Hypocrisy is the primary sin of really religious and good people, and it is perhaps the most dangerous sin of all! That is because it covers up the truth about what are inside by means of an elaborate deception on the outside. The motive of hypocrisy is the need to please - to please myself by creating a version of me I can feel good about, and to please others with a version of me they will be impressed with. The Gospel exposes us - that we are wicked people in desperate need of cleaning up, from the inside out. The great danger of Hypocrisy is that one lives so much in fear of what others think about them, that they never come to understand what is infinitely more important - what God thinks of them. They remain blind to their need for the work of Christ in redemption, and they resist the work of the Spirit that points to Christ. Thus, they will stand before God the judge and be exposed for what they truly are, and bear the terrible consequences for their rejection of the Gospel.
