"Paul Evans! You Hypocrite!!"

Back in high school, I won the “most spiritual” award. 

I can guarantee you I was NOT the most spiritual. In fact, at our prom, I was really blistering a fellow student with some deft sarcasm until he stopped me with, “Paul Evans. You’re the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever known.”

I reminded him that I had won the most spiritual award and that such things were not possible. ;)

However, it hurt. I knew he was right. 

As we’ve all come to believe, hypocrite means “to say one thing and do another.”

Except…

That’s NOT exactly what it means.

It comes from the Greek hypokritís, meaning “an actor or pretender.”

In other words…

You can say one thing and DO that thing, but if you do it as an act, if you do it to pretend, you are a hypocrite.  

Saying one thing and doing another is being a liar, while saying one thing and doing the thing while not meaning it in your heart is being a hypocrite. 

Ex: Singing happy birthday with a smile to someone you hope has a rotten one is being a hypocrite. You’re acting.

In Matthew 6, Christ dives into several ways religious people can become actors or performers instead of true spiritualists. 

This week’s video teaching covers three ways and how we can protect ourselves, whether religious or spiritual or not at all, from living hypocritical lives.

After watching that video, here’s a short one on the hypokritís context Jesus was using: The trumpet, the outtake performance, and makeup and wardrobe.

Hypocritical Christ Consciousness?

“The reason I don’t follow X beliefs is because those people are just a bunch of hypocrites.”

That’s easy to understand. Many people make certain claims on Sundays, but their lives don’t resemble that at all. 

A group may preach love but practice hate. May preach generosity and be greedy. May preach acceptance and practice exclusion. 

However, true hypocrisy can happen among the spiritual. Spirit people may love talking about Christ Consciousness or Light and Love and go through the motions with the wrong motives. It can look right from every angle, but an authentic heart and spirit may not be present.

Why does that matter? Because spiritual practices involve a surrender of self so we can… 

• Grow and become

• Live more in purpose

• Connect to the Creator

• Sync with the Spirit

For this week:

1. Where am I going through meaningless motions? Is there anyone I need to apologize to for doing this with them?

2. What spiritual practice have I lost connection with? Is there a replacement, or does it need renewal?

Got Questions?

Like you, I am a student of scripture and spirituality. If you have questions about any of these letters, passages we are covering, or anything else in the realm, feel free to reply and ask. 

Blessings!

Paul

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