When it comes to hypocrisy, religiosity seems to be the most obvious, most stereotypical pitfall.  It's all the little rules that we make for ourselves.  They can be religious rituals, lists of “do’s” and “don’ts, or just personal values of what we consider acceptable or not acceptable (either explicit or implicit).  It happens whenever we let the means to the end take priority over the end itself -- when we let a relationship become a religion.

Back in 1st Century Palestine, the religiosity of the Pharisees was legendary.  Jesus spoke to the problems with their religiosity when he said, "You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy -- full of greed and wickedness!" (Luke 11:39).  And it was true.  The Pharisees had forgotten about the most essential issues of developing lives of godly generosity and goodness, and had become obsessed with making and keeping rules about cleanliness.  What you’re allowed to touch or not touch...  What you’re allowed to eat or not eat... What you’re allowed to say or not say... There were very strict expectations for how a person’s external appearances and actions would be.  In Luke 11:46, Jesus said, "What sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden."  Religiosity leads to legalism, shaming, and blaming.  In the end, it often separates people from the true heart of God, even though the rules had originally been intended to bring people closer to God.  And in so doing, it creates hypocrisy.

At first, when I started thinking about religiosity in my own life, I was having a hard time seeing where I might be susceptible to my own sorts of hypocrisy.  But as I thought about it, I realized that I can have a problem with being religious about not being religious!

I realize that may not make much sense.  But for instance, last week I blogged about prayer and basically inferred how silly it is when people use really formal, flowery language in talking with God.  And while I still think it’s a good point, as I was recently examining my heart I realized that this value system can sometimes result in a judgmental attitude towards people who pray differently than the way that I might prefer to pray.  A sort of religiosity against the externally-religious -- without much consideration for the true heart behind people and their ways of connecting with God.  Or for another example of this, about a month ago I was encouraging the people in our church to:  "Read your Bible, Pray every day."  And while I was trying to make the point that it doesn’t matter how much you go to church, or how many religious acts you perform -- but that the personal, daily connection with God is the most important -- I also realize that if you take my words totally literally, they become a kind of religiosity just like the Pharisees’ religiosity.  And even I can’t keep up with those religious demands!  I confess that I do not “Read the Bible and pray every day.”  I still think it's a good guideline for one's personal spiritual life, but how fair is it for me to expect that or demand a particular standard from other people?!?  That’s hypocrisy, isn't it?

So as I was studying through the middle chapters of Luke, I was refreshed to realize that the antidote to hypocrisy in the area of religiosity is to practice transparency and humility.  Jesus told his disciples, "The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all.  Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!" (Luke 12:2-3).  Think about that for a second.  If you really believed that every little thing you whispered behind closed doors would be shouted from the housetops, wouldn’t that change you?!?  I think it would probably change us in a good way... That's partially why I'm doing this blog series, to practice the discipline of transparency.  Practicing humility and transparency may not make us the most attractive people in the world -- but at least it keeps us from being hypocrites!