The Only Way Out of Our Desperate Hypocrisy
“For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
“This people . . . honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13).
As a teenager I always made sure to see my MaMa around my birthday, and every time I did, she would make such a big deal out of it. “I’m so glad you came to see me!” she would exclaim as she kissed my cheeks. Of course, birthdays were occasions that netted me a fresh $20 bill in a card sealed with MaMa’s love. She never questioned the real reason I always showed up for a visit around that time, and I never bothered to tell her. Of course, I loved my MaMa, but cash was the real motive for dropping by in late December.
The Bible wisely draws attention to a grave problem most of us would rather ignore—that there’s often a disconnect between perception and reality. Or, to put it another way, we often portray an image of ourselves that does not accurately capture the essence of who we really are. When we look honestly, we’ll see that we’re frequently fake, inauthentic, and hypocritical. We go through life accepting all kinds of praise for things perceived as virtuous when we know, deep down, that we undertook those actions from selfish motives.
Here’s our universal dilemma. We can all perform righteous actions that merit praise, but what, if anything, can we do about our selfish motives? Do we just resolve to do our best and hope no one notices? Do we make peace with our inconsistencies and shrug our shoulders because, after all, no one’s perfect? Or is there hope for change? Can perception and reality be united in righteousness?
The problem I’m describing is the very problem Jesus confronts in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. In Matthew 5:20, he says that the righteousness he demands must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, who happened to be the most respected people on earth for being righteous. The issue with those religious leaders, however, was that their righteousness was merely outward. They had mastered the art of earning praise from people by performing just enough of God’s law to get credit. Meanwhile, their hearts were not Godward. They performed their righteousness as a step ladder to rise in social rank and respectability, and Jesus saw right through it.
Thus, Jesus infamously taught that the commandments against murder and adultery in the Hebrew Bible weren’t merely about avoiding the acts but also avoiding the heart desires that precede the acts. You’ve already murdered, Jesus said, when your anger causes you to speak wickedly of others. You’ve already committed adultery when you lust for someone other than your spouse. God doesn’t see as man sees; he’s always looking inward.
We make a huge mistake when we hear these teachings as unrealistic platitudes and shrug them off. We likewise err when we presume we have the power within ourselves to be who Jesus is calling us to be. The full force of Jesus’s teachings about true righteousness backs us up against a metaphorical wall. We know we can’t change ourselves, and yet, the standard remains. What do we do?
To add more complexity to our dilemma, Jesus culminates his monologue on true righteousness with these words, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). “Perfect” here is a misleading translation. Jesus isn’t demanding a life of moral flawlessness. We all know that ship sails with each new dawn. A better translation would be “whole” or “complete.”
Jesus is calling his followers to be what Eugene Peterson called “congruent” wherein there’s no slippage between what one says and who one is. He’s calling for righteous behavior that springs from internal consistency. Unlike the outward righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees that sprang from self-centered motives, Jesus’s followers must perform their righteousness from heart motives that prioritize the first clauses of the Lord’s Prayer: God’s name being hallowed, God’s kingdom coming, and God’s will being done (Matthew 6:9-10).
How do we become righteously “whole” in this way? How do we become congruent? Only in relationship with Jesus, the universe’s only completely congruent man. In Christ, we enter a union with one who always does the right things from the right motives and who fully submitted his life to God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. Jesus never experienced disconnect between outward behavior and inner motive. He is always “perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect.”
But Jesus intends to share his congruence with us. Once we are united to him by faith, we begin the lifelong process of being conformed into his image. We too are called to live congruently. Through Christ, we too can pursue righteousness from pure motives. We can honor God with both lips and hearts.
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