falseness and hollowness of the “religious hypocrite.”
April 14, 2021•192 words
Let us notice, lastly, the falseness and hollowness which characterize the “religious hypocrite.” We read that our Lord compared the Pharisees to concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. [Luke 11:44] Even so, these boasting Jewish teachers were inwardly full of corruption and impurity to such an extent of which their deluded hearers had no conception!
The picture here drawn is both painful and disgusting. Yet the accuracy and truthfulness of it have often been proved by the conduct of hypocrites in every age of the church. What shall we say of the lives of monks and nuns which were exposed at the time of the Reformation? Thousands of so-called “holy” men and women were found to be sunk in every kind of wickedness!
What shall we say of the lives of some of the leaders of sects and heresies? Frequently the very men who have promised liberty to others have turned out to be themselves slaves of corruption. The morbid anatomy of human nature is a loathsome study! Hypocrisy and impure living have often been found side by side.
—J.C. Ryle, ‘Expository Thoughts on Luke’