Avoiding Hypocrisy's Pull
Robert Dawson
Luke 11:37-54
Back in 2013 a town in Northern Ireland, Enniskillen, hosted the G8 summit, a gathering of eight of the world's most powerful leaders. Those attending included, President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The town spent an enormous amount of time getting ready for their special guest. Part of that preparation was putting up fake storefronts on businesses that had closed. A reporter for the Irish Times, Dan Keenan, said the image conscious village leaders ''filled the shop front windows with a picture of what the business was before it went bankrupt or closed.'' In other words, grocery shops, butcher shops, pharmacies, etc. placed larger photographs in the windows so that if you drove past and glanced at the window, it would look like a thriving business. They wanted everything to appear normal and perfect but those facades hid the truth about a town that had suffered terribly because of a credit crisis and financial recession.
Looks are not everything. Outward appearance does not always portray the truth. Sometimes they hide the truth. In that little town, the façade projected success while the underlying hidden reality was one of brokenness and failure. What was true of that town is true of people.
We refer to someone who presents themselves as successful, confident, honest, in control or spiritual while the exact opposite is true a hypocrite. The idea behind the word hypocrite is one who plays a part, an actor, who pretends to be something they are not or one who seeks to create an illusion.
The history and the world is full of hypocrites. They exist in every conceivable arena of life. However, they seem to garner the most attention and present themselves most prominently in religion.
1. In thinking about hypocrisy in the spiritual realm, people want to create an illusion. They want to present themselves as something they are not - spiri ...
Robert Dawson
Luke 11:37-54
Back in 2013 a town in Northern Ireland, Enniskillen, hosted the G8 summit, a gathering of eight of the world's most powerful leaders. Those attending included, President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The town spent an enormous amount of time getting ready for their special guest. Part of that preparation was putting up fake storefronts on businesses that had closed. A reporter for the Irish Times, Dan Keenan, said the image conscious village leaders ''filled the shop front windows with a picture of what the business was before it went bankrupt or closed.'' In other words, grocery shops, butcher shops, pharmacies, etc. placed larger photographs in the windows so that if you drove past and glanced at the window, it would look like a thriving business. They wanted everything to appear normal and perfect but those facades hid the truth about a town that had suffered terribly because of a credit crisis and financial recession.
Looks are not everything. Outward appearance does not always portray the truth. Sometimes they hide the truth. In that little town, the façade projected success while the underlying hidden reality was one of brokenness and failure. What was true of that town is true of people.
We refer to someone who presents themselves as successful, confident, honest, in control or spiritual while the exact opposite is true a hypocrite. The idea behind the word hypocrite is one who plays a part, an actor, who pretends to be something they are not or one who seeks to create an illusion.
The history and the world is full of hypocrites. They exist in every conceivable arena of life. However, they seem to garner the most attention and present themselves most prominently in religion.
1. In thinking about hypocrisy in the spiritual realm, people want to create an illusion. They want to present themselves as something they are not - spiri ...
There are 24750 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
