Dr Paul Allen

Of all the spiritual dangers to which Christ alerted His disciples, few of them outweigh His warnings concerning hypocrisy.   And our Lord left little room for confusion about what He meant. One need only read the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ calls out the dangers of hypocrisy when it invades prayer, fasting, giving to the poor, or practices of righteousness (Matt. 6:1–6, 16). He is even more explicit in the Seven Woes, where He hammers the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who “preach but do not practice”; do their religious deeds “to be seen”; love seats and titles of honour; are blind to worldlines, justice, and mercy; strain out gnats while swallowing camels, and appear clean without but are unclean within (Matt. 23:1–36).  This is the spiritual hazard that Christ described as “leaven,” which spreads invisibly and thoroughly (Luke 12:1). By talking about hypocrisy, Christ was invoking a familiar and graphic image to illustrate when you and I pretend to be something that we a...

Christian hypocrisy has done massive damage to the Christian faith . According to author and social critic Os Guinness , the challenge of hypocrisy is second only to the problem of suffering and evil, and is one of the main reasons people duck the challenge of the gospel. Hypocrisy is such a massive challenge, says Guinness, because Christians are called to be God ’s witnesses to the world (Isa. 43:10; John 3:28): “In other words, before we are asked to preach, proclaim or try to persuade people of the claims of Jesus and his Father, we are asked simply to be witnesses for him—to provide an honest and factual account of what we have seen and heard objectively, and what we ourselves have experienced (‘Once I was blind, but now I can see’)—and to live lives that support what we say.” [1] It is tempting for Christians to respond by pointing out the hypocrisy in other people and worldviews. For instance, the voices of tolerance and inclusiveness are often remarkably intolerant and...

We’ve all heard these comments before, and we cringe when we hear them because they reek of a characteristic we all hate: hypocrisy. For many, nothing condemns Christianity more than hypocrites in the church. People react differently to hypocrisy in the church, but more often than not it pushes them away—sometimes permanently. Something this serious needs to be looked at carefully, because we’ve all experienced, and perhaps been a part of, Christian hypocrisy. What should we make of this problem? Does it discredit Christianity? What would Jesus have said about this? Jesus Also Hates Hypocrisy If you feel angry thinking about experiences you’ve had with hypocrites, you’re in good company—Jesus felt the same way. The harshest words he spoke were directed at the Pharisees, whom he called hypocrites time and time again. In Matthew 23, Jesus sharply criticizes the Pharisees in front of everyone for being hypocrites—which is part of the reason they wanted to kill him—and explains ...

One reason so many Christians suffer from spiritual malnutrition is that they live on a diet of junk food , as far as building spiritual character is concerned. Peter is well aware of this and that’s why he says:  “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit , hypocrisy , envy , and all evil speaking” (1 Pet. 2:1).  The Greek word used for “laying aside” actually means to “strip off your clothes.” The same idea is expressed in Hebrews 12:1 where we are told to  “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us.”  Peter talks about five specifics that we should strip out of our lives: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Malice was the general word for wickedness . In Peter’s day it meant “heathen evil”—the characteristic evil of the world surrounding the young Christian church . Peter doesn’t advise laying aside some of it; he demands all of it to go. Today’s Christians are no different from those in the first century. M...

The hideous hypocrisy that lay discreetly stashed in the attic of AshleyMadison.com’s online vault was unceremoniously exposed last week. This outing of 28 million male and 5 million female adulterers has made a lot of people hot under the lipstick stained collar. Furtive liaisons that “weren’t hurting anybody” have now left a swathe of casualties in their wake. And now that their trust in the sanctity of Internet privacy has been shattered, these poor philanderers and home wreckers have to grow used to the scarlet letter on their reputation, now that everybody knows who they really are. What could they have done differently to avoid getting caught? There is only one way to not get caught in adultery: don’t commit adultery. Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. God’s observation of our lives has no blind spot. But the Bible gives us practical wisdom on how to avoid committing adultery....

In 2 Samuel 11 , it seemed like everyone was sending someone somewhere. David does some sending (2 Sam 11:3, 6); Joab sends Uriah (2 Sam 11:6) and later a messenger (2 Sam 11:18); even Bathsheba sends people (2 Sam 11:5). But throughout all of this sending in chapter 11, there is someone eerily missing: God. We’re left wondering, “Will God get involved and do some sending of His own?” In chapter 12, we get our answer. God takes over this mess of a situation. He gives David enough time to feel the weight of his sin, and then sends His prophet Nathan to confront David (2 Sam 12:1). He does so by telling a story of a rich man who takes a poor man’s ewe lamb pet, and cooks it for his visiting friend. And although everyone would agree that it was an absolutely evil thing to do, David’s reaction is over the top, He screams “As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die” (2 Sam 12:5). David recognized that it was a wicked thing for a man with plentiful herds to k...

The Pharisees Question Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Sin leads us to take shortcuts in all the Christian disciplines, and when we succumb to its temptation often enough, hypocrisy becomes the pattern of our life without our realizing it. Because hypocrisy is such a subtle and destructive danger to vital Christian living, our Lord was quick to condemn its many adherents.  During His earthly life, the group most guilty of it was the Jewish religious leaders—those whom you would normally expect to be His greatest supporters were His greatest enemies. That’s because His righteous words and deeds condemned their own unrighteous practices. To protect His followers from their evil influence, Jesus said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees , which is hypocrisy” ( Luke 12:1). The Pharisees, through their rabbinic tradition, had succeeded in corrupting and perverting all the good things God had taught the nation of Israel , including their practice of prayer. No religion h...