Pretending aka Hypocrisy
Categories: Bible Study LessonsThe game of pretense. We know that children play the game, and in their time of life it is innocent and a great deal of fun. But then, there’s the grown-up world, and for those in Christ, there is the reality set forth in the Word of God. Christianity is not the religion of pretense. In mythology, and in the systems men have created, one can do a great deal of pretending because all that does exist in those forms are made up by man, but not so in the system of Christ. God is, and that is reality! (Gen. 1:1). Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), and that is reality! Satan and sin exist, and have their influence upon men in causing men to be separated from God, and those are realities! (Eph. 2:1). In Christ, salvation is offered to man, and that is a splendid reality! (Eph. 1:13). The saved are in Christ, and thus are in the church that Jesus built (Acts 2:47), and that is reality! Christians deal in realities.
For a Christian to be a pretender is to say, then, that he is a hypocrite. Jesus saw so much of that among the Jewish leaders of his time, and repeatedly he condemned such in Matthew 23. That very word gives our word “actor,” and that is exactly what a hypocrite is, for he is merely “playing a part.” Above all else, the child of God must know that he is dealing with eternal realities, and cannot just pretend. It is dangerous to pretend, and foolish. We suggest some types of that foolishness:
(1) What of that preacher who still “pretends” to be God’s man, but he’s so careful to avoid preaching on the subjects troubling to the saints, or on those things that prominent people in the congregation might be given to? Is he not just a “pretender?” Rather than preaching the truth, and standing squarely for God, he’s in the business of men-pleasing. Forceful he is, in speaking forth those things wherein all around him are in agreement, but silent as a tomb when it comes to things wherein controversy lurks. He is simply a “pretender.”
(2) What of those elders who have the title, and have their names on the bulletin and on the stationery, but precious little time and effort is expended in seeing to the spiritual needs of the flock? Are they not just “pretenders?” These are charged with feeding the flock of God (Acts 20:28), and watching for souls (Heb. 13:17). Attending to those very duties would have stopped some divisive movements dead in their tracks, and the church would not have been hurt so terribly. But too often, we have known of elders who simply “put heads in the sand” and played the game of pretense — pretending there was no problem, pretending certain ones were not false teachers, pretending the problem would just die on its own, and pretending a problem would right itself.
Satan has his devices (2 Cor. 2:11), and all are calculated toward the defeat of God’s cause. Satan’s efforts are called “war against the Lamb (Rev. 17:14), but that conflict amounts to “war against those belonging to the Lamb” (Rev. 12:17). All of God’s children are to be faithful soldiers in the Lord’s army, and elders are to be such as will hold the Word in their hands and to use it in convicting the man of the contrary part (Titus 1:9). Liberalism all around us, and those known as elders just “pretend” that there is no problem? Indeed, they are just “pretenders.”
(3) And what of entire congregations whose main thrust today is in the realm of the economic, or social, or entertainment of its own members? The church, like a mighty army, has been placed on the field of battle, commanded by the captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10), and is expected to expend all in casting down and pulling down anything daring to stand in the way of the knowledge of God! (2 Cor. 10:3-5). And the church builds a gymnasium? The volley ball replaces the sword of the Spirit, the word of God? (Eph. 6:17). Given just a few years of church concern turned inward toward the members’ pleasure, and those in the church will not only not desire the New Testament truth, but they will not even recognize it! But the congregation given to the social gospel and emphasis on pleasure, is that congregation not just “pretending” when it claims to be devoted to the Lord’s will and claims to be working toward the salvation of souls? Indeed, just “pretending.”
Again we stress the fact that the things of God are the things of reality! Accountability is real, and the coming day of judgment is real. Hell is an awful reality, and pictured in terms of reality in the Bible. Hell is too real for any of us to spend our time in this life just “pretending.” We must be up and about the Father’s business!
CHRISTIAN WORKER, February, 1987