Holy Hypocrisy

You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.
(Romans 2:23 – ESV)

Here in this passage of scripture Paul is not trying to get people to be more moral, he is trying to get them to see that no one is without hypocrisy. Some are more so than others, of course, but all are guilty when it comes to doing what is right. We tell others what is right, and we actually believe what we say, but we also fall short. This doesn’t let anyone off the hook, though; just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it is right, and it doesn’t mean that God excuses it, He does not. That’s the point, and we are without hope if we are without a savior.

Now the answer is not to stop preaching against stealing, lying, hypocrisy and sin, just because we have done it or are doing it. The idea is to preach against it but also to preach Christ as the answer to it. Why do we still preach against the very things we have been guilty of? Why, because God wants us to that’s why. Because these things are wrong that’s why. Because we all need help and we need to know that we can’t make it without Christ, that’s why. Because we should be reminded that these things are not in the character of God, not in the will of God, and not what God wants for us and that we should be ridding ourselves of these things, that’s why.

It is not like you have to be perfectly morally pure in order to speak out against sin, what you need to be is on Repentance Road, and using the standards of the Word of God, that person has the authority to speak to issues. I may not be perfect, and I may have had certain sins, and I may still have much sin, but I can and should and must still speak out against sin. If you are on the repentant road, you have the right, and the obligation to preach about sin. Just make sure you preach Christ as well.

Paul said he was not perfect, that he had not arrived, but that sin was still exceedingly sinful, and that he was forgetting what was behind and pressing on to Christ. These Jews of Paul’s day were looking around saying, “yeah society stinks, they are all rotten and on the road to hell”, to which Paul is saying back to them, “yeah, you are right, but hey, you guys, you have the law, the right moral code, and yet you do some of the same things too, so what does that make you, it is actually a little worse isn’t it?” Today, many claim the name but they dishonor and shame, and with the lives they lead they show they aren’t led. Don’t fool yourself.

To some Paul would say, “You say you are giving God the glory He is due but by your actions you do not.” The cause of Christ suffers in a sense because you don’t live the gospel. Christ would have you live, as you will in heaven. You don’t try, you don’t care about sin in your own life, and you defile the name of Christ and treat salvation as a common thing (Hebrews 10:29-39). Some aren’t doing all the immoral things, but they aren’t giving glory to God, either. They are not humbled before the Master. Rebellion Road has all kinds of moral people on it. Paul is saying that we need to be holy, yes, but we must also be humble. We need to have the right sort of confidence, not in ourselves but in God, and this sort of confidence acts in accordance with what Christ has done, and what Christ would have us do, which is to lead increasingly holy, and yet increasingly humble lives. Don’t fool yourself.

The Jews were fooling themselves. Knowledge of God rightly understood brings humility, not pride, which is what was happening to certain Jews and moralists. We are brought low so that God may be brought high. When you see the depths of your depravity compared with the heights of His holiness, then you can begin to see the measure of God’s love to us. Holy and humble, we must be both: don’t fool yourself.