The Diseases of Hypocrisy and the Virtues of Constancy
Notes
Transcript
The Apostle Paul’s Rhetoric
The Apostle Paul’s Rhetoric
We just left off in Romans ch. 1 wherein Paul illuminates God’s relation to His creation and vice versa. He declared that “…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…”. In the phrase “from heaven”, it is intimated and (as we will shortly see) later expounded that all who are subject to common revelation, viz., that easy intuition of God’s reality and justness which vouchsafes itself on every rational mind, have no excuse and need the gospel should they be saved, whether it’s made available to them or not. So, establishing our guiltiness, Paul proceeds thus:
Therefore you have no excuse, you foolish person, everyone of you who passes judgment; for in that matter in which you judge someone else, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, you foolish person who passes judgment on those who practice such things, and yet does them as well, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will repay each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life; but to those who are self-serving and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, He will give wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of mankind who does evil, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who does what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.
Paul juxtaposes the hypocrites — “…those who are self-serving and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness…”, and the constant — “…those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality…”. The virtue born of the conviction of our guiltiness is the power to easily evade hypocrisy, which produces various other virtues; the error born of ignorance or mindlessness of our guiltiness throws us headlong into hypocrisy, which produces various other vices. I will refract, as you might the latent colors of a prism, some of the virtues of constancy for you to hear in the latter portion of my message, but in this former part, I will refract in the same way some of vices of hypocrisy. The apostle Paul reminds hypocritical fools who condemn themselves by judging people for sins that they themselves commit by repeating to them “…you have no excuse…”; so what are we to take from this? It’s not that we aren’t to judge people, ever. For our Lord commanded us so:
Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
So we must find a correct way of discriminating between righteous and beneficial judgment and hypocritical, pernicious judgment. First, we cannot (ever, it seems) judge another for offenses we live in, and this rule is binding on all mankind. Paul explains that —
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the Law who will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law instinctively perform the requirements of the Law, these, though not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of mankind through Christ Jesus.
So the knowledge of the malady of bad judgment is known and hoisted on us all, both those of us consigned to lives with God’s revelation available and those consigned to hopelessness and mere common revelation. The apostle continues his rhetoric against hypocrisy thus:
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and distinguish the things that matter, being instructed from the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to people who are blind, a light to those in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, possessing in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth—you, therefore, who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one is not to steal, do you steal? You who say that one is not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who loathe idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.
The Diseases of Hypocrisy
The Diseases of Hypocrisy
To understand the virtues of emancipation from hypocrisy, we must familiarize ourselves with some of the innumerable diseases that belong to her — they are more than I can name, but I’ll name a few of her most viral.
First Disease: misjudgment
First Disease: misjudgment
I will begin with misjudgment (or bad judgment) because I’ve already begun on it and because Paul has made explicit mention of it already. By misjudgment I mean any judgment cast on the backdrop of a double standard (Romans 2:3), any judgment cast by someone of an irrelevant office to cast the judgment (Romans 9:20), any judgment cast superficially, (John 7:24), or any other judgment cast grossly or unworthily. The apostle reviles this disease when he writes “But do you suppose this, you foolish person who passes judgment on those who practice such things, and yet does them as well, that you will escape the judgment of God?” (Romans 2:3). We might not be inclined to reckon misjudgment a sin because we don’t usually reckon hurts not inflicted on purpose to be sinful; for sin requires intent. But the Lord said “Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24). Christ here contrasts the judgment by the outward appearance against the righteous judgment, insinuating that the former kind is sinful in itself, not morally neutral. But obviously, sin (or at least sin of the manifestly willful category Paul seems to be writing about) does require some kind of intent. Misjudgment, then, must be the offspring of hypocrisy which is sinful in its own right. Hypocrisy, which I will show to be the mother of misjudgment, is born of some degree of intent, as Thomas Aquinas rightly explains, saying that (STh., II-II q.111 a.2 obj. 3) “Hypocrisy consists in the mere intention. For Our Lord says of hypocrites (Matth. 23:5) that all their works they do for to be seen of men: and Gregory says (Moral. xxxi. loc. cit.) that they never consider what it is that they do, but how by their every action they may please men.” So I maintain with Aquinas, Christ, and Gregory that hypocrisy is intentional; now, misjudgment is the daughter of hypocrisy because misjudgment, as I defined it, grows from a desire to please men instead of God. In his gospel, Matthew records the behavior of the Pharisees toward Christ, and the Pharisees particularly exemplify this disease of misjudgment I am speaking about. It is written thus:
Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and do not care what anyone thinks; for You are not partial to anyone. Tell us then, what do You think? Is it permissible to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?
