Theme: THE DANGER OF HYPOCRISY
Text: “Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? …” – Isaiah 29:15, 16.
Comment: Hypocrisy is a negative trait that makes the person to “play act” in order to win favour, applause, profit, fame, etc. It is trying “to being what one really is not…the pretense of being a better person than one really is”, as the Holman Bible Dictionary puts it.
In the aforementioned passage of today, it would be sheer folly, self-deceit and hypocrisy for one to persist in some iniquitous acts secretly, thinking that they are hidden or covered before God. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do”, so says Apostle Paul clearly in Hebrews 4:13.
That the sinner has not been exposed is a measure of grace for him to repent and forsake his evil ways for God’s mercy to be on him. Psalm 32:5, see also Proverbs 28:14; Ecclesiastes 8:11-13, Ezekiel 33:11. And Apostle Peter says: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. (2 Peter 3:9) But if the person refuses and continues to wallow in sin; then like King David said: “The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming”. – Psalm 37:13.