Jesus Christ unleashed some blistering criticisms at the scribes and Pharisees of His day! Seven times in Matthew 23 alone, He says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”

“[F]or ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (verses 27-28). Sepulchers were “white-washed” once a year to beautify their exterior. Christ used this as a devastating analogy of these men’s spiritual condition. He saw through the exterior “white-washing” right into their decayed hearts. He called them out for what they were: hypocrites.

Contrast this example with that of another individual. When Christ was calling His disciples and He met Nathanael, He said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (John 1:47). The word guile comes from the Greek dolos, which means a decoy, trick or deceit.

The scribes and Pharisees presented an outward show of religiosity, a veneer, a decoy to elevate themselves and try to draw more proselytes like themselves and worse! Christ warned, “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Mathew 23:15).

In Nathanael, though, was no trickery. He did not present a false image of himself. Not that he was not without guilt—we are all sinners. But unlike the religious men Christ condemned, he was without guile, without
hypocrisy. He did not have a “double heart” (Psalm 12:2).

Christ said of him, “Behold an Israelite indeed.” We should take notice of Nathanael’s example, learn from it, strive to be as Nathanael was: Christians without guile.

This is the high bar set for us by Christ. It is very hard to achieve.

Hypocrisy is a major problem in our world. As the Apostle Paul warned, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of the devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

That prevailing spirit can leech into our lives. With scorching honesty, we have to acknowledge that at times, we have not met the standards Christ wants us to live up to. We have presented an image of ourselves that we want others to believe is the true us, but our intentions, expressed through our actions, may not match up.

Christ condemned hypocrisy forcefully because it hurts our spiritual health. How?

Herbert W. Armstrong often said that every person has an idol. He said his own idol was an egotistical sense of self-importance—the desire to attain status in the eyes of his peers. For us, it might be an inordinate love of self, or vanity.

Such was the case for the scribes and Pharisees. That is why Christ compared them to whited sepulchers. They “washed” the exterior, presenting themselves as disciplined, austere, religious men. They wanted to be seen as righteous (Matthew 23:5-7) but not to live righteously (verse 28). That vanity and self-love became an idol.

This is the danger with hypocrisy. It can cause us, even subtilely, to push God out of our lives because we have set up another god in God’s place: ourselves. Hypocrisy causes us to break God’s law, especially the first three of the Ten Commandments.

How does it violate the Third Commandment? Christ said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Our booklet The Ten Commandments explains, “Prayer without obedience is the subtlest form of blasphemy. Religious people who talk about God all the time but do not obey God’s Word and His commandments are guilty of a far greater sin than the ones who admittedly live a sinful life but do not pretend to be religious. Religious hypocrisy is a violation of the Third Commandment.”

So how can we be more like Nathanael, a man without guile? The answer lies in the correction Christ gave the scribes and Pharisees. He hit on three key themes we will examine.

1) Develop a servant’s mindset

Christ said of the scribes and Pharisees that “all their works they do for to be seen of men” (Matthew 23:5-7). They love the adulation, titles and perks—just like the vain leaders in this world. However, Christ said, “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (verses 11-12).

The word “servant” is used 84 times in the King James Version of the New Testament, and four out of five of those times the Greek word is used meaning slave. But in verse 11 the Greek word diakonos is used, meaning someone who runs errands or performs other menial duties, an attendant, or a waiter as at a table. Doing such jobs attending to others’ needs takes a sincere, humble person.

Having that servant mentality is not easy because our carnal nature wants to be served, not to serve. But Christ says this is how we become men and women without hypocrisy!

Jesus set the example in this area. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7).

The scribes and Pharisees expected to be served. Christ admonished them to humble themselves and serve the people. Can we do that? Take on the form of a servant, and look to serve God, the Work of God, our families and each other (Matthew 6:33; 1 Corinthians 10:24; Ephesians 5:21; Philippians 2:4). If we can achieve that beautiful goal, we are a step closer to being people without hypocrisy.

2) Avoid parading righteousness before others

Christ criticized the scribes and Pharisees because they “devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer” (Matthew 23:14). These men made an outward show of praying. They took pride in the way they tithed to the minutiae, yet omitted the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy and faith (verse 23). They strained their wine through a cloth so as not to consume a gnat while overlooking egregious sins (verse 24). They built tombs and garnished them elaborately (verse 29). Everything they did was to flaunt their righteousness before others.

This desire to put on an outward show of righteousness is not restricted to religious leaders. Every human being has human nature, and an aspect of human nature is that it seeks to be recognized and to show others how righteous we are.

This drive to be recognized is diametrically opposed to what Christ taught: “And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:5-6). We are not to pray in public as an ostentatious show of religiosity. We are to pray in private, where no one can see, and have that quiet, wonderful time one on one with God.

This principle applies to many other aspects of our Christian life. True Christians do not go around talking about how much they study each day. They don’t put on a public show of fasting (verse 16), looking sad, hungry and exhausted. Instead, Christ admonishes His people to appear “not unto men to fast” (verses 17-18).

We don’t look at our spiritual family and identify the tiny specks in their eyes, yet ignore the beam in our own (Matthew 7:3-6). Christ condemned the scribes and Pharisees for giving assistance to the poor with the sound of a trumpet, drawing attention to their show of righteousness. True Christians practice pure religion (James 1:27)—but quietly, without fanfare.

True Christians strive to be humble, sincere people, working hard on seeking their “own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Avoid parading your righteousness before others, and you will help rid your life of hypocrisy.

3) Clean the inside (which will take care of the outside)

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also” (Matthew 23:25-26).

These men focused their energy on the outer man and spent little time on their inner man. Christ teaches the exact opposite. He says to cleanse the inside first. That is because sin comes from our heart, a heart that is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked …” (Jeremiah 17:9).

For Nathanael to be “without guile” indicates that he was working hard on cleaning the inside rather than showcasing outward righteousness, which is just filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

How do we go about cleansing the inside? The Apostle John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). Confess our sins! Be quick to repent of them. That is the path to being cleansed of them—from the inside out.

In David’s psalm of repentance, he asked God: “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. … Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. … Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:2, 7, 10). He recognized how deeply he needed God’s help for such cleansing and renewal. We need to ask God for the exact same things in our lives regularly, even daily.

How important is this in overcoming hypocrisy? Paul wrote, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). What matters is the inward man, and that inward man must be spiritually renewed day by day. We must repent of our sins quickly when we commit them, then ask God to refresh His Holy Spirit in us daily. This is critical to cleaning up the inside, which will in turn take care of the outside.

Take Up the Challenge

We are imperfect, and God understands this. A minister may give a message at services that he feels uncomfortable giving because he knows he has not yet mastered the subject in his own life. But he should never draw back from that responsibility.

Magnifying that principle, each of us needs to make a genuine and sincere effort daily to rid our lives of our hypocrisies. We must aspire to develop the mindset of a servant, avoid parading our righteousness before others, and repent of our sins daily, asking God to cleanse us from the inside and to renew a right spirit within us. Doing these things will take care of the outside.

Let us strive to be more like Nathanael, Christians in whom is no guile. Then we can fulfill our calling and take our place with our Husband Jesus Christ, sitting with Him on His throne. He promises in Revelation 3:21, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”