Atos 5

Atos 5

MacDonald wrote, "Half of the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not." The name that Jesus gave to this practice is "hypocrisy," which simply means "wearing a mask, playing the actor." We must not think that failure to reach our ideals is hypocrisy, because no believer lives up to all that he or she knows or has in the Lord. Hypocrisy is deliberate deception, trying to make people think we are more spiritual than we really are. (Wiersbe Commentary on Acts) The great sin of Ananias and Sapphira (A&S) was hypocrisy, which is a variation of lying. The hypocrite is a play-actor, pretending to be someone he is not. Hypocrisy (Greek hupokrisis) describes a kind of deceit in which persons pretend to be different from what they really are, and especially like A&S that they are acting from good motives when in reality they were motivated by selfish desire for man's praise (like Barnabas). Jesus warned hypocrites, and in fact severely warned them (See Mt. 23:13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29). Believers must strip off any semblance of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is one of the sins that God hates above all others. A hypocrite has God on his tongue and the world in his heart. The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek theater and referred to the practice of putting on a mask and playing a part on stage. It originally conveyed the idea of playing the playing a part on the stage and described the actor's art. The NT gives hupokrisis only a negative connotation referring to hypocrisy, duplicity (the quality of being double - belying of one’s true intentions by deceptive words or action), insincerity, dissimulation (hiding under a false appearance; hiding or disguising one's thoughts or feelings - don't we all do this from time to time?!). The idea is to pretend, to act as something one is not and so to act deceitfully, pretending to manifest traits like piety and love. It means to create a public impression that is at odds with one’s real purposes or motivations, and thus is characterized by play-acting, pretense or outward show. It means to give an impression of having certain purposes or motivations, while in reality having quite different ones.