Jacob Nie

Hypocrisy

Lord's Day, April 21, 2024, Connect Church Silicon Valley (with Chinese translation)

Matthew 6:1–4 (ESV)
“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. Thus, 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."



We have been talking about the Sermon on the Mount for several weeks now. And the part of the Sermon that we have been in for the past few weeks is about what it means to be truly righteous.

Jesus has just given six examples of what it means to be truly righteous compared to the regulations of the Pharisees at the time. We talked about four of those examples: anger, oaths, retaliation, and love for our enemies. Now we are entering into a new section, where Jesus talks about what it means to be truly righteous in how we practice our devotion to God. This time, he uses three examples: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. These were the three pillars of spiritual devotion for Jews at the time. And his main point about these three examples is found in the very first verse of chapter 6. “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.”

Now, today we are looking at the very first example, which is in the act of giving. But when we read closely, we see that Jesus is not concerned with the act of giving itself. His main point is that we should not give in the same way that hypocrites do. The main message of this passage is actually really not about giving at all. It is about the sin of hypocrisy. And so that will be the topic for today’s message. My message will be divided into only two parts. We will talk about 1) the problem of hypocrisy, and 2) the proper response.

First, the problem of hypocrisy.

Now, it’s important to note that the meaning of hypocrisy in this passage is different from how we might use the word today. Nowadays, when we say that somebody is a hypocrite, we mean that they say one thing and do another. For example, a hypocrite might tell others to be generous even though he never gives in his own personal life. But this is actually not the kind of hypocrisy that Jesus is getting at here. Jesus says that a hypocrite is anybody who does the right things but for the wrong reasons. So actually, these hypocrites are not necessarily committing any sin at all. There is no indication from the passage that these people are stingy in their private lives, although that certainly may be the case. By all means, a hypocrite, in the sense of this passage, can literally be doing all the right things, all the time. But the reason for their condemnation is that their righteous actions are not done for the right reasons. Somebody can be perfect in all their actions and still be condemned. And why? Because God’s requirement of true righteousness concerns the whole person, both the external and the internal. That’s why God’s greatest commandment is not worship, or prayer, or fasting, or generosity, or even self-sacrifice. God’s greatest commandment is love. Love is the most fundamental command because it requires the action to come from the heart.

The problem is that when it comes to our actions, many of us have no trouble doing the right thing. But our actions can be so pure, even when our hearts are not there at all. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

I think that behind every one of our actions, there is a dark cloud of intentions. Some of our intentions are even concealed from our very own eyes. The specific intention that Jesus is getting at in this passage is the desire to be seen by others.

I want us to think about every single one of our supposedly godly actions. Every prayer we say. Every act of kindness. Or every dollar we give away. And I want us to ask ourselves, how much people-pleasing would we see? How much of it is just fear of what others will think of us if we don’t do it? And how much of it would be the genuine overflow of a true love for God and his people? I think the depth of the hypocrisy can even terrify us.

But I want to go even deeper. Now, Jesus says we shouldn’t give to the needy in order to be praised by others. That’s the people-pleasing we were just talking about. But in verse three, Jesus says something very odd. He says that when we give, we shouldn’t even let our left hand know what our right hand is doing. In other words, he wants us to give without even ourselves knowing! Now, obviously this is fundamentally impossible. We can’t do something without consciously being aware of what we’re doing. So most people have interpreted that this is just a hyperbolic exaggeration used to make his point. And I agree. But I also want to propose to you that there might be something very subtle going on in this statement. I think Jesus is correctly suggesting that the most dangerous audience is sometimes not others, but ourselves. In other words, this is the dangerous sin of personal pride. Verse 1 says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” Perhaps for many of us, this actually needs to say something else. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before yourself in order to be seen by yourself.”

In reality, sometimes the praise we have for ourselves is more powerful than the praise of others. We can do good things in total secrecy and then think to ourselves about how good of a person we are. It is the sin of doing the right thing simply for the sake of seeing that we are a good person.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying that it is wrong to be genuinely happy when we do the right thing. We should be glad when we do the right thing. But there is a very fine line between being pleased by our actions for the glory of God, and being pleased by our actions for the glory of ourselves. The first thanks the Lord for his saving work in us, but the second has only ourselves in mind. It’s a fine line, but we must know which side we are on.