By asking “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?”, Jesus implies they are not erring sincerely, but out of a desire to please men — they are just testing Him. Surely, they feign acknowledging Him as a teacher of God by shirking toward Him with these words: “…we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and do not care what anyone thinks; for you are not partial to anyone.”, but they obviously don’t really acknowledge Him as such, otherwise they wouldn’t plot to entangle Him in rhetorical snares. Indeed, they were seeking to trap Him in His own words. The Pharisees knew the scripture, and I suspect they knew it was written in the Proverbs that “An evil person is ensnared by the offense of his lips…” So the Pharisees misjudged Christ as an evildoer, and the Name of God — particularly the Name of Christ — was blasphemed.
Second Disease: dissimulation
Second Disease: dissimulation
The second disease belonging to hypocrisy is tied to the first, and it is dissimulation. By dissimulation I mean any external posturing misrepresentative of what is really within you and the obscuring of your true, as it were, colors thereby. Paul makes implications about this in his succeeding words. As I just read, he addressed those who reckon themselves to be Jews, law-keepers, and light-bearers. The Jews were sealed into the visible assembly (or Church) of God by their circumcision, and so their circumcision was the sign of their communion with God. But, although you need to be in the visible people of God — what is now the Church — to be in full communion with God, it is wholly possible (and even common) for those who are in the visible Church to be miscreant unbelievers, or even reprobate. These Jews, who were sealed into the covenant by circumcision as infants, did not behave as sons of the covenant do. No; they only made themselves appear sons of the covenant, and they dissimulated their unbelief. Paul says about these dissimulators thus:
For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a violator of the Law, your circumcision has turned into uncircumcision. So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will his uncircumcision not be regarded as circumcision? And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a violator of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from people, but from God.
Circumcision is no longer the sacrament to seal us into God’s visible assembly, which was once Isreal; we have baptism is circumcision’s stead, and Isreal is no longer the visible assembly of God; we have the Church in Israel's stead. Furthermore, we are no longer under the Law; we have grace in the Law’s stead. But rendering Paul’s text for the new administration of the covenant is easy: we who are baptized into the church (as infants or not), dissimulate membership in the body of Christ, and yet do not perform the requirements of grace — viz., to walk according to the Spirit — translate our baptism into apostasy. This dissimulation is the sort of hypocrisy that Jude warns the church about —
These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
Yes; by this “sort of hypocrisy” I mean simulating the Christian, but not being one; as Isidore teaches, (ibid.)“…the word hypocrite is derived from the appearance of those who come on to the stage with a disguised face, by changing the colour of their complexion, so as to imitate the complexion of the person they simulate, at one time under the guise of a man, at another under the guise of a woman, so as to deceive the people in their acting.”; and as Augustine dutifully observes, (De Serm. Dom. ii.) “just as hypocrites by simulating other persons act the parts of those they are not (since he that acts the part of Agamemnon [i.e, a mythological figure often acted in dramas] is not that man himself but pretends to be), so too in the Church and in every department of human life, whoever wishes to seem what he is not is a hypocrite: for he pretends to be just without being so in reality.”
