The Hypocritical Heart

Throughout this series, we have been learning about following Jesus and what that means for us in our daily lives. Today we are going to dive into the topic of having a hypocritical heart. This can be a tough topic, so please pray with me before we start.

God, thank You for who You are and the love that You have for me. I pray that You help me to be humble today and to listen to what You are saying to me about this topic. Help me to see the right thing to do in order to truly follow you and to live righteously.  

Mark 7:5-13 (NLT)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”

6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

‘These people honor me with their lips,

   but their hearts are far from me.

7   Their worship is a farce,

   for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’

8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

9 Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. 10 For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ 12 In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. 13 And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

To act like a hypocrite means to say one thing but then do the opposite thing. The Pharisees in today’s scripture are examples of people in the Bible who had hypocritical hearts. They would say that they believed in God and that they followed His laws, yet they acted in a completely different manner. They started to make their own laws and put those laws above God’s. They became more concerned about power and status rather than a relationship with God. Did you see examples of how the Pharisees had hypocritical hearts in today's scripture? What stood out to you about it?

In our own lives as followers of Christ, it’s important to recognize and challenge our true intentions. Take some time right now to reflect on these questions:

If we call ourselves a disciple of Jesus, do our actions show that? Or do we have a hypocritical heart?

Are we more concerned about toeing the line and only doing the bare minimum of what God asks of us, or are we above the line and living a life that is honoring to God?

Are we more focused on pointing out other people’s sin rather than our own?

These are all questions to ask yourself when trying to examine your heart. If you are like me, you probably answered these questions and realized that you have a hypocritical heart at times. We tend to downplay our own faults, yet we are the first to point out the flaws in others. If we truly are in a relationship with Jesus, our focus should be on making sure we take the truths He gave us and apply them to our lives. We should focus on the condition of our heart. We should be diligent in making sure what we say is how we act. If we are a true disciple of Jesus, we need to act like it. Do not let the burden of having a hypocritical heart keep you from pursuing God. Rather, use it to continue to draw closer to Him and allow Him to work in and change your heart.

Let’s start this heart change by going to God and asking Him to work in our lives. Below are a few prompts to get you started.

God, please heal my heart. Help me to…

I want to live for you, God. Please guide my life…

God, I feel that I have a hypocritical heart…please help me…

I pray that today you go forward in love and with a heart that emulates Jesus.