Heart of the Matter: Unveiling Hypocrisy

Live from the Mecca of Mormonism SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. – Where we are working through together how to live the Christian life in the Age of Fulfillment – and I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.. Let’s have a word of Prayer.

PRAYER

Show 32B Actually? Yes! Live – July 28th 2020

So, we have launched a small boutique publishing company and are going to be releasing a number of books for your enjoyment in the future. These books will ultimately be available in every way imaginable but right now we are putting forth a children’s book in two ways – Through printed hardcopy edition and an ebook edition. It’s called the King’s Colt and if you have children, grandchildren or know someone in the faith who does, I highly recommend it with a money-back guarantee. To order go to our new publication site, BJORNBOOKS.com.

Seeking Genuine Perspectives

That being said, we are ALSO looking to publish writers and/or represent writers whose insights mesh well with the views of the ministry. We are not looking for regurgitators of religious traditions here. We want original views and takes on the faith, God, life on earth, or books that reach out in unique ways to the world. For example, I recently received this book from a longtime viewer and friend in Los Angeles. Hra-hoo-chi. It’s a children’s book and it is absolutely a beautiful expression of life and family and God. We will also consider novels. And of course Non-fiction. Write me if you're interested. And check out www.bjornbooks.com.

We started knocking things off the deck of Modern Christianity a few years back and recently we took the title pastor and threw that overboard – where it belongs – (thanks Adnan). Then last week we also took the iconography of American Evangelicalism – especially the accepted imagery of Jesus – and threw that off the side of the boat too as a means to clear the deck. So let’s add something else to that list tonight – anything that will lend to putting an end to . . . religious hypocrisy.

The Dangers of Hypocrisy

We know that the act of feigning (especially before God) has long been reprehensible to him. Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, after eating of the fruit, walked out of hiding (at the call of God) all dolled up in fig leaves as an apparent means to hide their nakedness. That is feigning – trying to appear to be one way while camouflaging the fact that there is something else going on.

Jesus, of course, seemed to really despise this in the hearts and lives of the religious rulers in his day – those whited sepulchers whom were full of dead dried bones. We recall his coming into Jerusalem one morning and being hungry and seeing a fig tree from a way off full of beautiful leaves but when he got near he could see that it wasn’t bearing any fruit – and Jesus, using this leafy barren tree as an emblem for the Nation of Israel, cursed that tree, and it withered away and died in very short order, which was also emblematic of the coming end of the Nation within a generation.

Hiding. Hypocrisy. Feigning to appear to be one thing EXTERNALLY while being another (in religious settings) especially from the HEART. I would personally take a kind loving Christian sinner ANYDAY over a mean, petty Christian Saint – because the Sainthood of that latter is forever in conflict with the heart God seeks from those who are his.

In his book, People of the Lie, Dr. M. Scott Peck does a study on true evil and suggests that the most evil souls on earth are not necessarily found in prisons – though some evil souls are certainly incarcerated – but said that the most sinister and evil are too smart to be caught. Simultaneously, he said that these truly evil ones spend a lot of time trying to appear good, upright, established. Therefore he says that the top echelons of evil people are often found in . . . churches. Active, participative rehearsers of religious rhetoric. Why? Because church gives them the ultimate camouflage.

The Camouflage of Deceit

Remember the BTK killer – stands for bind, torture, kill? He was caught because he sent a communication from the church wherein he was extremely active and was even in leadership. Church on Sundays, binding, torturing, and killing the other days of the week. That’s the ultimate of a leaf-bearing tree absolutely lacking fruit.

The Spiritual Heart of Hypocrisy

Stepping a little deeper into the topic of hypocrisy, in the book of RevelationA symbolic prophecy fulfilled in 70 A.D.—not a prediction of future global events., Jesus addresses seven actual real churches with actual believers in them. And when he gets to the Seventh church, Laodicea, he says:

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

You may not know this, but Jesus says to each of the seven churches, “I know thy works.”

What does He know about the believers' works at the church of Laodicea? That they are “neither cold nor hot.” Jesus is always speaking to the “spiritual heart” of things and this is no exception. He knew their works (like He knows ours) and knowing them intimately, He tells them that they are, relative to their faith, their love, their Christianity (if you will), they were neither cold nor hot.

The word cold here would seem to describe the state where there was no desire for the things of God – where everything is frozen and utterly lifeless and dead. The language is obviously figurative, but it is often employed when we speak of someone as having a cold or icy heart. No warmth whatsoever – with warmth being the indication of life or being alive.