Now, before we move on to the proper response, I want to speak directly to the people in this room that have been Christians for the longest time. Hypocrisy is most dangerous for people such as yourself. When we have followed the Lord for a long time, we may find ourselves with our passion for God slowly dying. And at the same time, there are more and more expectations from both others and ourselves about how we ought and ought not to act. That’s the ideal breeding ground for hypocrisy to grow.

It reminds me of what Jesus said to the Ephesian church in Revelation. He said:

“I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

I think this describes so many of us. So many of us are just enduring, doing the right things but living life with such little joy in the Lord. We know what we should be doing, but we’ve forgotten why we’re doing it. We are tired Christians, and the hope of the gospel has lost its appeal over time. We live lives of habit and not lives of faith. But as the Bible says in Romans 14:23,

“Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

Second, the proper response.

If we want to escape hypocrisy, we need to change our hearts. We need to change our hearts to desire God over self righteousness and the admiration of others.

But that is an impossibility. It is fundamentally impossible to change our hearts to desire the right thing. We are able to change our actions such that we act opposite to our desires. But to change desire itself is an impossibility. So then what are we supposed to do?

Some people, when faced with their hypocrisy, decide to just stop doing everything. They say, I’m not giving with a truly generous heart, so I’m going to stop being generous. Or, I think I’m not going to church for the right reasons, so I’m just going to stop going. Well, to be honest, if we all did that, this place would be empty next Sunday. Nobody’s heart is truly pure. I think it may depend from person to person, but in general, I don’t think this is a productive way to counteract hypocrisy.

So then how do we transform our hearts? How do we transform our hearts so that our generosity is out of true love for others? How do we transform our hearts so that our devotion isn’t just out of habit or self-righteousness? How do we bring true love to our cold hearts? If we don’t answer this right, then all of our devotion and worship is just a sham.

It’s an enormous question, but I believe the answer is simple. We repent of our hypocrisy, and we trust in the Lord. I remember telling the youth over and over again that repentance and faith is both the beginning and the entirety of the Christian life. It means that we tell the Lord that our hearts have been false even if our actions may be true. We tell the Lord,

I am a hypocrite.
My life looks beautiful but my heart is hard.
I have not met your standard of true righteousness.
I need my heart to be brought near to the heart of Christ.
I cannot change my heart but you can.
I trust that your Spirit is in me even if I cannot feel him.
I will wait as long as it takes for me to be made new again.
And yet, in all this, I trust that I have been forgiven by the unfailing blood of your Son Jesus Christ.

But then we don’t just sit there and do nothing. We make war on our hypocrisy. It must be killed. We need to be men and women of prayer. We need to confess to our brothers and sisters. We need to be encouraged by each other. We need to be saturated in the Scriptures. And finally, we need real and spiritual experience of who God is.

And I know that it can feel hopeless to try and make ourselves love God. But God is actually not hard to love. I mean think about it, if God was hard to love, then he wouldn’t be God. The only reason we find it so hard to love God is because we see him so unclearly. If we truly see him and know him for who he is, then it would be impossible for us to not fall in love with him. And it would also be impossible for us to not fall in love with the people around us, every one of whom bears his image. We need his beauty to be the deepest meditation of our heart. And then we will delight in that beauty. And then our actions become the genuine overflow of that delight, and we become truly righteous, inside and out.

But to be honest, God can sometimes feel so distant. Nevertheless, there is real hope in the gospel. God has not justified us by the infinitely precious blood of Christ just to leave us alone again. The very Spirit of Christ is in those who trust in him. And God’s promise, that he has in fact predestined us to “be conformed to the image of his Son” – That is not a promise that will fail. One day our cold and loveless hearts will be totally renewed as we see the Lord face to face. And we will be freed from our self-righteousness and our need to please others. And we will worship God and love one another freely, right there in his presence.

