“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart…” (1 Peter 1:22, LSB)
The scripture for today demands four things from the believer. It requires you have “obedience to the truth”, God’s truth. It requires you let God “purify your soul” using God’s truth. And, it requires you practice a “love of the brothers” in the faith; loving “one another from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). Each of these three things you need to work through with God. These three things are positives. They are things that will benefit your life. Having 1) an obedience to God, 2) a purified soul, and 3) God’s fervent love in your heart shared with others will bring you closer to God. They will add many good things to your spiritual life. However, the fourth thing required in this scripture is a negative. You must not seek it, but instead reject it. You must reject “hypocrisy”. This fourth requirement will be the subject for our meditation today.
Since this scripture requires you to have a spiritual life “without hypocrisy” (1 Peter 1:22), it is important to understand not only what hypocrisy is but whether hypocrisy exists in your heart and soul. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hypocrisy is “the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more laudable beliefs than is the case”. The Greek word used in the scripture for “hypocrisy” is related to a “theatrical performance”. In other words, hypocrisy means to “pretend”. To be hypocritical, you will pretend to think one way while thinking another way. It is to pretend to believe something holy when you do not believe it or pretend to act holy when you are not holy. Put another way, hypocrisy displays that you have a double standard for yourself. Your words and actions and beliefs don’t align. You are faking true faith.
As a prank, two high school young men came up with a challenge. Karl and Steven would try to get a date for the next High School dance from one of the girls at the lunch table across from them. They eyed up the girls. Then, Karl said, “I’m going to ask Sarah to the dance. She has no boyfriend and has not been to any dance so far. She’s not very good looking and surely will jump at the chance for a date with me.” He walked over and began to flirt and charm young Sarah. At the same time, Steven decided to ask Carmen. She was seated at the lunch table next to Sarah. It took Karl only five minutes to get a date with Sarah for the High School dance. Meanwhile, Steven took just over ten minutes to convince Carmen to go to the dance. When the young men came back to their lunch table, each had a smile. Still, Karl had won the challenge and considered himself pretty special.
As the young men talked about what they had done to secure their dates, they then challenged each other to break off the dates. Each one would cancel their date with the other girl before lunch was over. Whomever caused their date to cry the most would be the winner. Steven won this time, with Carmen rushing off to the bathroom in tears. Steven was very proud of himself for winning this latest challenge.
Watching all this from a distance, Steven’s big sister approached the table and stood next to the two young men. She pointed a finger at the two and yelled, “You two are terrible. I saw what you did. Don’t you care what you did to those two girls? Do you understand how crushed they are going to be? Do you not understand what it is like to be made fun of and laughed at over the lunch table? You two are a bunch of two-faced lying jerks. You disgust me.” Students all around heard the big sister’s words to the two young men. The boys were thoroughly embarrassed, just not enough to admit their terrible actions to the two young girls. This led to more High School drama.
Steven’s big sister was disgusted and thoroughly upset at the two-faced hypocrisy of the guys at the lunch table. She hated their deceit and hurtful flirtations and hypocrisy. She was saddened to see their double standards and the pain they caused.
God too is disgusted by double standards and hypocrisy. On at least sixteen occasions in the gospels, Jesus criticized religious leaders or sinners for their hypocrisy and fake religiosity. Jesus could see the fakeness of the religious leaders who practiced hypocrisy. He saw their actions as more theatrical performance than true faith.
Beware in your life of practicing a double standard. Do not let fakeness or performance be a part of your spiritual life. Acting religious or holy is a sign to God that you do not take seriously Christ’s suffering and death nor God’s saving grace. Often people who have hypocritical thoughts care more about their own “image” than a true, godly love of others. Their whole spiritual life is a theatrical performance meant to elicit applause and recognition. God has nothing to do with that. God is disgusted by such “performances” as found in those with a double standard.
