Blinded by Hypocrisy | Sunday, November 2, 2025

And Jesus spoke a parable to them. Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a ditch?... Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?... Hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye. And then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit... For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks... Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them... is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock... But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built his house on the earth without a foundation... and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great. — Luke 6:39–49

Jesus calls us out of the delusion of hypocrisy and into the discipline of humility, so that our lives bear the fruit of His Spirit.

A Lesson in Self-Confrontation

Immediately following the terrorist attacks of 2001, a couple of leaders from our church and I drove cross-country to New York City. We left at 5:00 in the morning the Saturday after 9/11 and arrived in Manhattan at 5:00 in the evening on Monday, because one of the men with us was a former truck driver who simply liked to drive. The two leaders I traveled with were both from New York and felt compelled to minister there. We connected with the American Red Cross and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and were able to minister to many people near ground zero.

One connection we made was with a man dispatched by the government from San Diego to serve as a chaplain at ground zero. His name is Mickey Stonier. Mickey became a close friend and mentor. About a year later, he invited me to take a class he was teaching at a local Bible school called Biblical Self-Confrontation, built on a large discipleship manual by the same title. For the next six or seven months I went through that class, and it was perhaps the most challenging discipleship class I've ever been in.

The Hypocrite's Conundrum

That class was built on the very words we read here in Luke 6, paralleled in Matthew's Gospel: "Judge not that you be not judged... why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and do not consider the plank in your own eye?... Hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Biblical self-confrontation is the work of taking the Scriptures and examining your own life in their light.

But that is not our inclination. Our tendency is to read the Scriptures and immediately think how they apply to someone else. Many times someone has told me after a challenging message, "That was great—when will it be online? I need to send that to my brother." It is far easier to look at the speck in our brother's eye than to consider the beam in our own.

I call this the hypocrite's conundrum: the ability to see clearly the problems in others while being blind to our own. We can identify the most minor inconsistency in someone from a thousand yards away yet fail to see the twelve-foot beam sticking out of our own eye for years. And the hypocritical reality is that the beam in our own eye tends to be the same sort of sin we identify as a speck in someone else. Our sin looks incredibly sinful in others, but we have a hard time seeing it in ourselves.

Point one: true discipleship unto Christlikeness begins with honest self-examination. That self-examination is difficult, but it is what God is calling us to.

Why We Should Want to Be Like Christ

Discipleship unto Christlikeness is what God wants to do in your life. That raises the question, what is Jesus like? But there is a preliminary question: why should I want to be like Jesus? Christ is the exemplar of what we were created to be. Genesis 1:26–27 says God made man in His image and likeness. The problem is that image has been marred and stained by sin, so by nature we are not the greatest representation of God's likeness.

But Jesus is the perfect image of God. Hebrews 1 makes this clear. He is not merely a good moral example—though He is that—He is the fully realized picture of man as God intended him to be. To be more like Christ is to be more fully human, more whole, more alive, reflecting the likeness of God as we were intended to. God made you unique among all creation as His image-bearer to reflect His glory.

This is why discipleship matters. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

What Is Jesus Like? The Fruit of the Spirit

The simplest way to answer what Jesus is like is to study the Gospels, which is exactly what we are doing in this Meet Jesus series through Luke. If you've never read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you should. Another simple answer is given in Galatians 5:22–23, the fruit of the Spirit—the evidence of God's Spirit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

None of those things are found in us independently of the working of God. When they are found in us, they are an image of God being seen in us. They can be seen even in people who are not yet Christians, because God made them in His image—but He wants to perfect and make these things abundant in us.

It's significant that this very text speaks of fruit. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good fruit, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." That fruitfulness is impossible when I am blindly and hypocritically condemning and judging others for their failures. We are quick to point out where others are loveless, joyless, impatient, unkind—yet fail to recognize these same things abound in us.

Judging Yourself Before Others

So God calls us to the difficult work of critical biblical self-evaluation. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:31, "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." Last week we considered Jesus's words, "Judge not and you shall not be judged." That is the favorite passage of antagonistic unbelievers, who think Jesus forbids all judgment. That is not what He is saying. Our judgment of others must be preceded by a self-critical judgment.

Point two: the true disciple judges himself before judging others. Jesus is not commanding that we never make moral judgments—that would be impossible, and He is not inviting moral relativism. He is condemning our tendency to be hypocritical, using a low bar for ourselves and a high bar for others. This is the injustice of unjust scales spoken of in Proverbs. We must first look into the mirror of God's word and judge ourselves rightly.

Hypocritical judgment condemns in others what we fail to correct in ourselves. But righteous judgment removes the plank so we can help our brother. Paul tells the Galatians, "If anyone is overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourselves lest you also be tempted." Before we grab the tweezers to find the speck in our brother's eye, we should deal with our own plank—or we'll beat them in the head with it.

Think of the airplane safety instruction: if the oxygen mask drops, secure your own first, then help others. We can be so blinded by the plank in our own eyes that we cannot help the one blinded by the speck. As Jesus said, if the blind lead the blind, both fall into a ditch. He is calling us out of the delusion of hypocrisy and into the discipline of humility.

The Refiner's Work

By nature, in our fallen state, we have an evil heart that produces evil thoughts and actions. Jesus says in Mark 7:21–23 that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, thefts, covetousness, deceit, pride, and foolishness—these defile a man. What does God want to do with these things? He wants to prune them, to refine us.

Picture a great piece of ore that is gold but full of impurities. The refiner puts it in the fire; the gold melts, the heavier gold settles, and the impurities rise to the top to be removed. That's what God wants to do in your life. He puts us in fiery circumstances so that impurities surface. That fiery circumstance might be the person sitting next to you—God may have placed them in your life to bring your anger, pride, and unkindness to the surface and make you a better you. I think that's a big part of marriage, honestly.

