How should we respond to our hypocritical pastor?

“So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach” (Matthew 23:3).

                How should we respond when we go to work and see our boss is a hypocrite despite being Christians and church official?  How should we respond when we go to church and see our pastor who is good at preaching and teaching the Bible well but he is hypocrite?  How should we respond to our father who looks holy saint in the church and is praised by the church members but when he comes home he changes 180 degree and see very hypocrite father?  Perhaps we don't want to see our hypocrite boss anymore.  We may be struggling whether to move the church because we cannot hear our hypocrite pastor’s sermon anymore.  When we see our father who does not live a life of faith correctly every day, we may lose our respect for our father and may want to leave our faith and leave the church in disappointment.  What should we do?

In the Bible, the word ‘a hypocrite’ (e.g. Mt. 23:15) means "an actor", meaning a person who acts visibly or a person who forges (WSNTDICT).  Jesus speaks of two things about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees who are hypocrites in the context of Matthew 23:3.

First, the hypocrites don’t practice what they preach.

Look at Matthew 23:3 – “…  or they do not practice what they preach.”  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees whom Jesus spoke were those who taught the Law of Moses (v. 2).  The problem was that while they were teaching the Law of Moses, they didn’t keep the Moses’ Law that they were teaching.  They even added the inheritance of the Pharisees [“heavy loads” (v. 4)] to the Law of Moses and taught others but they didn’t keep it [cf. Mk. 7:1-13 (The teachers of the law and the Pharisees let go of the God’s commands and held on to the traditions of men)].  What caused them to be hypocrites?  Of course, the cause was their pride, but more specifically, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees didn’t teach themselves while teaching others (Rom. 2:21).  I think this is a big problem for our church pastors and teachers.  I am sure it wasn’t like this when we first began to preach and teach the Word of God.  At that time, we probably had taught ourselves the Word of God as we were meditating on it and then were diligently applying it to ourselves in preparing for Bible study and sermons.  But the problem was that when we taught other people and thus when we received the praise from them that we were teaching them well, we thought that we were good teachers (though the only good teacher is the Lord).  So as we tried to teach them well and hard, we became arrogant because we neglect to teach ourselves.  And as the pattern of faith in which we teach others well but don’t teach ourselves diligently gets longer and longer, then the gap between teaching and practice grows bigger and bigger.  And eventually we become 'bible actors'.  Then it turns out that later on, we have no choice but to imitate the life of faith before people, not before God.

Second, the hypocrites do everything for people to see.

Look at Matthew 23:5 – “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.”  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees, whom Jesus said “hypocrites”, made their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garment long in order to impress people whom they did everything for them to see (v. 5, Park).  Also, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees loved the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues (v. 6) and also loved to be exalted in public (vv. 7-10).  They loved to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them “Rabbi” (v. 7).  I think this is a serious church problem.  It is a big problem that young pastors like me in the church are getting use to be treated by elders who are much older than us.  How can we, who preach that Jesus came not to be served but to serve (Mt. 20:28), not serve the God’s people who God has entrusted to us but expect them to serve us?  What’s the use of saying more about these things.  It's our shame.

How should you respond when you see your pastors’ hypocrisy?  How should you respond as children looking at your hypocritical father?  What should you do when you see a Christian work supervisor whose outside and insider is different (Mt. 23:25-28)?  I would like to receive three lessons:

(1)   We should do and keep the words of our hypocritical pastor, but shouldn’t do what they do.

Look at Matthew 23:3 – “So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”  I think our nature is when we begin to think that our pastor is hypocrite, then it’s hard for us to listen to his sermon or teaching.  So we try to endure and be patience and keep on trying to listen to his sermon or teaching.  But when we keep on seeing his hypocrisy, we will stop listening to our hypocritical pastor’s sermon or teaching (but everyone's instincts may not be the same).  No matter how good his preaching or teaching is (or at least the right words that are not in conflict with the Bible), we can no longer respect him, so our hearts are closed and we reject his sermon and teaching.  But Jesus said that even though we shouldn’t do what the hypocrites do, we must obey them and do everything they tell us (v. 3).  In other words, the lesson is that when our hypocritical pastor’s sermon and teaching is biblical, then we must do that he preaches and teaches us.  The wise Christians will hear and obey this Jesus' lesson.

(2)   We must take the opportunity to teach ourselves through our hypocritical pastor.

Look at Romans 2:21 – “you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?”  Our nature is that when we see our hypocritical pastor, we sit on the God’s judgment seat and tend to judge him and even condemn him in our disappointment and anger.  The fact that we have condemned our hypocritical pastor is a proof that we are already being tempted.  And at the heart of that temptation is to make us proud.  Who are we to condemn our pastor?  Are we that good?  Are we godlier than our pastor in the sight of God?  Do we show more godly power than our pastor does in God's eyes?  Or do we have a form of godliness rather than the power of godliness like our hypocritical pastor?  Why aren’t we considering him to be our spiritual mirror and take it as an opportunity to learn from him?  We must learn and learn.  We must even learn from our hypocritical pastor.  We must learn, especially through him, to look and see ourselves.  We should make it an opportunity to reflect and examine ourselves whether we are different inside and outside, whether we don’t practice what we speak, whether we are living a life of faith for others to see like our hypocritical pastor.  The wise Christians will do that.

(3)   Unlike our hypocritical pastor (father), we must be humble and serve others humbly.

Look at Matthew 23:11-12: “The greatest among you will be your servant.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  Our sinful nature is that we want to be exalted like our hypocritical pastor.  Although the Lord deserves to be glorified, our sinful nature is to intercept His glory so that we can be glorified alone.  Why do we like to be called “Doctor”, “Teacher”, “President” and so on?  Isn't it because we have greedy desire to be honored by others?   Isn’t it great grace and great glory that God justifies us in Jesus Christ?  Isn't it great honor for us to be called “saints”?  Then shouldn’t we have burden to be called “pastor”, “elder” or “ordained deacon”?  Shouldn’t we feel sorry to our brothers and sisters in Christ when we see ourselves being unfaithful to the Lord and we showing our hypocrisy to them?  We want to imitate Jesus.  We know that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5).  We know that we shouldn’t consider equality with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ (v. 6) but should make ourselves nothing (v. 7), consider them better than ourselves (v. 3) and humbly serve them.  But we don't know why we love to be praised and exalted among them.  Our earnestly desire and prayer is that we can serve our brothers and sisters in Christ humbly and faithfully so that when we stand before the Lord, we may be able to hear from Him “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Mt. 25:21)