Third Disease: delusion
Third Disease: delusion
Self-preservation is among the most innate human behaviors. As a result, we naturally tend to avoid perceived threats — no surprise. However, the extent to which this runs in us is tremendously powerful. It is human to preserve the self. God has also designed the world in such a way that it is very plausible for us to preserve ourselves if we desire to do so, and so we do; and Locke well observed about Genesis 1:28-29 where it says that
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
About this, Locke comments that (204; bk. 1, §86) “…for the desire, strong desire of preserving his life and being, having been planted in him [Adam] as a principle of action by God himself, reason, ‘which was the voice of God in him,’ could not but teach him, and assure him, that pursuing that natural inclination he had to preserve his being, he followed the will of his Maker, and therefore had a right to make use of those creatures, which by his reason or sense he could discover would be serviceable thereunto. And thus man’s property in the creatures was founded upon the right he had to make use of those things that were necessary or useful to his being.”
We don’t only seek to escape physical harm, but we also seek to escape mental harm. As a result, we have psychological mechanisms to prevent us from thinking, for example, too low of ourselves. Now, these mechanisms are not perfect as many hate do hate themselves; we live in a fallen world, but I digress. It belongs to humanity to preserve the self. The instinct to self-preserve mixed with hypocrisy births our third and final disease: delusion. By delusion I mean any persistent false belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary. This sort of delusion is administered to the obstinate directly by God as an often finishing judgment. Paul said earlier in ch. 1 of his epistle to the Romans that
Romans 1:20
…since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
By describing God’s attributes as “clearly perceived”, and by saying that they (those who think to resist God) are “without excuse”, Paul accuses atheism, God-hatred, and every heresy of suffering indisputable evidence to their contraries. Hence the apostle bemoans that
Romans 1:21
…even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Here we see the way of the last daughter of hypocrisy I’m going to preach to you about today, and it is the daughter of, I think, all persistent sin. It belongs to humanity to preserve the self. So as for sin, we will either crucify our sins and become more like Christ, avoiding harm thereby or will let ourselves be thrown headlong into delusions about ourselves — we may become so deluded as to believe that we are sinless, which is manifestly false; we may become so deluded as to think that God is apathetic about sin, which is manifestly false; our hearts may grow fat and insensitive to the things of God, not caring or considering how we ought to constantly live coram Deo, which is translated “In the presence of God”, which is manifestly foolish; we may become so deluded that we believe that there is no God to care about our sins, which is manifestly false; we may believe about sin that there is no such thing, which is manifestly false. These delusions and many others are bound to infect us if we do not purge sins from ourselves; indeed, our minds will render some ridiculous phantasm before our hearts indicating that our sins our acceptable if we don’t.
The Virtues of Constancy
The Virtues of Constancy
The benefit of constancy, which is the opposite of hypocrisy, is not simply the evasion of the ills of hypocrisy, though that is one of them. Constancy, or consistency, or consonance — take your pick as to what word you want to use — offers other virtues to those who keep her. We do not need to do as much heavyweight exegesis to figure out what three of these virtues are as we did before. Indeed, Paul speaks quite clearly when he affirms about God that
to those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life;
So the three virtues of constancy are glory, honor, and immortality. Before I begin on them, I want to explain the nature of virtue. Namely, it is assimilation to God, and as Aquinas eloquently explains, (STh., I q.103 a.4 resp.) “…the creature is assimilated to God in two things; first, with regard to this, that God is good; and so the creature becomes like Him by being good: and secondly, with regard to this, that God is the cause of goodness in others; and so the creature becomes like God by moving others to be good.” So when I speak of the virtues of constancy, I will prove their virtue by comparing them to God’s attributes. For God has said we should behave as we ought because it is how He behaves.
Leviticus 11:44
…I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, because I am holy."
