When it comes to sin, there are few more harmful and destructive offenses than the sin of hypocrisy. 

"Well, how can that be?” you might ask. "Surely, something like murder is a more harmful sin?”That may seem true on the surface, but at least murder is clear and upfront about its evil intentions. It's hard to equivocate or argue away the foul vileness of something taking another life in cold blood.

No, what makes hypocrisy particularly insidious is that it often wears the mask of righteousness. It will use the language of the fine and upstanding to hide its true intention. It will try to pass itself off as holy and decent while secretly engaging in the profane and abhorrent. Hypocrisy cloaks itself in virtue to hide its vice.

The hypocrite is the Christian who wants to be seen as holy and upstanding, but never lives those values. The kind who will make a big show of dropping money into the offering plate on Sunday while stepping over a homeless man on Monday. Who will observe the letter of the law while violating the spirit of it with the sneering justification of "I followed the rules!” Who will smile and be respectful to a person's face, and then denigrate and mock them as soon as their back is turned.

Sins great and small, when cloaked in hypocrisy, are abhorrent to the Lord.

We can see evidence of this in the Bible. Few things angered Jesus like hypocrisy, He loathed it.

When you think of Jesus, it's easy to remember the so-called "flannelgraph” moments. Jesus breaking bread and fish to feed the multitudes, or riding a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, or walking on the water. These iconic moments of serenity and calm are the first thing for many of us that leap to mind when we think of Jesus.

But, Jesus wasn't always calm. When he saw injustice and hypocrisy, he condemned it with his entire being. Consider the Jesus of Mathews 23. Furious and contemptuous of the smug Pharisees and their toadies, issuing a blistering condemnations upon them. The Seven Woes, some of the strongest and most directly chiding language Jesus uses in the Bible. 

There is no equivocation here, no room for dissembling. Jesus makes it clear that hypocrites are the lowest of the low and will receive the harshest of penalties in the final reckoning. 

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Mathew 23:27-28)

What is terrifying is that it is so easy to be a hypocrite. To commit this vile sin that Jesus abhors. 

All it takes is carelessness, a moment of selfishness or pride. Especially today when many of us live on lives in full view on social media and are hyper-aware of our image and "brand.” When me make our lives performative, it's only a matter of time until we make our values performative as well. 

We need to always beware of hypocrisy, both in our own lives, and when we see it in others.