The Leaven of Hypocrisy
How do we rid the church of hypocrisy?
Leaven and your lifestyle
... He [Jesus] began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. (Luke 12:1, NKJV)
I have already written about leaven and Purveyors of leaven in other articles. But let me note here that ‘leaven’ depicts more than what is spoken or written; it conveys the meaning both of speech and conduct because of its propensity to corrupt a person’s way of life. The Bible says,
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. (1 Corinthians 15:33, KJV)
The above Scripture verse in the Message translation gives clarity to the verse:
But don’t fool yourselves. Don’t let yourselves be poisoned by this anti-resurrection loose talk. “Bad company ruins good manners.” (1 Corinthians 15:33, MSG)
If you are in the company of purveyors of leaven, they will corrupt, infect, and negatively influence you, by their talk and lifestyle.
So when the Lord warned His disciples to,
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy”,
He was categorically saying that their way of life is hypocrisy, and that like leaven they can infect an entire congregation with their lifestyle of hypocrisy.
What is hypocrisy?
In ancient Greek drama or acting, there was only one individual with a set of masks depicting the characters he would be playing on stage. So, one by one, he picks up a mask, places it over his face and proceeds to speak in a manner that would depict that character. When that character’s role is over, he would then pick up another mask and again talk to portray the character the mask represents. So, a hypocrite was an actor or as they called them then, a pretender! A hypocrite historically was, therefore, someone who pretended to be a character he never intended to be—he is only depicted the character to an audience; afterwards, he returned to his usual lifestyle.
So when the Lord spoke of the leaven of the Pharisees being hypocrisy, He implied that what the Pharisees do and say openly was for a public audience—that the real person in private is different from who they see in public! Thus, in Matthew 23, the Lord told the people,
“The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are the authorized interpreters of Moses’ Law. So you must obey and follow everything they tell you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions, because they don’t practice what they preach. (Matthew 23:2-3, GNB)
The Lord was essentially saying that when the Pharisees teach the Law of Moses, they pronounce what the Law is saying, but when it comes to putting to practice what they have told the people, they (the Pharisees) do not do what they teach.
Hypocrisy is thus, deception, duplicity, or dissimulation. It is pretending to be who you are not nor intend to be. Hypocrisy is the opposite of integrity!
The problem of hypocrisy in the church
Hypocrisy is a problem in many homes because children learn more by what they see than by what they hear. So, when a parent engages in illegality and says to the child not to do same, it is difficult for the child to obey, because the child finds it easier to do what he has seen.
In a leader-follower situation, the same is true. People follow what the leader is doing rather than what they are saying. A perfect example is what happened during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic; some leaders asked people to mask up, but they did not!
In the church, we have the same problem of Christians following their pastors’ lifestyle rather than what the pastors are saying from the pulpit! Such hypocrisy is more rampant among those who work closely with such hypocritical pastors. They tend to act like God’s word is not binding because the pastor acts like that!
Hypocrisy is a lifestyle which many who claim to be Christians are living. They are one person at a church meeting, another at work, and someone else at home. They can say a ‘powerful prayer’ filled with high sounding spiritual words, but their lives do not match what they pretend to be. These hypocrites are pious during church meetings and thought of by all, to be saints. However, aside from those gatherings, they are sexual predators, spouse abusers, bribe-takers, cult members, serial killers, occultic practitioners, etc. Current reports on leaders like Ravi Zacharias, Jerry Fallwell Jr., etc., leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Many of those attending church meetings are pretenders: they sing or play instruments in fellowship meetings on Sunday, but are at night clubs on other days. They are gentle brothers and sisters at fellowship meetings on Sunday, but rapists and seducers in their neighbourhoods and offices; they are benevolent in church, but stingy in the wages they pay their employees, and even in what they provide their families with; they cannot hurt a fly in the glare of fellowship attendees but are involved in the most heinous crimes you can ever imagine: armed robbery, murder, ritual killings, occultism, etc. The BTK incident comes to mind—he was a Sunday School teacher and the President of the Board of his church, yet a serial killer!
It would appear that the church of God on earth is experiencing an identity crisis. We no longer know, or at best are unsure of, who we are, what we are about, and where we will ultimately end up.
The antidote to a life of hypocrisy
If we are to avoid the corruption of the leaven of religious leaders’ hypocrisy, we must return to God fully! We must repent of our hypocrisy, plead with God to strip us of all hypocrisy, and then build in us, the true doctrine of Christ, which is not flamboyant, but simple and yet far-reaching in its positive impact in the lives of His adherents.
Let us be content to receive the incorruptible seed of the word of God, and stop seeking after contaminated messages of motivational speakers. Let us develop patience and self-control as spiritual attributes to not open ourselves to frustration and depression because things are not going our way.
We need to understand that once you are born again, you belong to Christ, and should be subject to Him in all things, yielding to whatever He asks you to do, not to what you want to do.
Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. (Philippians 3:17-19, NKJV)
Paul’s purpose is to warn Christians against following just anyone. He wants us to be mindful that those we follow are indeed following Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul again wrote,
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1, NKJV),
indicating that Christ is the standard! If you are following a man, make sure that he is following Christ! In his advise to pastors, Peter wrote,
Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:2-3, NKJV)
The pastor should be an example for the congregation to follow. If he is not to lead them into error, he must follow Christ! Thus, when the congregation are following him, they are in effect following Christ!
But there is the responsibility of the congregation to follow Christ! Before many congregants today is the challenge to follow Christ, but many choose to follow men. Unfortunately, many of the men people follow are hypocrites masquerading as ministers of the gospel (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)! What then is the solution to the hypocrisy in the church? Follow Christ!
How do I follow Christ?
Someone might say, “Christ is not here for me to see and follow; so how do I follow Him?” The truth is, Christ is here by the Holy Spirit and through His word as contained in the Bible. Every time we read the Bible, we see what Christ is doing and asking us to do, and we have the Holy Spirit to supply us with the enablement, so to do.
But to get to such a place of seamless interaction between the Holy Spirit and us, we must be sanctified. Sanctification is what the Holy Spirit does in our lives once we are born again so that we can obey God. An unsanctified person is incapable of obeying God. Hence, the Holy Spirit comes to make the required changes in our lives so that we can obey God.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Romans 8:5-9, NKJV)
The carnal man/mind is unsanctified, and the Holy Spirit cannot lead him. If you find it difficult or are unwilling to obey God, then you have not permitted the Holy Spirit to sanctify you—you have, in effect, shut your heart from the Holy Spirit.
What is sanctification?
Through Ezekiel, God revealed how sanctification works:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26-27, NKJV)
What the Holy Spirit does is to remove and replace, not repair! But you must give Him permission to take away the unyielding heart and replace it with a heart that delights to do the will of God alone! It is important to note that it is a new heart; not a repaired old heart! Thus, the Bible says,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV)
Sanctification gives you a new heart, making you a new man—a new creation! With a new godly heart, you cannot be a hypocrite; neither can hypocrites deceive you because pleasing God alone will be your focus!
Indeed, when you become “a child of God”, all things become new in the real sense of the phrase, and you become like Christ: a new personality, new plans, new purposes, new priorities—everything is new!
Beware of hypocrisy
The Lord did not just warn us to beware of church leaders’ hypocrisy; He also implied that we not get infected with it. If you find that you are unwilling to obey God or struggling to do so, you need to pray to God to send the Holy Spirit to come and sanctify you; for that is how you will be able to live a life of integrity. When we struggle to obey God, we become susceptible to being infected by the leaven of hypocrisy! May God help us!