Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. Matthew 23:27

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Jude 12

I'm at least fifty per cent ham. The last two years I was in Pikeville, I played the part of a blind man in our Easter musicals. Admittedly there was some typecasting involved, since I can't see worth a hoot, but I think I could have gotten into the part anyway. I won the "I'm finally healed" award, after having reprised the role for about seven performances over the two years.

The word "hypocrite" derives from the Greek word for "actor." A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be something he or she is not. The Pharisees made a great show of being pious and holy, but the record of their lives demonstrated otherwise. They substituted a myriad of nitpicking regulations for the great truths of the Law, the scriptures as they existed then. For true faith, they substituted false piety; for holiness, they offered spiritual pride. In their zeal, they delighted in making disciples even more rigid and corrupt than they were (Matthew 23:15).

All of us, no matter how sincere we are, are actors at some time or another, to some degree or another. We show one face at home, to our families and friends, and another in public. I work for the Federal Government, and when I'm on duty I don my official demeanor. It's not that I leave my Christianity at home, but I feel constrained to hide it behind a bureaucratic mask. It slips from time to time, but I also readjust it.

Even in church we often act out roles. How many of us are as devout and sincere the rest of the week as we are on Sunday morning? Some people master their role of model Christian so well that no one knows a raving heathen lurks underneath the surface. Others arrive at church with their families, all wreathed in smiles and sunshine, when only minutes before they resembled the Hatfields and McCoys, before the feud ended.

None of us can expect perfection as Christians, either of others or ourselves. Not only will we continue to make mistakes, but we will continue trying to hide or cover up many of them. So long as we recognize that, and confess our sins to God in Christ, we can remain faithful to our witness. If what we do consistently contradicts what we profess to believe, however, we shouldn't be surprised at being labeled "hypocrites." One of the more common excuses we hear from people who refuse to accept Christ is that so many, if not all, Christians, are a bunch of hypocrites. That's kind of like saying that, because so many people get fat from eating food, I'm not going to eat any. Just as food is absolutely necessary for physical life, so Christ is necessary for eternal life. Without food, we die; without Christ, we die eternally. What someone else chooses to do, or not to do, with Christ, certainly shouldn't prevent us from doing what we need to do.

Be that as it may, the stigma of hypocrites remains. Some of these pretenders are not Christians at all, and they bear fruit that makes that obvious. Some, though, are Christians who have turned back to the world, making a show of being angels while living like demons. Scripture tells us quite clearly that we are to admonish and correct the weak and the backsliders among us (I Thessalonians 5:14). That doesn't mean we should berate and browbeat every church member who does something wrong. We should, though, rebuke heinous or persistent sin, with gentleness and love, but without compromise. If a Christian persists in wrongdoing, Paul prescribes a remedy rarely used in most churches: removing the rebel from the fellowship of believers (I Corinthians 5:9-13).

What face do we show other Christians, and the world? If we rarely pray, never open a Bible, and never show the love of Christ to others, can we really claim to be followers of Jesus? If we live one way on Sunday, and a different way the rest of the week, we shouldn't be surprised at the labels others put on us. Our faith isn't something that can be put off and on like an outfit of clothes, depending on the situation. If we get dirty, we stay dirty until we're cleansed by the blood of Christ (I John 1:9). In the same way, we can't wear a mask around all the time and expect to others to believe that's what we really look like. Ugly is as ugly does, to put a new twist on an old saying.

The Holy Spirit is our mirror, showing us what we're really like underneath all of the costumes and makeup. We should all take the time, regularly, to ask the Lord to tell us what he sees when he looks at us, and what we need to do about it. He sees it already, no matter how good an act we put on..

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JESUS IS the Bridge Ministries

Beneath His Wings Devotionals - Vol. 2