But the thing is, our journey towards that blessed hope has already begun. And there is a choice placed before each of us. We can either live for others and live for ourselves, or we can live for the pleasure of the Lord. Let’s choose wisely, repent where we need to repent, and trust in the salvation of the Lord.



Before we end, there is something else that I do want to mention. It actually doesn’t have anything to do with what we’ve been talking about. But I just want to quickly mention it. Let’s look very quickly at the very last sentence.

“Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Now I do think that the main thrust of this passage is the condemnation of hypocrisy. And I think it’s right that we spent the entire message talking about that. But when I read this, I’m also hearing something that might be deeply comforting to some people. It’s a message of comfort to people who feel unseen and unappreciated.

Perhaps some of you are just faithfully serving your families, or doing a really great job at work, or even serving this church. And nobody bothers to say thank you. That can sting.

I remember in college I used to lead a Bible study every week with my friend in my sophomore year. And some weeks, literally not a single person showed up. So my friend and I would just sit there for an hour and half, waiting for somebody to show up. And that stings, because all that hard work we put in just goes completely unappreciated.

And by the way, I don’t think feeling unappreciated necessarily means that you were acting like a hypocrite and seeking their approval all along. That might be the case, but it’s also a totally justified emotional response.

But the incredible comfort of this passage is that God sees us when nobody else sees us. He appreciates our service to others even when nobody else appreciates us. And the beauty of it is that our work, our generosity, and our service is not appreciated by him on the basis of how well we did. He appreciates it simply on the basis of who we are to him in Christ. He sees our frequently mediocre work and accepts it as something precious to him, because he looks at our work and sees only us. We have become precious to him because of what Christ did for us on the cross. And for those of us in the room who do not yet know the Lord, this is the kind of beautiful relationship you can have with God if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent and put your trust in him and him alone. And so, I just kind of wanted to dig that out of the passage just for the people here who might have needed to hear that.



中文翻译

过去这几个星期的讲道是关于登山宝训。 讨论的主题是,什么是真公义? 耶稣用了六个例子,将真公义和当时法利赛人的法规进行对比。 我们已经讨论了六个例子中的四个:愤怒、誓言、报复和爱仇敌。

今天我们将要进入新的主题。当我们决定委身上帝,耶稣教导我们,什么是真公义。 耶稣用了三个例子:施舍、祷告和禁食。 这是当时犹太教的三大支柱。 主耶稣的主要观点可以在马太福音第六章的第一节中找到。 “要小心,不要在别人面前行公义,好让他们看见,否则你们就得不到天父的赏赐。”

现在,我们来看第一个例子,施舍。 如果我们仔细读这节经文,就会发现耶稣关心的并不是奉献这件事本身。 他告诫我们,不应该像虚伪的人那样施舍。 这段话的主题,实际上根本不是关于施舍。 而是关于虚伪,虚伪是犯罪。 这就是今天信息的主题。 我的信息分两部分。 1)虚伪的问题 , 2)正确的应对。

第一,虚伪的问题。

我们必须注意的是,虚伪在这段经文中的含义不同于当今人们口中所说的虚伪。 如今,当我们说某人是伪君子,意思是他们说一套,做另外一套。 比如,一个伪君子可能会告诉别人要慷慨,但是他自己从不施舍。 但是耶稣在这里所说的不是这种虚伪。 耶稣所说的伪君子,虽然做正确的事,却是出于错误的动机。 这些伪君子可能根本没有犯罪。 这段话不是说,这些人吝啬,尽管他们有可能确实如此。 伪君子有可能一直在做对的事情。 他们受谴责, 是因为,他们的正义出于错误的动机。 有些人可能做完美的事,但仍然会受到谴责。 为什么会这样? 因为神看着的,不仅仅是外表。神看重内心。 这就是为什么神的最大诫命不是敬拜、祷告、禁食、慷慨,或者自我牺牲。 神最大的诫命是爱。 爱是神最根本的命令。有爱的行动必须发自内心。

对很多人来说,做正确的事不难。 我们可以做事漂亮, 但是缺乏爱心。 圣经在耶利米书 17:9 中说:

“人心比万物都诡诈,而且病至极处; 谁能明白呢?”

