LUKE 12:1-3: “…Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.” NASB
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OBSERVATION: Am I a hypocrite? Jesus often spoke of the leaven of the Pharisees, the leading religious group of His day. Leaven is always used in the Bible regarding sin. In this section of Luke’s Gospel Jesus addresses the leaven head-on.

It is hypocrisy!

To put it simply, hypocrisy is pretending to believe something but having behavior that is not consistent with that belief. This was the hallmark of the Pharisees during Jesus’ day. On the outside they feigned righteousness but their real lives betrayed what they pretended to be. This is true of many who call themselves Christians today. They go to church and claim to believe in Jesus and the Bible – yet their attitudes and their actions do not look anything different than the world.

Many unbelievers use hypocrisy as the main reason they do not come to the faith or go to church. They accuse the church of being an assembly of hypocrites. There is some truth in their accusations but I think they completely miss the mark. In reality, apart from Jesus Christ, we are all hypocrites. We went through our daily lives pretending to be something we were not and hoping that nobody would find out. Yet, there is a stark reality that will meet everyone one day!

• “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.”

Eventually, who and what we are will come to light. Every idle word spoken, every action done in secret, every lie we ever told, will be revealed. Jesus said that there is nothing covered up or hidden that will not be known! Imagine one day having your entire life played before everyone. Just imagining this is enough to make me cry out…

Isn’t there any way to escape this awful day?

When I ponder this question I am drawn immediately to the words of the Apostle Paul when he writes,

• “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NASB

Only Jesus can save us from a life of hypocrisy! Only Jesus can change our hearts and renew our minds! Only Jesus can wash away our past through the cleansing of His blood and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit! We all can escape this fateful day through Jesus Christ our Lord. When the enemy wants to play our life before everyone – the tape will be wiped clean. Our sins, our failures, and our misspoken words will all have been forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ!

• “Bless the Lord, my soul, And do not forget any of His benefits; Who pardons all your guilt, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with favor and compassion; He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our guilty deeds…For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.” Psalms‬ ‭103‬:‭2‬-‭4‬, ‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭NASB

Paul shows us how we can walk free from hypocrisy. We no longer walk according to our old sinful nature that was never able to overcome hypocrisy. We now walk in the newness of the Spirit who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!

• “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭NASB

What a wonderful comfort to know that we will be in Christ on that final day. What a blessed assurance that our sins have been removed and when our life is reviewed it will be hidden in Christ Jesus. What a peace we have to walk in this assurance and hope. On the day of reckoning, which shall come to all men, those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ will simply hear,

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant…”

One final note on hypocrisy. The enemy will continually come to the child of God and accuse them of being a hypocrite. We are all a work in progress and there are times when we respond with obedience to the Lord even when our mind and our bodies are fighting against this action. This is when the enemy will accuse us of being hypocrites. He will say –

“See, you are still a mess! You say you believe but your heart is not really in it. You are just faking it!”

Let me reassure you of one thing. Hypocrisy is when we pretend to be a certain way and have no desire of truly being or acting that way. However, when we truly desire to do God’s will, when we surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, when we respond to the grace of God even when everything else in our life is screaming – “I don’t want to do that!” – this is never hypocritical.

This is Biblical obedience!

This is what Paul calls offering our life as a living sacrifice. It is putting our emotions in check to the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. And, as we begin to obey, we will find something wonderful happening in our life. Our minds will begin falling into agreement with our spirit and our bodies will be brought into discipline to the power of the Holy Spirit!

Christ followers are not perfect. We are all a work in progress. Yet, we are not hypocrites if – we love Jesus Christ and walk after the Holy Spirit. The only way to escape the embarrassment of the final reckoning is to surrender our lives to Jesus. We can rest assured that every sin, every failure, every misspoken word will be erased by the blood of Jesus Christ!

What a blessed hope! What a blessed promise!

Heavenly Father, I surrender anew to You today. I confess that Jesus Christ is my Lord, that I am a child of God, that I am being perfected and changed each day by the Holy Spirit, and that I stand complete and fully forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. Grant me the grace to live my life in the full revelation of this truth!

In Jesus’ Name!