Dealing with Hypocrisy

In John 8, Jesus tells us that Satan is a liar and everything he says is a lie. Many times, we as followers of Jesus buy into a lie of Satan. It always leads to sin when we buy into the lie. Many times, we figure out that it is sin but are carried along with the lie and do things to try and cover up buying into the lie.

This is the situation that Paul writes about in Galatians 2:11-16.

In verses 11-13 Paul talks about hypocrisy.

Galatians 2:11-13

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

Peter got carried away with impressing others and pulled away from fellowshipping with the Gentile Christians. When he did this, it created divisions that God never intended. It also was hypocrisy. It was such intense hypocrisy that two devoted followers of Jesus, Peter and Barnabas, got caught up in it.

Hypocrisy was originally a term used for actors in the Greek theater. Actors played more than one character and would use masks for the different characters.

Jesus is the first one who used it to mean people who said one thing and then lived differently. It is like playing a character, not being real and authentic.

Jesus hates hypocrisy because it:

Is a lie, and lies reflect Satan, not God

Leads others to get carried away in the lie

Hypocrisy means that we care more about what others think than we care about what God thinks.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living real and authentic lives, even when it makes us look uncool or out of step with our peers.

We have to take a stand against hypocrisy.

Galatians 2:14

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?”

Paul confronted Peter with his hypocrisy.

In Ephesians 4:15, Paul says that we are to speak the truth in love and grow up in all things to be like Jesus.

Speaking just truth can be harsh.

Speaking just love can come off as wimpy.

Speaking the truth in love is what Jesus always did, and so when we do it, we are acting like Jesus.

Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”

Real friends, people who truly love us, will confront us in love with our hypocrisy. They will do it, not to make us feel bad, but because they love us and want what is best.

We are to confront:

Truthfully

Lovingly

Graciously

Gently   

Paul confronts Peter because of his love for Peter and his love for those that this hypocrisy will hurt.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is speaking the truth in love and with the intent to help and restore.

Paul then shares with us why a person is not justified by keeping the law or following all the rules.

Galatians 2:15-16

We who are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners” know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Paul makes sure that everyone understands that no one is made right with God by following the law.

The law is not and was never intended to be the way by which God made people righteous. The Jews had tried to make it so, but that was never how God was going to do it.

God’s plan was always for the Messiah, Jesus, to come and die as our atoning sacrifice.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that it is by grace through faith that we are saved. We cannot do it by works.

The grace of God is constant. It is always available to every person. Thus, grace is like electricity in a home. It is always there. If you don’t believe it, just stick a key or your finger in an electrical outlet and see what happens.

What is the switch that applies the grace to our personal lives and brings salvation and righteousness? – Faith in Jesus.

When I submit the authority of running my life to Jesus and receive his sacrificial death on the cross to pay the penalty of my sin, then God’s grace is applied to my life and I am declared righteous.

The law justifies no one.

Grace justifies all who put their faith in Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on grace, not obeying the law for salvation.

According to Ephesians 2:10 we are God’s masterpieces, and good works flow out of our being declared righteous by God’s grace.

Without Hypocrisy with God’s Grace and Truth Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                                         Joe