Death of the Hypocrite
Matthew 23:25-26 (NIV)
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
In these verses we can clearly see that Jesus really had a real problem with certain Pharisees that were living like hypocrites. People who were saying they believed one thing, but their lives announced daily that they actually believed another. They would tell people to do things, yet they did not have any intention of doing them themselves. They would concentrate on how things looked externally, but took no regard for the condition of things internally.
If we are brutally honest there can still be the potential of a hypocrite in us all. Don't get me wrong, the old you before you knew Christ is very dead, yet old ways of thinking and reacting can still have the potential to resurface sometimes. Ever heard yourself giving advice to others when inside you knew you were not applying it to your own life anymore? I know I have. Ever put a nice show on so that people would think one thing about you when in reality things were much different?
As we daily walk with Jesus our lives should become ever more authentic. By that I mean that what we say we believe matches more and more with what we daily live out. I know I have not arrived, how about you? Yet, I am committed to the journey to make sure the death of the hypocrite is an ongoing reality in my life. May I ever be taking the medicine (advice and wisdom) I am prescribing to others. The Holy Ghost is so good at helping us with this if we are wanting Him to.
The new creation in Christ is not a hypocrite but the real deal, a person of integrity who has one life that matches inside and out. That is our true identity today so let's live it out.
Andy
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