我认为,在我们每一个行为的背后,都隐藏着一层阴暗的意图。 甚至我们自己都看不见。 耶稣在这段经文中教训的,是人们渴望被别人看到的意图。 让我们来思考一下,我们所谓的敬虔行为。

我们的每一个祷告。 每一个善行。 或者我们捐出的每一块钱。 我们扪心自问一下,做这些事情,有多少是为了取悦别人? 有多少是出于担心别人对我们的看法? 有多少是出于爱神和爱人? 我认为,虚伪甚至可以危险到让人感到恐惧。

我想跟弟兄姐妹更进一步来探讨一下。 耶稣说,我们不应该为了得到别人的认可而施舍。 也就是取悦别人。 但在第三节,耶稣的话听起来有些奇怪。 他说,当我们施舍的时侯,不应该让左手知道右手在做什么。 换句话说,他要我们在连自己都不知道的情况下施舍! 这怎么可能呢? 这根本不可能。 所以大多数人认为,这是耶稣为了表达他的观点,而夸张的说法。 我同意。 但是,我感觉,这段经文中可能存在一些非常微妙的意思。 我认为耶稣在这里指出的是,最危险的观众有时不是别人,而是我们自己。 换句话说,自傲自大是犯罪。 第 1 节说:“你们要谨慎,不可在人前行义,叫人看见。” 或许我们可以再加上一句: “谨防在自己面前行义,以便被自己看见。”

有时候我们对自己的肯定比来自别人的肯定更有力量。 我们可以在暗中做好事,然后自我感觉良好, 仅仅为了证明自己是一个好人,而做正确的事,这就是犯罪。

需要澄清的是,我并不是说,当我们因为做正确的事情而感到快乐,是一件错误的事情。 做了正确的事,当然应该感到高兴。 我们必须问自己,我们之所以做好事,是为了荣誉神还是荣誉自己? 荣耀神的人,感谢神的救恩。 但荣耀自己的人,只关心自己的益处。 虽然外表看不出差别,但我们必须知道我们属于哪一类人。

在进入第二部分之前,我想对信主多年的基督徒说, 信主时间久了,更加容易染上虚伪的毛病。 当我们跟随主久了,可能会发现自己对神的热情在慢慢消失。 与此同时,来自他人和我们自己的期望却是越来越高。 这种情形下,很容易滋生虚伪的状况。 这让我想起耶稣在启示录中对以弗所教会所说的话。 他说:

“我知道你们为了我的名,一直在忍耐、忍耐,并不疲倦。 但我对你有一点不满,因为你已经放弃了最初的爱。”

我想我们很多人都有这种经历。 我们很多人只是在一味的忍耐,做对的事情,却很少有喜乐。 我们知道该做什么,但忘记了初心。 我们疲惫不堪,不再为福音感动。 我们习惯了基督徒的生活,而不是有信心的生活。 但正如圣经在罗马书 14 章 23 节所说:

“凡不出于信心的都是罪。”

那么,我们应该怎样摆脱虚伪呢?

我们必须改变我们的内心。 渴望神,而不是自以为义, 或渴望得到别人的认可。 但这是不可能的。 从根本上来说,改变心意是非常困难的。 事与愿违的事情,或许可以做到。 但改变愿望本身却是难上加难。 我们该怎么办呢?

