“Hypocrite” Part 2

Dear God, I had a weird kind of thing happen yesterday that I think was orchestrated by you. First, someone “liked” one of my prayer journals from last summer called “Hypocrite.” I went back and read it because I had forgotten about it. It was a good reminder.

THEN, the Bible Project Podcast did an episode this week called “What did Hypocrite Mean to Jesus?” It blew my mind, and it made my prayer journal from last summer appear to be so ignorant and uneducated. It humbled me, but in a good way (maybe being humbled is always good). So what did they say that changed my mind? Well, they redefined hypocrite for me, and it changed my perspective on Jesus’s use of the word.

I looked up the definition of hypocrite on Merriam-Webster and found this:

1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion

2: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

Typically, we use the second definition, but the guys on Bible Project said the first one is what Jesus meant when he used it. It is not the “do as I say, not as I do” definition, but the definition where they hypocrite intentionally displays righteous acts for the honor that people will give them. They made several points, but a couple that stuck were:

• The person who does good deeds for the praise of people will get that reward, but not the reward from you, while the person who does the good deeds purely out of love and obedience for you will get the reward from you.
• Only you are able to judge the level of hypocrisy in me.

I said “level” there because there is always some level of wanting recognition from others in me. When I sit down and do these prayers on a public blog, I am here with you and not thinking about others. These are part of my worship. At the same time, I check the stats from time to time to see how many people view the site. I like affirmations when someone likes what I’ve written. I set this up to inspire people to spend their own time with you, journaling and praying. That motive is pure. But it does feed the hypocrite in me as well. But I would imagine this is a struggle that any author, preacher, singer, etc. has. And only you can judge my heart.

Father, help me to be completely here with you. Help me to point to you for all of the glory exhibited through my life. Help me to do more privately to worship you than I do publicly. And forgive me for my hypocrisy. I am sorry for my vanity and how it claims and craves glory for myself. Oh, and thank you for overlooking my ignorance. My prayer about Jesus and hypocrisy from last summer was seemingly fundamentally flawed. I am sorry for that as well. But I thank you for understanding my limitedness, my foolishness, and my true desire to just learn more and worship you.

I pray all of this through Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen