“Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue,” wrote LA Rochefoucauld. With some cynicism he added, “Our virtues are frequently but vices disguised.” This point, it seems is that good is enormously attractive, even to those who are bad. If they won’t be good, they at lease try to look good.
The problem with praying as a hypocrite is that God can’t be fooled. In God’s eyes there is no exterior and interior person, no “public me’ and “private me.” There is only me. If I pray to look good to others and pull it off, Jesus said I will be rewarded all right; I will be well thought of by others. But that will be my only reward; I pray a spiritually impoverished prayer because I prayed without God.
Pagans aren’t like hypocrites. Their repetitive babblings to a long list of gods may be sincere, but they are sincerely wrong in the same way hypocrites are insincerely “right”: Both pray to false gods. The hypocrite thinks God doesn’t see; the pagan doesn’t know the true God. Jesus assures us that God both sees who we are on the inside, and knows what we need before we ask.
The good news is that we can be completely at ease with a God like this. There is no way we can surprise or shock him. He loves us as much before we confess our sins as he does after we confess them. He knows what we need before we do. We don’t need to impress him with eloquence or theological depth in our prayers. Frankly we can’t anyway. The sincere lisp of a child’s prayer means as much to him as a poet’s greatest effort!
Prayer: Father, you know me inside and out. May that knowledge encourage me to a greater intimacy with you. In Jesus’ name I pray this day, Amen.
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