The Danger of Hypocrisy

Some news stories from the past couple of years:

• A drunk driver runs a stop sign and plows his truck into a crowd at a New York City park, killing three and injuring eight. The investigation reveals that the man works as a substance abuse counselor and is the author of a book on overcoming addiction.
• A Polk County woman and her husband are arrested and charged with child neglect after deputies find the couple and their two children living in “deplorable conditions.” The woman is a 13-year employee of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
• A Harvard University professor has several of her published studies retracted after evidence emerges that she fabricated some of the results (i.e., lied). The professor’s area of expertise? The study of dishonesty and unethical behavior.

We hear similar stories all too often. Someone commits a crime or a breach of ethics, and it turns out to be the very kind of misdeed the person was supposedly devoted to exposing and/or preventing. Usually a single word comes to our minds: hypocrisy.

Jesus confronted hypocrisy — often in those who were supposed to be teaching and leading others in God’s way. He condemned the hypocrisy of those who did good things mainly to be noticed by other people; who criticized the faults of others while ignoring their own; who often showed more concern for observing man-made traditions than observing God’s law; who bound requirements on others that they would not follow themselves; who used pious appearances as a cloak for greed; and much more (see Matthew 6:1-17; 7:1-5; 15:1-14; 23:1-36).

Paul confronted hypocrisy: “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?” (Romans 2:21-22). He warned disciples against being mere “men-pleasers,” emphasizing the need to serve God from the heart (see Ephesians 6:5-6; Galatians 1:10; 1 Timothy 1:5). On one occasion he even had to reprimand his fellow-apostle Peter, who was acting hypocritically regarding his Gentile brethren (Galatians 2:11-14).

Hypocrisy is no less a danger for you and me. It’s more than the occasional lapse of judgment or giving in to temptation. It’s more than being imperfect. Hypocrisy, as someone once put it, is the problem of pretending to be one thing while intending to be something else. (The New Testament term was often used to describe an actor on the stage.) Avoiding it requires constant, honest reflection on both my actions and my motives — and repentance where it’s needed.

No less real is the danger of giving the perception of hypocrisy. People are watching our spiritual walk. Some of them are watching critically, ready to pounce on any perceived inconsistency to accuse us of being hypocrites. While we can’t always prevent unfair charges of hypocrisy, we can do our best to avoid providing ammunition for them. “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).

Let’s be on our guard.

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