Let's Not Fool Ourselves

…Jesus’ primary concern was his disciples. He said to them, “Watch yourselves carefully so you don’t become contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can’t keep your true self hidden forever, before long you will be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can’t whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day is coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town.
Luke 12:1-3 (Message)

I used to think that hypocrisy was only doing something you knew was wrong, to fool others. It can be: one meaning of the original word is “playacting.” But the other day I was reading some of the teachings of Larry Richards on this passage. I discovered there is another emphasis here. Hypocrisy is “outward show.” The Pharisees were not pretending. They actually thought that the outward show, the ritual, the attention to minutiae, was the real thing! They had mistaken externals for the real heart of faith.

Because they mistook outward show for reality, their inner eye was blind. What they thought was light, was darkness! With their values wrong, all that they might do could only lead them deeper into the dark night of the soul.

In this passage we find Jesus warning His disciples (and us as Christ-followers), against viewing spiritual life as did the religious people of His day. Outward show had become more important to them than the heart; the external had become reality for them. Yet there is a day coming when no one will be able to hide his or her illusions! There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known (v.2).

When God reveals reality, how vital that neither you nor I end up fooling ourselves…and end up wandering into the cold, dark, empty world of outward show.

Ken Churchill