有些人在发现了自己的虚伪后,决定什么也不做。 他们会说,既然我没有慷慨的心,那么我干脆就放弃吧。 既然我去教会的动机不纯正,那我就干脆不去了。 如果我们都这么做的话,下星期天这个房间就会空无一人。 没有一个人可以说,我的内心是无暇疵的。 这当然不是对抗虚伪的有效方法。

那么我们如何改变我们的内心呢? 使我们的慷慨施舍是出于爱? 使我们的奉献不只是出于习惯,或自以为义? 怎样才能让我们冷却的内心,重新点燃爱的火焰? 如果我们不能解决这个问题,那么我们所有的委身和敬拜都只是笑话! 答案很简单。

我们必须为自己的虚伪向神忏悔,求神赦免我们的罪。 我常常教导青少年团契的学生们,悔改和信心不仅仅是成为基督徒的开始, 而且是基督信仰的核心与全部。 我们必须跟神忏悔,我们虽然常常有好行为,但我们的心却不总是圣洁的。 我们跟神认罪。 我的基督徒生活在外面看起来很好,但心却刚硬。 我没有达到神的标准。 我需要让我的心靠近基督的心。 我无法改变自己的内心,但神可以。 我相信神的灵就就在我里面,即使我常常感觉不到。 我愿意等待神的时间。 我相信神子耶稣基督的宝血赦免了我所有的过犯。

那么我们就不会只是坐在那里,什么也不做。 我们向我们的虚伪宣战。 消灭它。 我们需要成为祷告的人。 我们需要向我们的弟兄姐妹认罪。 我们需要互相鼓励。 我们需要被神的话充满。 我们需要真正的经历神。

我知道,有的时候,我们感觉,爱神是一件困难的事情。 其实并不难。 如果神很难去爱,那么他就不是神了。 如果我们觉得爱神是一件很困难的事情,唯一原因就是,我们没有看清楚他。 如果我们真正认识神,那么我们就不可能不爱上他。 我们也就不可能不爱上神所创造的人,因为每个人都有神自己的形象。 神的完美将会成为我们心灵深处的思念。 我们以神的完美为喜乐。 我们的所作所为将带着从神而来的喜乐。 我们将成为完全的义人。

虽然有的时侯,我们感觉不到神的同在。 然而,神的福音里有真正的盼望。 神借着基督宝血使我们称义,成为他的儿女,不是为了再次撇下我们不管。 基督的灵就在那些信靠他的人里面。 神已经应许,事实上他已经预定,我们将“效法他儿子的模样”——这个应许不会落空。 当我们面对面见到主面时,我们刚硬冰冷的心会被彻底更新。 我们将从“自以为义“和“取悦他人”的罪中被释放。 我们将在神的殿中,自由敬拜并彼此相爱。 然而,充满盼望和祝福的旅程已经开始。 我们每个人面前都有一个选择。 我们可以选择,为别人活,为自己活, 还是为主而活。 让我们做出明智的选择,认罪悔改,相信神的救恩。



在结束今天的信息之前,我想提一句。 其实与今天的讲道没有任何关系。 但我想快速提一下。 让我们看一下最后一句话。

“你的父在暗中察看,必然报答你。”

今天的四节经文,我们看到耶稣在谴责虚伪。 也是今天信息的主题。 但是当我读到第四节时,我体会到了神令人安慰的话语。 对于那些,常常感到被忽视,或不被欣赏的人来说,这是一句出自神的安慰的话语。

也许你们中的一些人,任劳任怨的照顾家人,在职场工作努力,甚至在教会的服侍也是勤勤恳恳。 但是没有人对你说感谢的话。 是不是会伤心失落? 我记得在大学二年级时,我每周都会和同工一起带查经。 有几个星期,一个人也没有来。 我们就坐在那里,等上一个半小时,期待有人出现。 似乎我们的努力都白费了。

顺便说一句,我不认为,有这种感觉就是虚伪的人。 这是一种完全合理的情绪反应。 但第四节这段经文告诉我们,当我们的工作不被人看到或认可,神却知道我们为他做的工。这是何等大的安慰! 即使没有人的认可,为神做的工,在神国度的赏赐是大的。 神的奖赏不是基于我们做的有多好, 而是基于我们在基督里面,神儿女的身份。 虽然我们经常表现平庸,但是神看为至宝。 因为神悦纳我们的事奉,看重的却只是我们。 我们是神牺牲了他独生爱子,救赎换回的宝贝。 如果你今天还不认识耶稣,那么在你认罪悔改并相信他之后,你也会与神建立这样美好关系。 盼望这句经文也可以帮助安慰到你。