What is a Hypocrite?

What is a Hypocrite?
What a nasty word hypocrite is. Yet it is used to describe how a Christian is today. We have all heard, “I could never join that church as it is full of hypocrites.” While it is true there are many in the church there are also many in the school, the club, the government and the lodge. There are even hypocrites in the home. Hypocrisy does not mean we don’t measure up to our beliefs. If it did we would all be guilty. Hypocrisy is pretending to be something we are not. The word comes from the Greek word meaning an actor. Someone as well said that, “ Hypocrisy is the compliment that vice pays to virtue.” To be a hypocrite one would recognize a good quality of another—Christian virtue—and pretend to have the same quality all the time knowing he does not possess that quality. In other words he is an actor playing a part.
Many today are play-acting. Most are so caught up in the need to impress another they forget that they have real personalities that God Himself gave them. Each has talents that when used in harmony with another beautiful music is heard. A good example of this would be an orchestra. Each musician has the talent to play an instrument. Each instrument has a specific sound. When a master conductor raises his wand all play in harmony and the result is breathtaking. But let each play as an individual only noise can be heard.
God is not the author of confusion. His plan is for total harmony in His church, in the lives of His children and in the world He created and in the government we have under His guidance. Man on the other hand has decided only he can conduct his talents and make his own music, when each elects to do this ciaos results.
Can REAL Christians be hypocrites? The answer is YES. But we can overcome this problem if we will surrender our will to the will of God and let Him direct the instrument He made and tuned for a specific sound. You can pretend to be something you are not and only noise is heard.
The Pharisees were accused by Jesus of being hypocrites in Luke 20:20. This was because they were pretending to be righteous by keeping the little traditions of hand washing and tithing of mint, meanwhile they cheated widows out of their houses and violently opposes the only completely righteous Person who ever lived.
The book of James speaks strongly against a religion of all talk and no reality. “Be ye doers of the word and not hears only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”James 1:22-24 We then see in verse 26 the test for true religion. “if any man among you seem to e religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”
Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen by men who walk over them and are not aware of them.” Today are you a hypocrite? How does the world gage you?