There was one group of people who always seemed to be on the receiving end of Jesus’s more stern rebukes.
That group was made up of those who talked a good game, but failed to live it out. For example: ‘These people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me’ (Matthew 15.8). ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean’ (Matthew 23.27).
Double standards
It’s a horrible vision. People who look neat and tidy on the outside but inside reek of spiritual death. And what’s worse, they often don’t even seem to know it. Now, of course, some hypocrites are deliberately deceptive, but more seem to be totally blind to their own double standards. Can others spot their double standards? Perhaps. Can God? Always! And that’s really scary. Because it means it could be us. We could be the ones who know the gospel, study the gospel, even preach the gospel and still have Jesus say to us: ‘Hypocrites. You honour me with your lips but your heart is far from me.’ It’s a little unnerving. It may make us want to take a spiritual health check.
