Slideshow image

Ah, the Pharisee! What a great pointed word that can be thrown around, sometimes with thoughtless impunity. In one sense, calling out hypocrisy is Scriptural. After all, Jesus warned his disciples to be on the lookout for it:

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1, CSB)

Jesus came to proclaim his eternal Kingdom and to tear down the errant kingdom of the Pharisees – grounded and rooted in hypocrisy. In a very simple way of understanding, hypocrisy  is a human condition where someone says one thing – maybe even acts a certain way on occasion – then is unable to live up to those spoken and occasionally modeled words in different settings. 

Perhaps you have heard the humorous saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” That is a textbook picture of hypocrisy. More close to home; maybe you have known someone who acts and speaks one way in church, then turns into a different person among his friends or co-workers. In this sense, hypocrisy lies in all of us. Because we struggle to maintain a strictly holy life – we must rest in God’s grace daily!

The Pharisees problem that Jesus was addressing, though, went much deeper. If they were preaching devotion to God in accordance with the Old Testament Scriptures, yet failing to keep the law themselves, then that would merit them the title of “human,” or “sinner,” not necessarily hypocrite.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.  (Heb 5:1-3, ESV)


The picture that Jesus was warning his disciples about was something different. The Pharisees had taken the step from simple human sin to extraordinary evil by adding to the Scriptures according to traditions that they had developed over centuries. These traditions had the effect of mainting the Pharisees’ position atop the religious world among Israelites. Through adoption of their traditions, they had built a house of straw, sitting in command atop it’s roof. Little did they know that their foundation was susceptible to winds of doctrine, addition or subtraction of new traditions, or any other leadership whim. Jesus clearly called them out for this approach in Mark chapter 7:

 9 And he said to them (Pharisees), “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” (ESV)

The sinner who believes in God can be said to be a hypocrite because he does not live up to what he believes. He is the simple hypocrite. Jesus, however, was confronting super-hypocrites. The guiding principles of the latter are (1) the development of a set of standards that exceed or contradict Scripture, (2) the imposition of those standards on others, and (3) subsequently being unable to follow these new commandments or doctrines. 

Lying at the root of super-hypocrisy is a departure from the given Word of God. This can happen in different vacuums. First, when we believe that the Bible is insufficient, we tend to fill in the “gaps” with our own doctrines. Second, we may draw ancillary theological conclusions that are not explicit in Scripture, demanding that Christian fellowship be contingent on this belief. Finally, there is a wholesale escape from orthodoxy, where a spiritual leader makes new doctrines that contradict the words, meaning, and clear message of the Bible. 

All should be avoided. Such ventures into these ungodly woods creates a cancer that divides church fellowship. Outside the church, super-hypocrisy tends to lead believers away from the inerrant, inspired, sufficient, and trustworthiness of God’s Word. 

In my lifetime, I have seen super-ministries arise and fall. Each were grounded somewhere outside orthodoxy. Each fall was occasioned by hypocritical moral failures. They are the perfect combination of extrabiblical teaching coupled with an embarrassingly wicked lifestyle. Usually that double-standard is revealed after the theological damage has been done.

As a church, we must be focused on maintaining two things. First and foremost is doctrinal purity. We should never stray outside what God has revealed to us. Next, we must let God’s Word sink into our hearts and change our way of life, so that we are neither hypocrites nor super-hypocrites!

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”