Modern Hypocrisy Among God’s People

“These people . . . honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” You must not mention yourself in your testimony. The word “I” must preferably not occur. It is supposedly not humble, for then you take the glory away from God. On the other hand, you must make absolutely sure that the word “Jesus” is mentioned as many times as possible, preferably in every other sentence. Instead of “I” you should say, “we” even though they mean exclusively “I”; and the words “Jesus,” “God,” “He,” and “Him” should be printed in bold letters. This is conclusive evidence that this is a person who is deeply bowed in the spirit, a humble and pious soul.

According to this a person could believe that God’s kingdom consisted of nice phrases—“in word . . . .” Likewise: “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Since this has to do with letters and words, you can literally investigate it in the Scriptures. For example, read through the epistle to the Philippians, and you will discover that the word “I” appears eighty-five times, or twenty-one times per chapter. He mentions “I,” “me,” and “mine” about 150 times in this short epistle! One could think that this was a lot about himself, but the tree shall be known by its fruit. The spirit in it justifies it. The fruit of this epistle was most certainly that the Philippians sought Jesus Christ more than they had done before.

If we peruse Paul’s first letter to Timothy, we will discover the word “Jesus” 13 times (two per chapter), and in the epistle to Titus the word “Jesus” appears 4 times (once per chapter). Paul was not contaminated by hypocrisy. He honored God with his heart, with godliness, and with obedience.

Elias Aslaksen