“Let love be without hypocrisy.”
Romans 12:9
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart! (1 Sam 16:7) God weighs the motives behind what we do. There is a fearful scene described for us in Mt 7:21-23. To read that some will hear the Lord’s judgment in this text is disturbing, but to find out that this story describes the experience of “many” should prompt us to carefully examine our own hearts:
21 “Not everyone who says to Me,‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day,‘Lord,Lord,have we not prophesied in Your name,cast out demons in Your name,and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me,you who practice lawlessness!’
You understand that these aren’t the unbelieving do-gooders of the world like Bill Gates who was quoted as saying, “Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.” No. The individuals Christ is referring to in this text ARE sitting in churches on Sunday morning. These are professing Christians! How can a man be so busy doing many works in the name of Christ and yet be told by the Lord he was only practicing lawlessness? It’s because the motivation behind what he did was all wrong! As David said in Ps 7:9, ” the righteous God tests the hearts and minds.” God looks on the heart!
Why do we do what we do? Practical Christianity is not conformity to a list of do’s and don’ts. Judaism had turned into that in Christ’s day, and God was displeased with it. If we’re just trying to keep a set of laws like they were in an attempt to please God, we’ve got the same problem they had, namely that, “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight,for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The law will always condemn us if by it we seek for acceptance with God. Our justification must be based on what Christ has done, not what we do. Rom 10:4 tells us that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” He has satisfied the law’s requirements for all who believe in Him! A Christian lives godly because he knows he IS accepted by God through Jesus Christ and loves God so much for that acceptance that he wants to do be obedient to His word. Practical Christianity is a life of service to God motivated by love. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (Jn 14:15) Only through love, the proper motivation, can we rightly relate to the law for ” love is the fulfillment of the law” ( Rom 13:10)
So, what is the key to loving without hypocrisy, as our text instructs us? How can we serve others in sincerity? How can we obey God’s command to forgive someone that has taken advantage of us and do so from the heart as in Mt 18:35? The preceding parable gives us some insight. The servant should have been willing to forgive his fellow servant a small debt because his master had forgiven him a great one! (see Mt 18:21-35) When we are aware of the great mercy God has shown us, in spite of our unworthiness, we will show mercy to others from the heart! The depth of our love depends on the depth of our awareness of our forgiveness. If we aren’t aware of the great mercy of God, then we will love very little, and it will be accompanied with hypocrisy. “…to whom little is forgiven,the same loves little.” (Lk 7:47) How can a man do many wonders in the name of Christ and one day hear, “I never knew you”? Because, apart from love, every good work is of no profit. “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,but have not love, it profits me nothing.” (1 Cor 13:3)
Jamie