Perspective: Hallmarks of a Hypocrite

Disclaimer: The following perspective contains descriptions of both hypocrites and authentic people.  In the interest of being less of one of the former, I have no choice but to admit that I have a long way to go in becoming one of the latter.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

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Hallmarks of a Hypocrite

Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your neighbor, "Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye," when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

Luke 6:41-42 (NRSV)

I focused on the score

But I could never win

Trying to ignore

A life of hiding my sin

From "Undo" by Rush of Fools

In one account of Jesus' ministry, the Gospel attributed to St. Matthew, we read that, one day, a great multitude of people gathered around Jesus at a mountain.  From that mountain, Jesus began teach the crowds.¹  The collection of teachings that follows, aptly known as the Sermon on the Mount, makes up the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Gospel of Matthew.  This sermon touches on many different aspects of life and is probably the most famous of Jesus' discourses.  Many people, Mennonites for example, seek to live their lives according to the Sermon on the Mount, and much of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous work The Cost of Discipleship is a study of this sermon.

In another account of Jesus' ministry, the Gospel attributed to St. Luke, we read that when a great multitude gathered to hear Jesus, He spoke not from a mountain, but on a plain.²  In this Gospel, Jesus delivers the shorter and lesser known Sermon on the Plain, which is found entirely within the sixth chapter.³  The Sermon on the Plain contains a lot of the same material found in its more famous counterpart, but it covers a lot less ground.

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with a series of blessings, often called the Beatitudes, for the people at the bottom of the proverbial ladder.⁴  In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus begins not only with blessings for the people at the bottom, but also woes for the people at the top.⁵  These blessings and woes remind us that the Kingdom of God will be an equalizing force.  Those on the bottom will experience blessing as they are lifted up, but those at the top will be filled with woe as they are brought down to everyone else's level.  As Jesus will later say, "Those who are last will be first and those who are first will be last."⁶

A major theme throughout the remainder of the Sermon on the Plain is living with authenticity.  We can see the same thread running through the Sermon on the Mount, but the Sermon on the Plain seems to be a bit more focused on the subject.

Hypocrites treat certain people, the people they like, much better than they treat everyone else.  They live by the law of reciprocity, doing unto others what others have done unto them.  They treat people especially well when they stand to benefit.  Jesus says that there is absolutely nothing noteworthy or meritorious about such behavior because most people tend to act in this way.⁷

Authentic people treat everyone with compassion.  They love all people, even those who hate them; they pray for their abusers; they forgive wrongdoings committed against them; they give to those who cannot give them anything in return; and they treat other people the way they would want other people to treat them.⁸  Jesus calls such people "children of the Most High," as God is "kind to the ungrateful and the wicked."  They withhold judgment and condemnation because they understand that all children of God, themselves included, are in need of mercy because they all have the capacity to be wayward children.⁹

Hypocrites point out the sinfulness of other people while ignoring, downplaying, or totally denying their own sinfulness.  Jesus says that they are like blind people who try to guide other blind people, only to end up falling into a ditch.  More humorously, He says that they are like people who offer to remove the debris from other people's eyes while they have whole logs in their own eyes.¹⁰  Of course, hypocrites don't really care about helping other people in their struggles: they just want to show off their own superiority.

Authentic people are honest with themselves.  They don't get wrapped up in all that "hate the sin and love the sinner" garbage because their struggle is against their own sinfulness and not against the sin of others.  Jesus says that such people are actually able to help others in their struggles, for it is not until a person gets the debris out of her own eyes that she can help someone else to do the same.¹¹  Not only will she be able to see clearly, she will actually know from experience how to help other people clean out their eyes.

Hypocrites hurt people with their religion.  Their hearts have not been transformed, because their religion has nothing to do with personal transformation.  Jesus says that we can know the state of a person's heart by what comes out in a person's words and actions, in the same way that we can classify a tree by the kind of fruit it produces.  Good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce thorns.¹²  Hypocrites are like trees that have nothing to offer the world but thorns because they bear no actual fruit.

Authentic people are transformed by their faith at their deepest levels.  This change of heart works its way outward into their actions.  It is as if they have become new kinds of trees that produce fruit that other people find nourishing to the soul and sweet to the taste.

Hypocritical Christians prioritize being right over doing right.  Though they proclaim that "Jesus is Lord," they do not live like the One whom they exalt with their words.  Jesus asks such people, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I tell you?"¹³  Again, the religion of hypocrites has nothing to do with personal transformation.  Who they are on the inside is revealed when they are put to the test.  Jesus says that they are like builders who shoddily built their houses on a foundation of sand.  Their work will ultimately be washed away in a flood.¹⁴

Authentic followers of Jesus proclaim that He is Lord and actually live as though He is Lord.  They love Jesus so much that they put His teachings into practice and strive to become more and more like Him.  Jesus compares such people to builders who dig deep into the ground and lay a solid foundation on which they build their houses.  When put to the test, their work remains standing.¹⁵

The word hypocrite is derived from the Greek word hupokritēs which refers to an actor.¹⁶  Hypocrites, like actors, live their lives pretending to be something they are not.  Are you a hypocritical Christian?  If so, you're in good company.  Researchers from the Barna Group, in a study documented in the 2007 book unChristian, found that eighty-five percent of non-Christians between the ages of sixteen and twenty-nine considered Christians to be at least somewhat hypocritical.  Fifty-four percent considered Christians to be very hypocritical.¹⁷  It would seem that there is a hypocrisy pandemic among Christians.

If you think that you might exhibit some of the hallmarks of a hypocrite, don't give up on yourself.  Instead, get real with yourself.  Remember that Jesus did not come into the world for the sake of good, upstanding religious folk, for, as Jesus says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."¹⁸  A doctor cannot heal us of our sickness if we are unwilling to acknowledge our symptoms.


Notes:

1. Matthew 5:1-2
2. Luke 6:17-19
3. Specifically, Luke 6:20-49
4. Matthew 5:3-12
5. Luke 6:20-26
6. Luke 13:30 (CEB)
7. Luke 6:32-34
8. Luke 6:27-31
9. Luke 6:35-38 (NRSV)
10. Luke 6:39-42
11. Luke 6:42
12. Luke 6:43-45
13. Luke 6:46 (NRSV)
14. Luke 6:49
15. Luke 6:47-48
16. Wiktionary: Hypocrite
17. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.  unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity... and Why It Matters.  2007, Baker Books.
18. Luke 5:31-32 (NRSV)

The Sermon on the Mount was painted by Carl Heinrich Bloch in 1877.