Then He asks, would you like Me to take this away? If we are hard-hearted and arrogant, He may take us out of the fire for the moment and the impurities settle—but the test will come again. Sometimes we are shocked when anger or arrogance surface, and God says, "I know. It's been there the whole time." He also uses the image of the potter and the clay in Jeremiah 18, fashioning us and removing the crud to make us what He wants us to be.

A New Heart and Abiding Fruit

How does He do this? First, by giving you a new heart. When you become a follower of Christ and yield to His lordship, He keeps the promise of Ezekiel 36:26—He removes the old heart of stone and gives a new heart, puts His Spirit within you, and causes you to walk in His statutes. In John 15 He says, "I am the vine and you are the branches. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, the Father takes away. And every branch that bears fruit He prunes so that it may bear more fruit."

Point three: the authentic disciple abides in Christ and produces increasing and abundant good fruit. The works of the flesh are evident—read the last half of Galatians 5—but the fruit of the Spirit is easily seen as well. This is why fellowship with other Christians matters, not just on Sunday morning but in small groups, so that we can see one another's specks and challenge one another to be better, while doing the hard work of self-examination.

Years ago I had a hard conversation with a man in our church. I told him, "What I'm seeing in your life is arrogance, outbursts of wrath, anger. I do not see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. I'm not sure you're a Christian." He didn't like it and began defending himself—but this is iron sharpening iron. Paul told the Corinthians, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves" (2 Corinthians 13:5). If the fruit of the Spirit is not evident, repent and ask God to do a transforming work in your heart. There are many times I have to pray, "God, give me Your patience," because I am not by nature a patient person. Thank you for not saying amen.

How does this abiding happen? John 15:7 says, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." We abide in Him and in His words, and we let His words abide in us. And how do we know we are doing that? "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love."

Obedience: The Hallmark of Genuine Faith

Back in Luke 6:46, Jesus asks, "Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?" The one who hears and does is like a man who dug deep and built on the rock; when the flood came, it could not shake the house. But the one who heard and did nothing built without a foundation, and when the stream beat against it, immediately it fell, and great was its ruin.

Point four: obedience is the hallmark of genuine disciples and authentic faith. True faith produces faithfulness. James said, "Faith without works is dead." Do you want a life that withstands the storms? They will come—you and the people you love will face hardship. Over twenty-five years of ministry I have watched people I once looked up to as strong believers, who seemed to have everything in order, face hardship that exposed a missing foundation. It is heartbreaking. Faces and names come to mind. They had not been doing what Christ said. But those who put His words into practice, by His Spirit and the fellowship of the church, fare far better when the storms come.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, says the same in James 1:22–25: "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves... But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." How many of you would like to be blessed in what you do? God gives you the equation—the conditional promise. Obedience is the hallmark of genuine disciples; authentic faith produces faithfulness, and blessing is the outcome.

The Prosperity Heresy and the True Blessing

Now I have to give a disclaimer I wish I didn't have to give. When I say "blessed," I do not mean the blessing put forward by the prosperity gospel—what I would call the prosperity heresy, which is unfortunately the biggest and most atrocious export of American Christianity for the last half century. It says God's whole aim is to make you healthy, wealthy, and happy. It is a man-centered gospel, not a God-centered one. It is preached in our county, across our nation, and on cable channels, and it astonishes me how it thrives in some of the most poverty-stricken places on earth—Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa—because it keys in on the greedy nature of man.

The purveyors say that with the right faith, positive confession, and a gift to their ministry, you will find material blessing, never be sick, never be poor, never have hardship. The problem is that it is the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor... blessed are those who hunger... blessed are those who weep... blessed are you when you are hated," and "In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). The prosperity heretics highlight certain things Jesus said to the exclusion of everything around them.

One of their favorite verses is Luke 6:38: "Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be put into your bosom." They say, "Just give to our ministry and you'll receive tenfold; sow some seed money." But look at the context. Jesus had just said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you... give to everyone who asks you... Judge not... Condemn not... Forgive, and it will be forgiven." Then He says, "Give, and it will be given to you." What are you to give? Not seed money—faithfulness, obedience, and forgiveness. And God will return these things to you.

Building for the Storm

The blessing Jesus describes is a life that endures hardship and stands in the midst of storms. Point five: the wise disciple builds for a storm-resistant life. Jesus's blessed life is found in His words, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." He promises to care for what you need—what you'll wear, where you'll sleep, what you'll eat. He promises peace in the storm, self-control when everything comes against you, joy in trial, contentment in all situations, and a vision of a future kingdom.

This is not the "kingdom now" mindset of dominionist prosperity theology. It is "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." God wants to do a work of transformation in us so that we shine with the fruit of the Spirit unto His glory—at a time when people are desperate to see it. People need to see in your life and mine, in abundance, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. God, prune whatever You need to prune to make those things grow in our lives. Amen.

Closing Prayer

God, thank You for Your word. It is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and at times it cuts deep into our hearts. It exposes the areas of our lives that are out of step with Your nature. You shine the light of Your truth on those areas so that You might remove them from us. So God, I pray that You would make us in some measurable way more like You today and this week. Where the works of the flesh are still evident in me and in my brothers and sisters, reveal those things so that we would confess them to You. You promised that if we confess our sin, You are faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Would You cleanse us of all unrighteousness? Would You prune away unfruitful branches so that we might bear much fruit for Your glory? Glorify Yourself in us, and make us better image-bearers of You. We pray this in Jesus's name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen."