by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
Paul had pointed out the wickedness of the Gentiles, and his Jewish readers must have loved it. “Yeah! Let ’em have it, Paul!” they must have thought. Their glee will be short-lived because Paul will quickly lower the boom on them, too. But Paul wasn’t merely trying to point out each group’s failings; he wanted each individual to examine their own hearts.<\/p>\n
When we do an honest introspection -when we’re truthful with ourselves- we’re usually the ones most disgusted with our own shortcomings and inconsistencies. And we usually hope that God will simply gloss over our hypocrisies just as we do. Paul says that reaction thinks too little of God’s purpose and power. He wants repentance and change, not hypocrisy and inconsistency.<\/p>\n
Those of us who sweep our faults under the rug while complaining about the faults of others should stop, think, and change. If we believe in God’s power to change us according to His higher purpose for us, we will. Today.<\/p>\n
“But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?<\/em>” (Romans 2:3-4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Zeke Flores Paul had pointed out the wickedness of the Gentiles, and his Jewish readers must have loved it. “Yeah! Let ’em have it, Paul!” they must have thought. Their glee will be short-lived because Paul will quickly lower the boom on them, too. But Paul wasn’t merely trying to point out each group’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[794,1839],"class_list":["post-89151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-criticism","tag-hypocrisy"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/woe-to-you-scribes-and-pharisees-hypocrites\/","url_meta":{"origin":89151,"position":0},"title":"Woe to You, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Allen Dvorak Biblical Insights, 14(9), September 2014 There is no uncertainty about the compassion of Jesus during His earthly ministry. Various individuals and groups were the objects of His compassion (e.g., Matthew 9:35-38; Luke 7:11-15). But Jesus was also frequently involved in controversy and sometimes handed out sharp rebukes.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90182,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-bears-all-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":89151,"position":1},"title":"Love Bears All Things","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Greg Weston The word Paul used in this text, which is translated \"bears\" in the New King James translation, means \"to cover\" (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, p. 586). Thayer gives the varied usage of this word as \"1. to protect or keep by covering, to preserve... 2. to cover with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46955,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/judging-with-righteous-judgment\/","url_meta":{"origin":89151,"position":2},"title":"Judging with Righteous Judgment","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steven Harper The world's favorite Bible passage must surely be\u00a0Matthew 7:1, where Jesus said, \"Judge not, that you be not judged.\" This verse is most often cited when someone points out a sin in the life of another and the accused one is then quick to reveal the depths\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60516,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-true-cure-for-hypocrisy\/","url_meta":{"origin":89151,"position":3},"title":"The True Cure for Hypocrisy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert Turner Three men rebel against hypocrisy, but they vary greatly in their reactions. The first man turns to total moral abandonment. He throws off all restraint as he gives himself to the fulfillment of every fleshly desire. \"Self\" becomes his god. He hardens himself to the tears of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/medicine.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":86798,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/rebuke-them-sharply\/","url_meta":{"origin":89151,"position":4},"title":"Rebuke Them Sharply?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith\" (Titus 1:13). I wonder sometimes how this would work in today's highly sensitive society and church. Paul is surely not advocating a regular feature of Titus' preaching, but it is\u00a0a\u00a0feature that needs to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/so-whats-a-good-sermon\/","url_meta":{"origin":89151,"position":5},"title":"So, What\u2019s a Good Sermon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant Out of all the thousands of sermons preachers have delivered and to which people have listened, how would we determine which sermons are good, which are bad, or which are so-so? I would suppose that even preachers evaluate themselves from time to time, and on occasion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Bible-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}