘owned the multitude’ and they did not wish to give up this ownership. But to hold onto to the influence they held over the masses they pretended to be something they increasingly were not. They pretended after a purity of life that was only painted on the outside of their lives but did not reflect the decay that was going on, on the inside. Their love of influence, their desire to make an impact, even in things that were basically good, had led them to keep up appearances when the reality of their lives did not match their message. Now the disciples of Jesus were before a great multitude of people and a moment of influence was upon them; an opportunity to be at the head of a great movement of people seemed to be forming. And the danger to gain and maintain influence through hiding the reality of their own weakness, failures and sins was all too real. Jesus warned them before the crowd to beware of the leaven of hypocrisy.

These disciples were not, by the way, going to achieve the seeming success of mass influence that the Pharisees had realized. Their answer to the call of Christ to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth was going to put them out as lambs amidst wolves. Like John the Baptist, they would have their brief moments of influence but also like John the Baptist almost all of them would end their days in forgotten places, persecuted and martyred. This was God’s plan. Through hardship, disappointment, loneliness and forgotten labors, God would protect his messengers from gaining or holding influence with people through anything, but quiet lives carried out under the command of Christ and by power of the Holy Spirit. It was a mercy and protection that few great crowds gathered around them and that these crowds did not remain during the time of their ministries.

2^nd How do you protect yourself from hypocrisy?

• Forsake the desire to influence the crowd. Forsake the desire to bring your influence directly upon any person.
• Approach people with a commitment that the Lord Jesus will come between you and all others as mediator.
• When before another person or a crowd your desire must be to be heard and seen and noted of God more than of anyone else. The principle of Ephesians 6:6,7 teaches us not to live as people pleasers but God pleasers. We protect ourselves when we live glad to have the eyes of God are upon us and we want him to be glad with what he sees.
• Noting that you are before God, now live humbly and honestly before people. Be honest about yourself with them. If you live before the searching eye of God, you will live without pretense before the eyes of people.
• When you fail, do not go to God for cleansing and forgiveness with the motive to keep from being found out. Confession to God is not to be done to keep your dark secrets buried. I am not suggesting that all your unknown sins must be announced to everyone you encounter. But if you have come to the precious blood of Jesus for forgiveness and your primary point of relief is that no one else will find out, instead of being forgiven and made right by God, you are living before the wrong audience. You are more concerned with the social consequences of your sin than the profound spiritual consequences.

We know that Moses sinned, we know he murdered an Egyptian, grumbled to God regarding his responsibility to lead Israel, lost his temper and struck a rock two times (which God had told him to speak to) and in so doing asserted his own power to bring water from that rock instead of presenting it as God’s gracious provision. For this God refused to let Moses enter the promised land. We know these things because… Moses told us and wrote it down. He was not attempting to conceal his sin from others. We know some of the most catastrophic sins of David’s life and we know his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 (David recorded in scripture at least 4 of his prayers of repentance). We know this because David did not hide from others the account of his sin or his brokenness over it. These men were not seeking to save face or to maintain a pose or to hide the shame of their sins. They did not offer God private confessions to save their own dignity and reputations. Such a mindset before the blood of Jesus Christ fuels hypocrisy.

How do you avoid the spore of hypocrisy? You make sure that God is the primary audience of your life and ministry all the time. You live before Him and through Him in all your contacts with others. You are humble. You are honest. You do not hide your sins. You confess them.

3^rd Why is Hypocrisy so foolish?

For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known (Luke 12:2). God is always the primary audience. He sees and hears and knows all and God is not going to keep our secrets. What we keep hidden away from the eyes and ears of others to maintain our influence will one day be exposed for every eye and every ear to hear. There is no indication that the final judgments will be private affairs. They will be held out in the open for all to see (Revelation 20:11,12; 2 Corinthians 5:10,11) and no one will be immune from the possible terrors of final judgment, not even the believer in Christ.

4^th What is the alternative future for the believer who avoids hypocrisy?

God will megaphone your honest message. What you say and live of truth, though seen and heard by few will, in God’s perfect timing will be broadcast far and wide. Wonderfully, not seeking influence with others is a key for God’s willingness to spread it.

When you put Christ between yourself and the crowd, when you abandon the pursuit of personal influence, and when you live honestly before God and people you may feel you are having less and less impact in your world. Such a conscious commitment to avoid self-promotion will leave you seemingly unheard and unseen. This does not square with the triumphal goals of modern evangelicalism. You may feel your life is lived in a dark corner of the world or that the message God has laid on your heart is only being whispered into the ear of one or two persons.