Cold, Hot, and Lukewarm

The word hot, then, would suggest the opposite. Interestingly, the Greek term translated to hot here is “zestos,” where we get the word, “zest” or zesty, and it implies a real “passion or a hot and zealous” devotion to the faith and/or to love. Fervent is a good synonym. In a study of Revelation, I suggest that it’s a waste of time if we are not personally walking away with something that applies to us now. I submit that the words of Jesus to Laodicea then remain ever so poignant and applicable and might serve to get each of us to look into our own hearts and ask: “Am I cold or am I hot”, and hoping to God we are not, in fact, “lukewarm.”

As most commentators admit, there is a play on words here to the Laodicean believers – because they would have been familiar with the hot springs of Hieropolis and the fact that when the water was piped to them from that place it arrived lukewarm. In other words, the uselessness of lukewarm things would have been more than apparent to them because of their experience with hot water originally coming to them from Hieropolis but arriving at Laodicea lukewarm.

Laodicean Lessons

There are several instances where the messages to the Seven Churches appeal to actual circumstances that the believers of those specific areas could relate. It would be like Jesus sending a message to the believers in Los Angeles and saying something like: “I know thy works, that they are smog in my nostrils when they ought be as a clean and refreshing.” Any Los Angelenos would understand this as there is the presence of smog in the LA basin.

But what is really interesting is that after telling the Laodiceans that their works were “neither hot nor cold,” Jesus adds a truly amazing utterance. He says:

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot (are you ready?) “I would you were cold or hot.” Isn’t that amazing! That God would rather a people be frozen and dead to Him (or) that they would be on fire with passion for him – but NOT NOT lukewarm. This is a radical insight into His ways and knowing Him.

Why he would prefer that they should be "hot" is clear enough; but WHY would he prefer a state of cold frozen deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., a state where there was no existence or profession of real faith or love, over to them being Lukewarm?

There are several opinions on this, and I want to offer a few of them before we go to your comments from the past week. First of all, just taking the terms cold and hot, and seeing them as opposites at least someone who is cold toward God (and the things of God) are AT LEAST being honest from the heart. The Dark is based in lies and deception, hypocrisy and evil. A leave covered barren tree.

Hypocrisy in Religious Practice

Jesus dealt patiently with the sinners and the demon-possessed. Scripture also admits that, “He loved the HOT – meaning those who had followed the Law from a child,” but watch the heck out when He came face to face with the lukewarm religious hypocrites.

The Psalmist says:

Psalm 78:36 "Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues."

Proverbs 26:23: "Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross."

Ezekiel speaks directly to religious dishonesty in 33:31-32 when it says:

"And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. 32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not."

These very passages caused me to realize that while religious worship could be exercised by anyone in the privacy of their own individual lives, to “corporatize worship and get groups to stand, sing and say perfunctory words, without knowing the content of their hearts, may actually contribute directly to religious dishonesty and hypocrisy – something that God actually hates!

Biblical Warnings Against Hypocrisy

So why do it?

In Matthew 6, of course, Jesus says to the Pharisees:

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward…"

Titus 1:16 reiterates:

"They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate."

Matthew 7:5, Jesus said:

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:14, speaking of false apostles being in disguise in that day, and then Satan, says:

"And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."

Someone cold or hot is not disguising themselves – they are honestly being what they are before God.

The Importance of Honesty

Our hypocrisies appear in innumerable ways, but a big one is through the words we say.

James 2:14 says:

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?"

And of course, it comes in doing – in condemning while we ourselves deserve condemnation. Paul wrote in Romans 2:3-4:

"Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"

And it comes in false hypocritical offerings. To the COI, Malachi describes what God thinks of such, saying:

Malachi 2:1-3:

"Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it."

So, honesty is one reason why God would prefer cold or hot but not being lukewarm. If someone is being honest before God, they are being more honorable before Him – even if they are cold in their hearts – than a feigner.

I can personally respect an atheist who goes to the grave with a fist raised to God far more than a lukewarm Christian who with his mouth makes all sorts of professions, and who sings in the worship band, but really has no real allegiance to God from the heart.

The Contrast of Saul and Judas

Of Saul of Tarsus, killing Christians, and find merit in a cold heart and at the same time look to Judas Iscariot, who spent three years with the Lord but was never really on fire for him as two good examples of these opposite character traits.

Finally, perhaps God’s desire for people to be hot or cold but not lukewarm is there is a far greater chance of conversion for the honest cold soul before God rather than the religious hypocrite.

Lukewarm Faith

Convictions wrongly applied can be redirected and in this there is hope. But a soul with no conviction, no zeal, and just “pukewarmedness,” cannot typically be moved. Again, look to Paul and then to Judas.

Response to Religious Hypocrisy

So, LUKEWARMNESS – along with Religious HYPOCRISY – off the deck!

Let’s open up the phone lines – 801 590-8413 AND let’s work through your comments from last weeks shows and others.

COMMENTS HERE