March 4 2025

Tuesday March 04

“Woe to You… Hypocrites!”

Luke 11:37-44

37 And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. 38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner. 39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. 40 Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you. 42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them."

From Luke 11:37 to the end of the chapter Jesus is dealing with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, scribes, and the lawyers (who were supposed to be the experts in interpreting the Law of Moses). Many Christians today are greatly concerned about the rising influences of socialism, humanism, secularism, and social injustice. Yet those evils, great as they are, do not together pose the threat to Christianity that the so-called-Christians, who are really hypocrites, and the false shepherds and pastors do.

Throughout the history of redemption, the greatest threat to God's truth and God's work has been false prophets and teachers, because they propose to speak in His name. That is why the Lord's most scathing denunciations were reserved for the false teachers of Israel, who claimed to speak and act for God but were liars. Take the time to read Matthew 23 where the writer gives even a more detailed description of our Lord’s words of judgment upon the hypocrites.

In both Luke 11:37-54 and Matthew 23, Jesus uses the word hypocrite as a synonym for scribe and for Pharisee. He calls them sons of hell, blind guides, fools, robbers, self-indulgent, whitewashed tombs, full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, serpents, vipers, and persecutors and murderers of God's people. He uttered every syllable with absolute self-control but with devastating intensity.

The word hypocrite often referred to actors in a play. Someone who played the part of someone else. Later it came to mean deceitful pretense, the putting on of a false front. It was also used to describe pretended goodness, that is simply for show. A hypocrite is someone pretending to be one thing on the outside that he or she is not on the inside.

In both Matthew 23 and Luke 11, Jesus repeatedly used two words, woe and hypocrites. Woe is a word to express grief, despair, sorrow, dissatisfaction, pain, and fear of losing one's life. In the New Testament it is used to speak of sorrow and of judgment, carrying the mingled ideas of punishment and pity, cursing and compassion. But Jesus used woe against the scribes and Pharisees not as an exclamation but as a declaration, a divine pronouncement of judgment from God.

Here in Luke 11, Jesus denounced the sins of the Pharisees and called them hypocrites with six "woes". Jesus started with the sins of the Pharisees (Luke 11:42-44) and then turned to the sins of the lawyers, for it was their interpretations of the Law that formed the basis for the whole Pharisaical system (Luke 11:45-52).

The Pharisees boasted of their giving (Matt. 6:1-4; Luke 18:11-12), but they did not give what was within to the Lord. The way to make the outside pure is to make the inside pure (Luke 11:41). Kenneth Wuest translates this verse, "Rather, the things which are inside give as alms, and behold, all things are clean to you". The way to clean up a dirty vocabulary is not to brush your teeth but to cleanse your heart.

In the first three "woes" denounce the Pharisees for their wrong priorities. They were careful about tithing even the tiny leaves and seeds from the herbs, but they forgot about important things like justice and love (Micah 6:7-8). They majored on the minors! Jesus did not say they should stop tithing but that they should put their religious activities into proper perspective.

Today, if we are not careful, we easily become hypocrites by our outward religious acts while inside we harbor covetousness, greed, anger, bitterness and unforgiveness. The Lord wants our hearts before He wants our gifts and service. While people look on our outside, God is looking in our hearts.

What does He see in your heart today?

God bless!