Day 292, Year 1

The Peace That Comes from Being Consistent

“So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:28 NASB)

The word “you” in today’s verse might refer to the priests of that time. In addition to being responsible for rituals such as sacrifices, the priests were responsible for teaching the law so that people could understand and obey it. But if those who taught the law did not practice God’s justice, the entire population could easily fall into moral decay. There is a Chinese saying that goes, “If you can’t correct your own words and deeds, how can you correct the words and deeds of others?”

The word “hypocrisy” in today’s verse, hupokrisis in Greek, also means “dissimulation, playacting, pretense, or outward show,” as well as “the acting of a stage player.” Hypocrites appear just on the outside but are filled with injustice on the inside. Their mentality is wrong. They are attentive to the appearances or answers that others want. While they are happy to pretend, they fear that their schemes will be exposed. Contrarily, one of the rewards of the upright is inner peace, serenity, self-confidence, and freedom from fear. Only with this inner peace that comes from integrity can we impartially understand God’s truth, sincerely pray to Him, and know ourselves through His eyes.

Some people believe that the greatest evil of intellectuals is hypocrisy. In fact, intellectuals have the resources to encourage others to pursue knowledge, justice, fairness, and advancement together. Yet, they also have the ability to distort the truth, turn justice into a façade, and not speak up for the truth, instead serving self-interest or that of those in power, using twisted reasoning to disguise their words as just. For instance, when intellectuals exhort the oppressed to live in harmony with the oppressors, they are inevitably perpetuating injustice, which is a sinful and abominable hypocrisy. They refute those without knowledge and serve unrighteously with unsound arguments.

Believers should be mindful of temptations when seeking spiritual knowledge. When people learn certain teachings of the Bible but do not put them into practice, instead choosing to share, discuss, and even debate with others to showcase their knowledge, their minds can become calculating, evil, and deceitful. For if spiritual knowledge is not for our inner renewal, we will inevitably walk on the path of hypocrisy. Dealing with our own problems according to the Bible is not a selfish action. Rather, it is for our own good and that of others. Upholding and actualizing justice requires people to put in endless effort.

Reflection questions:

1) Are you afraid of having your problems exposed? If so, how would you want to deal with it?

2) How would you deal with those hypocritical people who act as stage players before people?