Don’t Be A Hypocrite
Be FOUND Bible Study Method - Part 10
Hypocrite.
It's a harsh word. We all know one. We all have been one. We wouldn’t want to openly admit this because then we would be intentionally shattering the thin facade of God that we have worked so hard to protect by pretending.
Let’s zoom in on “pretend”- to cause, or attempt to cause, what is not so to seem so; to appear falsely, as to deceive; counterfeit. Are you tired of playing make believe when all you really have to do, is just actually believe?
Believe God is who He says He is and in the light of who He is, the counterfeit can’t help but fade. This makes us come face to face with the real problem doesn’t it? How can we believe what He says, if we don’t know what He said? How can we believe a God that we just don’t know?
There is a sure cure for hypocrisy my friends: the Bible.
When we are in the Word of God, we are willingly laying out our souls on a spiritual operating table, allowing the scalpel of God to cut away the counterfeit and impurities that pollute our souls.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
The bible is the only book on the planet with a pulse. It is alive. It is active. It has a heartbeat. Let me be clear, my friends, the only wrong way to read the Bible is to never open it. Just open it. Unleash the power that is bound within it. Because the Word is alive, it will do it’s work in you whether or not you ever do any extra work in it!
Now, don’t get me wrong, just like any relationship, the investment of time and energy you put into it will most definitely pay off! The tools you choose to use will help you to understand the big picture of who God is and who you are. That is why we are here in this space. I want to lay out just a few tools that you can use now or even put in your tool box or tool shed to pull out later.
One of the tools I haven’t mentioned yet is the tool of memorization- one of my good friends told me that the more scripture you memorize the more vocabulary you give the Holy Spirit to use in your life. Now, I like “fill in the blank” worksheets, as long as I have a word bank to pull from to fill in all those blank spaces.
Imagine your life with all of these blank spaces, and now imagine that your word bank is blank. There are no words there to fill in the blank spaces of your life. You can bet that if you don’t fill that word bank up with the Word of God, then the enemy will be quick to fill it with every form of counterfeit you can imagine.
Counterfeit joy, counterfeit love, counterfeit completeness or counterfeit fulfillment.
I would venture to say that most of us are unintentional hypocrites. We may start out with good intentions, but unfortunately our flesh steps in and our perspective gets twisted. So, how do we diagnose this disease of the heart and find a cure?
If the inclination of our heart is evil, then we can only come at evil with the purest source of good, which is God Himself, through His Word!
“My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!” Psalm 119:25
“My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” Psalm 119:28
“My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word.” Psalm 119:81
”You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.” Psalm 119:114
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
“I will hide your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word?” Psalm 119:9
How do we not sin? How do we stay pure, not polluted or poisoned? There is really only one way: marinate in and even memorize the Word of God. Lean in with me for a moment.
The bible study method that we have been exploring in this space is an inductive approach to studying the bible, the Found Method. Inductive is really just finding meaning through reasoning.
F.O.U.N.D. Method
(First and foremost, pause to pray. It can be as simple as “God guide us into your Word.”)
F - Frame of Reference: who the author is, who the o.g. audience is, where the passage fits into the book as a whole and the bible as a whole.
O - Observe:
Who are the pronouns referring to?
What is the function of the conjunction?
When something is compared or contrasted, take note!
Where is the action?
Why is something repeated or listed?
How is God choosing to reveal who He is in this passage? His character? His pursuit of mankind?
U - Understand what this passage meant to the original audience.
N - Now what does it mean to me?
D - Dwell. Simply “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” Col 3:16
Hypocrisy is when our heart gets off beat from God’s heart. The cure then is to delve so deep into the Word of God that our lives can’t help but sync to the steady cadence of His heart.
The religious sect of the Pharisees arose as a direct reaction to Jews wanting to give in to Greek culture with it’s pagan religious customs in the 3rd century B.C. It started as a way to preserve practice strict allegiance to the Law but soon became impious and self righteous. Hypocrisy does not come so often from heresy as much as it comes from the Pharisee.
See, Pharisee’s were spiritual giants. They were the spiritual heavy weights of that time. They were the elite source for hyper holiness. Yet, in just one chapter (Matthew 23), Jesus exposes their hyper holiness as hypocrisy. Check out the second and last sentences from verses 1-15. Ouch.
“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves…’”
Let’s just pick up our tool for repetition: Jesus goes on to “Woe” the Pharisees a total of 8 times in this one chapter! Zooming in on “Woe” we see that this greek word, ouai, means a primary exclamation of grief.
Can you hear the heart of God grieving here? What is He grieving? Seven times He calls them out as hypocrites. Five times He calls them out as being blind. In verses 16-22, Jesus uses the word swear 8 times in those seven verses. Why do you think Jesus was repeating these specific words? What was He emphasizing?
I want to challenge you to do a search of the word hypocrite in your bible app. Look at where God chose to use that word and the contexts He chose to put it. In Matthew 23, we can see that He is clearly calling them out for pretending. They worked so hard at keeping up a perfect spiritual image on the outside while the inside was corrupt, rotting, and empty.
I was at a church service this past week and the pastor was telling a story of a parishioner of his that would regularly place their offering envelope in the offertory plate, but the envelope would actually be empty. To be honest, my first thought was pretty judgy. Then, as I pulled the plank out of my own eye (that had been obstructing my view), I sobered up quite a bit. I wondered how many of us stumble blindly about living “empty offering envelope” lives that look nice and spiritually generous on the outside and yet are empty on the inside. Signed. Sealed. Unfilled.
My judginess and even my own hypocrisy stops when I realize that I need the cross as much as Hitler needed it. I do not excuse hypocrisy but, in grace, recognize it as an unfortunate display of our sin-shattered humanity. One that the devil particularly delights in, as he takes these rough, broken shards and uses them to lacerate us and those around us, leaving us wounded and bleeding out on the battlefield. Hypocrisy is the sin of “church pretend”, but is no greater than any other sin. It, like all sin, separates us from God and should be met head on in humility and truth with the truth of God’s Word because when we are in the Word of God, our lives can’t help but be refocused and transformed by the humble heart of God that we hear so clear there.
Listen. Can you hear it? The heart of God grieved at the hypocrisy of the Pharisee and grieves at the hypocrisy of you and me. Take down the facade. Exhale out any expectation of any illusion of perfection and rest in His. You, precious one, are not perfect but have been perfectly made for God’s purpose for you. Lean into the Word with me and let the love of God wash over you as the heart of God reminds you that You. Are. Loved.
Jane is also teaching this series on her Youtube channel, you can find her HERE.
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