No Hypocrisy

Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18

September 8, 2002

 

Hypocrisy shows up in every realm of life. We find it among politicians, businessmen, and laborers. It shows up in the home life among husbands, wives, and children. And yes, it rears its ugly head among Christians and in the church. The hypocrite has a duplicitous life - often without realizing it - giving appearance of one motive when in reality a hidden motive drives him. The politician might claim to be a public servant when in fact his inward motive proves him to be a public "serpent." The businessman might make promises for helping a client then renege once he makes his profit, and convinces himself that it is okay since he is only making a living. Family members might claim to have great love for each other, and yet do everything with a selfish motive to achieve personal desires.

 

Sometimes hypocrites are glaringly plain. I receive e-mails most every week, sometimes two or three times weekly, from someone claiming to be a Christian in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, or another African nation, and claiming that they want to help me. Just this week the person claimed to have been a Nigerian Muslim for many years but now, while suffering from terminal cancer, has come to believe in Jesus Christ. Then she explained that she had forty million dollars that she had inherited from her deceased, well-placed husband. She wanted to use the money to help build churches and charities in the United States and other countries before her death. The money was hidden in another country, and all she needed was to know of my interest in helping her to get the money out of that country and into the United States. All she needed was my bank account number and she would promptly wire a large portion of the money my way. Perhaps I should have responded by offering her a real estate proposal of swampland in Florida! That kind of hypocrisy is quite easy to spot.

 

However the hardest type of hypocrisy to spot is not in someone else. It is in us. We can quickly spot ill motives in someone else but just as quickly make excuses for similar motives in our own lives. While the Nigerian writer's motive is clearly not to help build Christian churches but to rob American bank accounts, what is my own motive when I pray or give or discipline myself? It may not be a goal of financial robbery but it could very well be one of robbing praise and aggrandizement from others.

 

But what about Christians and hypocrisy, how do believers show hypocrisy while doing righteous deeds? Jesus has set forth the character and practice of kingdom citizens in the first portion of the Sermon on the Mount (chap. 5). After commanding perfection he immediately warns of the subtleties of hypocrisy that can creep into our spiritual pursuits. The problem does not rest in the pursuits but in the individual heart. Motives of love and devotion can become colored with self-centeredness. Because of sin's deceitfulness, the Christian must be on guard against hypocrisy. It can slip into the most devoted Christian's life so our Lord calls attention to the need for holy motivations in righteous pursuits. How can hypocrisy affect us while seeking to do well?

 

I. The principle

 

The first verse sets forth the basic principle that our Lord is driving home, and then he illustrates it in three ways. He has been addressing the matter of personal righteousness in terms of doing the will of God in the realm of morality. Now he considers doing the will of God in religious practice. Practicing the disciplines or duties of the Christian life is assumed by Christ since we see that he did not command giving, praying, and fasting in this context but stated, "When you give...pray...fast." These are common Christian practices for centuries, even preceded by the religious exercises of Judaism. So how are we to carry out our duties and disciplines?

 

1. Guard your motives

 

Jesus commands, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them." The word "beware" or 'give heed to' or 'watch out for' points to the motives behind the Christian's devotion and duty. When all is said and done, why have we done what we have done in the name of Christ and for the sake of righteousness? When we give our offering or preach our sermons or offer our public and even private prayers or help the poor or discipline our bodies, what has been the motive behind it?

 

I suppose we could ask why the issue of motive is even brought up. Does not a poor person appreciate receiving alms even if the motive is not right? He does not mind a person calling attention to his gift. He just wants the gift! A congregation might appreciate the content of a sermon though it is offered with improper motives. A lovely choral piece might edify and lift the spirits but the motive for it could be skewed. The Lord calls for more than just the raw act of benevolence toward someone else or a good deed in the name of Christ. The deeds of "righteousness" may benefit another person but it is not to be done "before men to be noticed by them." We may outwardly do well towards others and even be a help to others but the thing that drives us may be wicked and sinful. Kingdom citizenship calls for higher standards.

