Practise what you preach

WEEK 2
Hypocrisy
Practise what you preach
 

Those who regularly deliver sermons in church should live in fear of this proverb. It might have been designed for us. Do we really live up to what we preach?

A common factor in many of the uses of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the first three Gospels involves a severe gap between preaching and practice, or between our stated beliefs and practices and what we actually do in our lives – whether we are aware of these yawning gaps or not. This is made explicit in the advice to the crowds in Matthew about the scribes and Pharisees: ‘Do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practise what they teach’ (23.2–3)...