Jesus had harsh words for those who kept a double standard or practiced hypocrisy. He balked at those who gave gifts to the poor, looking for applause and recognition (Matthew 6:2). He argued against those who prayed so to look good (Matthew 6:5). He saw those who practiced religious fasting in order to boast about it as unworthy of a heavenly reward (Matthew 6:16). He berated those who judged others with a double standard (Matthew 7:5). If Jesus was so strongly against hypocrisy, and Peter was adamantly opposed to its presence in a faithful spiritual life, why would you ever want to be caught practicing a double standard or putting on a spiritual act to appear more holy?
Since this scripture requires you to have a spiritual life “without hypocrisy” (1 Peter 1:22), it is important to understand not only what hypocrisy is but whether hypocrisy exists in your heart and soul. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hypocrisy is “the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more laudable beliefs than is the case”. The Greek word used in the scripture for “hypocrisy” is related to a “theatrical performance”. In other words, hypocrisy means to “pretend”. To be hypocritical, you will pretend to think one way while thinking another way. It is to pretend to believe something holy when you do not believe it or pretend to act holy when you are not holy. Put another way, hypocrisy displays that you have a double standard for yourself. Your words and actions and beliefs don’t align. You are faking true faith.
As a prank, two high school young men came up with a challenge. Karl and Steven would try to get a date for the next High School dance from one of the girls at the lunch table across from them. They eyed up the girls. Then, Karl said, “I’m going to ask Sarah to the dance. She has no boyfriend and has not been to any dance so far. She’s not very good looking and surely will jump at the chance for a date with me.” He walked over and began to flirt and charm young Sarah. At the same time, Steven decided to ask Carmen. She was seated at the lunch table next to Sarah. It took Karl only five minutes to get a date with Sarah for the High School dance. Meanwhile, Steven took just over ten minutes to convince Carmen to go to the dance. When the young men came back to their lunch table, each had a smile. Still, Karl had won the challenge and considered himself pretty special.
As the young men talked about what they had done to secure their dates, they then challenged each other to break off the dates. Each one would cancel their date with the other girl before lunch was over. Whomever caused their date to cry the most would be the winner. Steven won this time, with Carmen rushing off to the bathroom in tears. Steven was very proud of himself for winning this latest challenge.
Watching all this from a distance, Steven’s big sister approached the table and stood next to the two young men. She pointed a finger at the two and yelled, “You two are terrible. I saw what you did. Don’t you care what you did to those two girls? Do you understand how crushed they are going to be? Do you not understand what it is like to be made fun of and laughed at over the lunch table? You two are a bunch of two-faced lying jerks. You disgust me.” Students all around heard the big sister’s words to the two young men. The boys were thoroughly embarrassed, just not enough to admit their terrible actions to the two young girls. This led to more High School drama.
Steven’s big sister was disgusted and thoroughly upset at the two-faced hypocrisy of the guys at the lunch table. She hated their deceit and hurtful flirtations and hypocrisy. She was saddened to see their double standards and the pain they caused.
God too is disgusted by double standards and hypocrisy. On at least sixteen occasions in the gospels, Jesus criticized religious leaders or sinners for their hypocrisy and fake religiosity. Jesus could see the fakeness of the religious leaders who practiced hypocrisy. He saw their actions as more theatrical performance than true faith.
Beware in your life of practicing a double standard. Do not let fakeness or performance be a part of your spiritual life. Acting religious or holy is a sign to God that you do not take seriously Christ’s suffering and death nor God’s saving grace. Often people who have hypocritical thoughts care more about their own “image” than a true, godly love of others. Their whole spiritual life is a theatrical performance meant to elicit applause and recognition. God has nothing to do with that. God is disgusted by such “performances” as found in those with a double standard.
Jesus had harsh words for those who kept a double standard or practiced hypocrisy. He balked at those who gave gifts to the poor, looking for applause and recognition (Matthew 6:2). He argued against those who prayed so to look good (Matthew 6:5). He saw those who practiced religious fasting in order to boast about it as unworthy of a heavenly reward (Matthew 6:16). He berated those who judged others with a double standard (Matthew 7:5). If Jesus was so strongly against hypocrisy, and Peter was adamantly opposed to its presence in a faithful spiritual life, why would you ever want to be caught practicing a double standard or putting on a spiritual act to appear more holy?