What is it about religious people that God hates the most? Ungratefulness? Gossip? Lack of compassion? Yes, God hates all those things, but I believe the one thing that God hates the most in religious people is hypocrisy.
Jesus’ strongest words were against the religious people and their hypocrisy.
Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 14Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 16Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25Woe 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. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Hypocrite in the Greek is hupokrites.
hupokrites (5273) hoop-ok-ree-tace’ from 5271; an actor under an assumed character (stage-player)
hupokrinomai (5271) hoop-ok-rin’-om-ahee middle voice from 5259 and 2919; to decide (speak or act) under a false part, i.e. (figuratively) dissemble (pretend):–feign.
From Webster’s – “One who plays a part; especially, one who, for the purpose of winning approbation of favor, puts on a fair outside seeming; one who feigns to be other and better than he is; a false pretender to virtue or piety; one who simulates virtue or piety.”
A hypocrite is one who pretends to be someone he is not in order to appear good before God and other people.
Why does God hate hypocrisy so much? It presents a false message to the world what Christianity is really about. The message of Christianity is not that we are good, but God is good. It places a burden on ourselves and others that we all should not have to carry. We are not called to build our own righteousness, we are called to believe in Jesus’ righteousness. We are not called to appear good in God’s eyes. We are called to accept God’s goodness into our lives. We do not have to strive to be perfect, to be sinless, we simply confess that we are not worthy and God accepts us.
Luke 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are , extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
We don’t need to be someone who we are not. We don’t need to be perfect, sinless. We are called to simply admit who we really are – weak, helpless, sin prone people. And then God will reach down to us and say, “Yes, that is who you are. But, let the blood of my Son cleanse you, and come here and sit by me and let’s enjoy each other’s company.”