First Virtue: glory-seeking
First Virtue: glory-seeking
We need to be careful in dubbing seeking after glory a virtue because vainglory (which I say is one of the daughters of the aforementioned delusion) is an explosive impiety. By glory-seeking I mean seeking after clarification of goodness, or boasting; as Augustine says that to be (Tract. lxxxii, c, cxiv in Joan.) “glorified is the same as to be clarified.”. When we say that God is glorified, we mean that God’s goodness is clarified. Likewise, when we say that we are glorified, we mean that our goodness is clarified. However, we are not good; no one is good but God. So to legitimately seek after glory, we need to assimilate to God. Jesus’ glory, which He always had, was clarified as the glory of the only begotten Son from the Father. There is a kind of glory that is designed for the children of God. Much later in the Paul’s epistle to the Romans — in ch. 8 — the apostle says
Romans 8:20–21
…the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
So the one who glories is to glory in their office as a son or daughter of God. We must take care that, in our glorying, we are not the ones commending ourselves because all glory, or boasting, that is self-administered is vain glory. So clarify yourself in the promises of God and in His goodness, not your own. Paul writes in his second epistle to the Corinthians thus:
But the one who boasts is to boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
And the Scripture says in another place thus:
This is what the Lord says: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.
And again:
But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
All of this is impossible for the hypocrite; for the hypocrite, if he were to be truly clarified, would be exposed as a miscreant. So again I say, boast in the promises and works of God, and don’t ever boast in your accomplishments. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name, instead.
Second Virtue: honor-seeking
Second Virtue: honor-seeking
By honor-seeking I mean the seeking of applause from God. Paul writes to the church situated in Galatia.
For am I now seeking the favor of people, or of God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
Honor-seeking is the daughter of glory-seeking because we can't boast in the Lord if we do not honor the Lord and have honor from the Lord. Honor-seeking has to do with giving preference to God’s institutes over men’s. For example, in the book of Daniel, ch. 3, Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego — three devout followers of God — were under duress from king Nebuchadnezzar to worship a golden statue of him that had been erected. If these three men were not honor-seeking, they would have done worshiped the statue without question; they would have wanted to keep in step with their self-preservation instinct that I mentioned previously. The story is thus:
You, O king, have made a decree that every person who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of musical instruments, is to fall down and worship the golden statue. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into the middle of a furnace of blazing fire. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods, nor do they worship the golden statue which you have set up.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar began speaking and said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods, nor worship the golden statue that I have set up? Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe, and all kinds of musical instruments, to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can rescue you from my hands?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we are not in need of an answer to give you concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and his facial expression was changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he ordered certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in order to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps, and their other clothes, and were thrown into the middle of the furnace of blazing fire.
There are few accounts in the Bible that more vividly display the virtue of honor-seeking than this one. These men did not receive any honor from their contemporaries. Indeed, it was not as though they might have coherently thought “I will have myself burned for the name of my Lord and will be reckoned as a martyr immediately after death.”. No; as far as these men new, they were going to be killed and immediately forgotten. There were not seeking the honor of men because it didn’t mean anything to them. They were seeking the honor of God. And seeking the honor of good this way is impossible for the hypocrite, for the hypocrite does everything that he does for the approval of others, as we have already noted. So to seek the approval of God alone, without regard for the regard of men, is among the virtues of constancy, which is opposed to hypocrisy.
Third Virtue: immortality-seeking
Third Virtue: immortality-seeking
The final virtue of constancy is immortality-seeking, and this is the chief result of all purged sin, not just hypocrisy. By immortality-seeking I mean the evasion of the sins which lead to eternal destruction; so we may also call this virtue eternal-life-seeking. I cannot provide very specific examples of this because immortality-seeking is, as I’ve said, among the foremost and chief virtues. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:50–58
Now I say this, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Death is the chief enemy of humanity as it is the curse that has plagued us since our initial lapse. Virtue is opposed to sin, and the wages of sin is death; so virtue must be, of necessity, opposed to death. We can even go so far as to say that the opposition to death — not through medical means, but through spiritual means — is the greatest virtue of them all. This is even the purpose of our evangelism: to be vessels in God’s mission to translate His elect out of eternal death and into eternal life. So I am finishing this message on the virtue of immortality seeking so that you may know what the culmination of your virtues is to be: the opposition of that ill which has plagued us since the beginning.