 

Sinful motives can slip into our lives when we may not even realize it. On one occasion, the Apostle Peter had been enjoying fellowship meals with the Gentile believers at Antioch. But when a group of strong-minded Jews that professed to be Christians came into Antioch (Judaizers), Peter withdrew from the fellowship with the Gentiles, and held himself aloof from them. Paul confronted him, calling Peter's action "hypocrisy." The problem was not just when the Jews came into town. It was deeper as Peter's motive for being with the Gentile Christians lacked the integrity to keep him steadfast. He was doing the right thing in being with them, but he did so out of convenience and maybe even the desire for attention rather than for the right motive to honor the Lord in relationships with Gentile believers. The coming of the Judaizers exposed Peter's latent hypocrisy. He wanted "to be noticed" by the Gentiles when convenient and then by the Judaizers. In both cases he showed hypocrisy in motivation, and as Paul put it, "stood condemned" (Gal 2:11-14).

 

So when we are giving we are not to "let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." And when we are praying we are to "go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret." And when we are fasting you are to "anoint your head and wash your face" so that you do not give appearance of fasting. In other words, when we are exercising acts of devotion and Christian duty we are not to call attention to ourselves or be impressed with ourselves or to think that we are adding merit by our deed.

 

The greatest hindrance in right motives is the desire to please yourself rather than the Lord. Selfishness can lead to doing great exploits in the name of Christ when we really do so for ourselves. It can show up by going to the mission field and receiving the accolades of men for such sacrifice, when the real reason is to make a name for one's self. John Wesley traveled to the primitive colonial state of 18th C. Georgia to do missionary work before he was converted. He thought that such action would improve his standing with God - a self-centered motive. Though he did a noble deed he found it to be a miserable experience wrought out with wrong motives.

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones searching comment hits the mark:

Ultimately our only reason for pleasing men around us is that we may please ourselves. Our real desire is not to please others as such; we want to please them because we know that, if we do, they will think better of us. In other words, we are pleasing ourselves and are merely concerned about self-gratification" [The Sermon on the Mount, vol. II, 14].


2. Consider the Lord

 

What Jesus calls for is that we examine our motives so that whatever we do might cause us to think upon the Heavenly Father. We must practice our deeds without a view of getting men's applause, or then he says, "Otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." The Lord will not share his glory with any other. If it is men's applause that we long for, then "they have their reward in full" by such applause, and will receive nothing from the Lord.

 

Paul captures the heart of Christ's message when he wrote, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father" (Col 3:17). Is the divine stamp of approval upon the very motive of what we say and do? Is our aim in devotion and duty one of thankfulness unto the Lord?

 

While almsgiving relieves human suffering, there is a bigger aim that the Christian keeps in mind. He desires to help others but more than anything, he offers his gift with a sense of gratitude for the great mercy that the Lord has shown him. He keeps the Lord in his eyes - so to speak - as he makes his gift. It is with a view toward pleasing Him that the Christian gives. It is because the believer has so thought upon the character and practice of Jesus Christ that he desires to do as Christ did in giving, and all to the glory of God.

 

It is this same thought of personal holiness that the writer of Hebrews addressed in Hebrews 12:1-2. He spoke of how the Christian is to lay aside the encumbrances and sins that hinder our faithful walk with Christ. One of the terrifying encumbrances is our own sinful motive creeping into devotion to Christ. So he tells us to lay these things aside, and then "fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Check your motives. Examine them in light of the selflessness - the gentleness called for in the third Beatitude - then look to Jesus Christ, consider him and the way that he pursued every step with the consciousness of pleasing the Father.

 

II. Three examples

 

After stating the principle of guarding our motives and considering the Lord in every act of devotion and duty, our Lord gives three examples that bring this truth home into the realm of daily Christian life.

 

1. Giving

 

Giving or almsgiving was an important part of ancient Judaism. Even those gleaning the fields were told to leave behind some of the sheaves so that the poor could gather and have food. The same practice of giving passed into Christianity. But with every act of giving there is the danger of mixed motives creeping into something that is so necessary. "So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full." Scholars debate whether Christ uses this metaphorically or whether some actually had trumpeters announcing their gifts. In either case, it implies that with the gift came the craving desire for public recognition. In our day we would have a press conference or an announcement in church or a building named for someone or a charitable foundation parading the benefactor. In some church settings, the offering is taken by the members parading to the front and laying their gifts on the table for all to see. In other settings those that give their gifts expect to have certain privileges and even control. One pastor in a southern city refused to violate his convictions of not performing a marriage of a believer and unbeliever. It just happened that the one this affected was a wealthy lady that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to this debt-strapped church. She told the pastor that if he refused to perform this wedding, then she was leaving and her hundreds of thousands with her. He showed her the door. Her entire motive for giving was not out of a desire to honor the Lord but to control. She has already had her "reward in full."

