WATCHWORD:
21 I hate your show and pretense—your hypocrisy of ‘honoring’ me with your religious feasts and solemn assemblies. 22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and thank offerings. I will not look at your offerings of peace. 23 Away with your hymns of praise—they are mere noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is. 24 I want to see a mighty flood of justice—a torrent of doing good. Amos 5:21-24
Jesus replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ Mark 7:6-7
Meditation:
Hypocrisy
So, when someone brings up the matter of hypocrisy, our mind wanders to our acquaintances, maybe we look around the congregation, or perhaps we recall an incident where there was tension and conflict and maybe the subject of all that tension was a difference of opinion – they were wrong and you were right. Or were you?
We look around and maybe in our prideful mind we conclude that there are so many where that label fits. Yes, we look around, but dare we look in the mirror? Could it be said in our Christian walk, where we are critical of those who don’t seem to be responding as Christ would have us respond, have we a leg to stand on? How is our imitation of Christ going?
Jesus did not hesitate to call them as he sees them. There before the Pharisees and teachers of the law he exposed them as hypocrites, even as whitewashed gravestones! Making friends was not his goal. These religious leaders appear to be something that they weren’t — they were caught in a conflict between their own traditions and God’s commands (See Amos 5, above). When our actions are dictated by our wants and desires, contrary to what Christ would have us say and do, that’s simply a clear sign of a drift toward hypocrisy.
We can make wonderful reasons for our decisions or behavior. Rationalization can be so subtle as we avoid responsibilities. It can explain away selfish behavior even to the point of rejecting God’s direct commands ”for good and proper reasons”. I think we’re good at deceiving ourselves, salving our conscience. But we are still stuck with this simple question: “How do my rationalizations square with all of those influences and beliefs that brought us to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior?” That would seem to be basic. Right?
A Little Hypocritical Humor:
I told my dad I want to marry my grandma. He said: “No way, you cannot possibly marry my mother!”
But him marrying my mother was totally ok? What a hypocrite!
Who does a hypocrite really hate? A hypocrite!
Prayer from Crosswalk.com:
Lord, I am not above you. I am not above the world ruling. I am not the master of all things, nor the creator. But, I am your servant, your child, and your love. Help me reside in that place. Help me see my need and confess it to you. Help me be quick to look at myself when I am prone to look over to others. Thank you that you have wild and abundant grace for me. It will not cease. It will not end. It will not let me go. I ask you to restore me in fullness with you. Teach me your ways and help me be receptive to them, so I will not fall. Help me Lord. You rule and I surrender all my ways, thoughts, opinions, perceptions and decisions to you. Amen.
