The Lord would have no leaven offered up in sacrifice; leaven typified hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). The hypocrite does the devil double trouble service; under the visor of piety, he can sin more and be less suspected: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and fr a pretence make long prayers’ (Matt. 23:14). Who would think that those who pray for so many hours on end would be guilty of extortion? Who would suspect of false weights the man who has the Bible so often in his hand? Who would think that the one who seems to fear an oath would slander? Hypocrites are the worst sort of sinners; they reflect infinite dishonour upon religion. Hypocrisy for the most part ends in scandal, and that brings an evil report on the ways of God. One man breaking in renders the honest suspect. One scandalous hypocrite makes the world suspect that all professing Christians are like him. The hypocrite was born to spite religion and bring it into disrepute.
The hypocrite is a liar; he
worships God with his knee, and his passions with his heart, like those who ‘feared
the Lord, and served their own gods’ (2 Kings 17:33).
The hypocrite is an impudent
sinner. He knows his heart is false, yet he goes on. Judas knew himself to be a
hypocrite; he asks, ‘Master, is it I? Christ replies, ‘Thou hast said it’
(Matt. 26:25). Yet so shameless was he as to persist in his falseness and
betray Christ. All the plagues and curses written in the Book of God are the
hypocrite’s portion; hell is his place of rendezvous (Matt. 24:51). Hypocrites
are the chief guests the devil expects and he will make them as welcome as fire
and brimstone can make them.
Thomas Watson
The Godly Man’s Picture, pp.
101-102
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