 

Our Lord's instruction is simple. "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." No boasting, no bragging, and no announcement of the size of your gift, no recognition - instead the giving is done quietly as unto the Lord. We are to find our satisfaction in the joy of giving not the applause of men.

 

There was a dear little lady, now deceased, that I had known for many years that followed the progress of our church in its early days. When we came to the time of building a new building and furnishing it, she sent me a sizeable gift to purchase a desk, chairs, and office equipment. I was pretty bowled over by her generosity, especially since she did not even live in our community. But I still remember her note:  "This is our little secret." She wanted no recognition or applause or plaque commemorating her generosity. She just found great joy in being able to give as unto the Lord for the work of ministry. Her left hand did not know what her right hand was doing. The "Father who sees what is done in secret" rewarded her with the intense pleasure of knowing that her gift helped a young congregation go forward.

 

2. Praying

 

Prayer is an interesting subject, and one that we'll consider more when we dig into the model prayer that was part of our Lord's excursus while dealing with motives for devotion and duty. But for now the focus is upon the motive in prayer. Do we pray in order to cause others to think highly of us? Do we pray to somehow impress even ourselves that we are spiritual? Do we pray in order to gain merit with God? Jesus deals with all of this in verses 5-8. "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full." You can picture the scene. The rabbi calls upon Brother So-and-so to pray in the synagogue, and then he begins the most polished, flowery prayer that the congregation had ever heard. Once he sat down the members of the congregation were awed by his knowledge and use of language and obvious spirituality! He sat with a smug grin, knowing that he had impressed the whole congregation by what he had said. Jesus declared that he got what he wanted, the approval of men. But he did not receive what he prayed for in the least.

 

Charles Spurgeon was alarmed when he heard one of his students begin his prayer, "O Thou that art encinctured with an auriferous zodiac!" The man proved to be an imposter that finally became a playwright and actor, abandoning his wife and the ministry. His desire for the attention of men exposed the sinful motives that dictated his prayer.

 

Instead of such ostentation, Jesus commands that we develop the habit of secret prayer. It is not that he discourages public praying, for later on in the book of Acts we find the church gathered for prayer. Rather he calls for public praying that is an overflow of much prayer in secret. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room [this was a storeroom in ancient homes that kept the families prized goods], close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." While we understand clearly that our Lord does not want kingdom citizens to use prayer as a platform for aggrandizement, do we also see that he does command us to pray? Secret prayer when you are alone with God - is one of the best barometers of your devotion to Christ. For in the secret place, whether in a room or on a walk or on a drive or in a closet, no one is there to be impressed by your flowery words or clever nuances. God alone hears and sees, and indeed, that is the promise of Christ. As you pray in secret the Father who sees in secret notices, and rewards accordingly. Just the pleasure of knowing that our heavenly Father hears is enough! But Christ promises that he rewards as well.

 

Our Lord also adds, "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." The pagan religions called for their devotees to pray just as we see among world religionists in our own day. The mindless chanting of the Hare Krishna devotees, or the repetitious prayers of the Muslim or Hindu are modern examples of this ancient practice of meaningless repetition or "babbling" as the word literally states. But the concern we have is not with what pagan religions are doing but how we pray? Some Christian religions have a set formula of prayers that are prayed by memory. I have watched numerous times on flights, passengers fingering their prayer beads and monotonously repeating the prayer that corresponded with a particular bead.

 

But the danger that we face is not with prayer beads but mindlessly going through a routine of praying, maybe even using a prayer notebook, but paying no attention to what we are saying. Rather than engaging our minds and hearts, rather than thinking upon the Scripture as we pray, rather than consciously seeking the Father, we may fall prey to mulling through a series of religious sounding words but do nothing more than the Hare Krishna. It is not the size of our prayers or the vocabulary of our prayers or the wordiness of our prayers that gets us a hearing with the Father. It is because we come to him in dependence upon the righteousness of Christ, casting ourselves upon his resources, and looking to him as our Father that grants our hearing. He "knows what you need before you ask Him," so your prayer does not need to be an attempt at manipulating the Father to give you what you want. For you cannot. It is rather a time to quiet your heart before him, to pour out your needs, and to cling to him in faithful dependence.

 

3. Fasting

 

Fasting has been practiced by many different religions for centuries. It is personal self-discipline in which a person denies himself a normal need in order to learn to restrain his passions and desires, and to express his devotion. Often God's people have fasted in order to express humility before the Lord, and to show an earnest desire for the Lord to work in a particular way. Most commonly, fasting involves denying oneself a meal or meals in order to give oneself to the purpose of seeking God's face. But fasting is never to be used for drawing attention to one's spirituality or devotion. "Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full." The gloomy, sullen looks on their faces give the pretentious fasters a ready audience. The language suggests an almost unrecognizable look, as they leave their hair disheveled, neglect bathing, and maybe even accentuate a strange pallor to the skin.

 

In our day it seems the most common thing is for people to announce that they are fasting or to tell about their fast. I received a booklet from a Baptist pastor several years ago telling about his 40-day fast, and how that became the key to his spiritual growth and his church's growth. Then he outlined in true-Baptist program fashion how to institute such a fast in one's own life.

 

But Jesus tells us, "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." In other words, go ahead and bathe, shave, brush your hair, put on deodorant, and take care of the normal necessities of life so that there will be no outward appearance of fasting. Let this be between you and the Lord. The Lord sees in secret and rewards accordingly.

 

III. The warning

 

More than giving instructions on giving, praying, and fasting, this text is a warning to guard our spiritual devotion and duty from our own self-centered ways.

 

1. Sin deceives

 

The reason we must guard ourselves is due to the deceitfulness of sin. Conversion does not eliminate the presence of sin. We have a new nature and new desires, but we still battle with the patterns and tendencies of our flesh. That is why we must be constantly renewed in our minds. If Peter needed a rebuke by Paul for his man-pleasing spirit in Antioch, and if Paul needed a "thorn in the flesh" to keep him from having a self-exalting, exaggerated view of his spirituality, then we can be sure that we have those areas that we will constantly battle to hold down the flesh. That is why Christ warns us, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them." The lure of pride is still strong in our bosoms. We enjoy the applause of men; we may even clamor for it. It feels so good to our senses. But it deceives, and will inflict us with grievous wounds if we fail to guard ourselves against flattery, self-exaltation, and pride.

 

2. Hypocrisy distorts

 

The language our Lord used was quite strong. He repeats, "You are not to be like the hypocrites," so that kingdom citizens do not fall prey to the selfish tendencies of the human heart. The term "hypocrite" was used in ancient plays. Sinclair Ferguson explains:

In ancient drama, an important part of a play was fulfilled by the chorus. As in opera and musicals, it provided commentary on the action of the play. In fact, the hupokrites was, 'the one who answered the chorus.' That is exactly what the Pharisees had begun to do. Their religious activities were no longer answering to God. Instead their eyes were fixed on the 'chorus' of men's opinion of them [The Sermon on the Mount, 113].


In addition, rather than wearing make up or changing characters, the actors simply wore masks to express the character they played. That is the hypocrite. He is one that answers to the chorus of men, and one that wears a mask that covers the reality of his own heart. He pretends to be one thing when in reality he is something completely different. The hypocrite has a distorted view of God as Father. "He is insecure before God and, therefore, seeks security in what his fellow men think about him," adds Ferguson [114]. The hypocrite has an exaggerated view of the value of human applause, thinking it to be worth more than the favor of the Father. They hypocrite turns acts of godliness and self-discipline into parade ground routines. Jesus declares, "They have their reward in full."

 

Conclusion

 

We are to be faithful in the exercise of our Christian devotion and duty to the glory of God. We are to find great pleasure and joy simply in living unto the Lord, knowing his favor upon our lives, and enjoying the wonder of his presence. But when we slip into the mode of seeking men's applause we have ceased devotion and joined the ranks of hypocrites. Let us guard our hearts and minds from such deceitfulness. Let us examine our motives, and constantly humble ourselves before the Lord, living in gratitude to him for his mercy and grace.

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