# 20 Bible Verses About Hypocrisy

Source: https://christianpure.com/learn/bible-verses-hypocrisy/
Publisher: Christian Pure (https://christianpure.com/)
Published: 2025-11-20
Updated: 2026-09-25

In the Bible, hypocrisy is a show of goodness over a heart that is elsewhere. Isaiah 29:13 describes people who honour God with their lips while their hearts are far from him, and Jesus quotes the verse against the Pharisees and scribes.

Jesus warns his own disciples against hypocrisy (Luke 12:1), and Paul records Peter and Barnabas falling into it at Antioch (Galatians 2:13). The Greek noun behind "hypocrite" is *hupokrites*, which Strong's defines as "an actor under an assumed character (stage-player)" and, figuratively, a dissembler. Its opposite, *anupokritos*, "without hypocrisy", is the word Romans 12:9 uses for genuine love and James 3:17 for the sincerity of the wisdom from above.

## Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees

### Matthew 23:5

> "They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long..."

**Reflection:** Jesus is speaking to the crowds and his disciples about the scribes and Pharisees, and two verses earlier he tells them to do what those teachers say but not what they do, "For they preach, but do not practice" (Matthew 23:3). Verse 5 names the motive behind the gap: their deeds are done to be seen, and he gives broad phylacteries and long fringes as examples. Verses 6-7 add the places of honour at feasts, the best synagogue seats and the title rabbi.

### Matthew 23:25-26

> "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean."

**Reflection:** This woe follows one about tithing mint, dill and cumin while neglecting "justice and mercy and faithfulness" (Matthew 23:23). The cup and plate are clean on the outside and full of greed and self-indulgence inside. Jesus gives an order as well as a charge: clean the inside first, "that the outside also may be clean."

### Matthew 23:27-28

> "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

**Reflection:** The next woe compares the scribes and Pharisees to tombs that look beautiful outside and hold dead people's bones and "all uncleanness" within. Verse 28 drops the picture and states the point directly: they appear righteous to others but are "full of hypocrisy and lawlessness" inside.

### Luke 12:1

> "...Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."

**Reflection:** Thousands have gathered, so many that they are trampling one another, and Jesus speaks "to his disciples first." The warning is aimed at his own followers, and it names the leaven outright as hypocrisy. Verses 2-3 follow at once: "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed," and what is whispered in private rooms "shall be proclaimed on the housetops" (Luke 12:2-3).

### Matthew 6:1

> "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."

**Reflection:** In the Sermon on the Mount this verse states a rule that the following verses apply to giving, prayer and fasting. Each time Jesus contrasts his hearers with "the hypocrites", who sound a trumpet "that they may be praised by others", pray at street corners "that they may be seen by others", and disfigure their faces "that their fasting may be seen by others", and each time he says "they have received their reward" (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16). The alternative is giving, praying and fasting in secret, before the Father "who sees in secret."

## Lips, hearts and works

### Isaiah 29:13

> "And the Lord said: 'Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men...'"

**Reflection:** The Lord speaks through Isaiah against a people whose mouths and lips come near while their hearts stay far away, and whose fear of God is "a commandment taught by men." Verse 14 gives the response: God will do "wonder upon wonder" among them, and the wisdom of their wise men will perish. Jesus quotes the verse in Matthew 15:7-9 after the Pharisees and scribes complain about unwashed hands, calling them "You hypocrites!" because their tradition set aside the command to honour father and mother.

### Proverbs 26:23

> "Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart."

**Reflection:** A glaze makes a cheap earthen pot look finer than it is, and the proverb compares that to warm words over an evil heart. The next verses spell it out: "Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart," so "when he speaks graciously, believe him not" (Proverbs 26:24-25). Verse 26 adds that his wickedness will be exposed.

### Job 27:8

> "For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?"

**Reflection:** Job is speaking about the fate of the wicked. The ESV's "godless" translates the Hebrew *chaneph*, which the King James Version renders "hypocrite" in this verse. Verses 9-10 ask whether God will hear such a person's cry when distress comes, and whether he will "call upon God at all times."

### Titus 1:16

> "They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."

**Reflection:** Paul is writing to Titus on Crete about "empty talkers and deceivers" who teach "for shameful gain" and are upsetting whole families (Titus 1:10-11). What they say and what they do point in opposite directions: they claim to know God, and their works deny him. Verse 15 says both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

### 1 Timothy 4:2

> "...through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared..."

**Reflection:** Paul says the Spirit has warned that some will depart from the faith in later times, following teachings of demons. The word translated "insincerity" is the Greek *hupokrisis*, hypocrisy, and it belongs to liars whose consciences are "seared". Verse 3 gives an example of their teaching: they forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods God created to be received with thanksgiving.

### 1 John 1:6

> "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."

**Reflection:** John's message is that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). A claim to fellowship with God made while walking in darkness is therefore a lie, and the person making it does not practise the truth. Verse 7 gives the other side: walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing by the blood of Jesus.

## Condemning others for what you do yourself

### Matthew 7:3-5

> "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

**Reflection:** These verses follow "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7:1). Jesus calls the person who looks for a speck in a brother's eye while ignoring a log in his own "You hypocrite." Verse 5 does not leave the speck where it is: once the log is out, "you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

### Romans 2:1

> "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things."

**Reflection:** Paul addresses anyone who passes judgment on others while practising "the very same things." Verse 3 asks whether such a person expects to escape the judgment of God, and verse 4 says God's kindness "is meant to lead you to repentance."

### Romans 2:21-23

> "...you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law."

**Reflection:** Paul is speaking to someone who relies on the law and is sure he is "a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness" (Romans 2:19). The questions set each thing taught beside a thing done: stealing, adultery and idols. Verse 24 names the result, quoting Scripture: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

## Hypocrisy among believers

### Galatians 2:13

> "And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy."

**Reflection:** At Antioch, Cephas (Peter) ate with Gentile believers until "certain men came from James"; then he drew back, "fearing the circumcision party" (Galatians 2:12). The other Jewish believers followed him, and even Barnabas was carried along. Paul says he opposed Cephas to his face "because he stood condemned" (Galatians 2:11), and that when he saw their conduct "was not in step with the truth of the gospel," he spoke to Cephas "before them all" (Galatians 2:14).

### James 1:22

> "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

**Reflection:** James compares a hearer who does nothing to a man who looks at his face in a mirror and at once forgets what he saw (James 1:23-24). The self-deception is the hearer's own. Verses 26-27 carry the point into religion: a person who thinks he is religious but does not bridle his tongue "deceives his heart," and pure religion is to visit orphans and widows and keep oneself unstained from the world.

### 1 Peter 2:1

> "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander."

**Reflection:** Hypocrisy appears in a list with malice, deceit, envy and slander, all things to be put away. The "So" looks back to 1 Peter 1:22, where Peter's readers have purified their souls "for a sincere brotherly love" and are told to love one another "earnestly from a pure heart." Verse 2 gives what replaces them: longing for "the pure spiritual milk" like newborn infants.

## Love and wisdom without hypocrisy

### Romans 12:9

> "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good."

**Reflection:** "Genuine" translates *anupokritos*, without hypocrisy, so Paul's first instruction about love is that it must not be an act. He follows it with "Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good" and, in verse 10, brotherly affection and outdoing one another in showing honour.

### James 3:17

> "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere."

**Reflection:** James sets this wisdom against the kind marked by "bitter jealousy and selfish ambition", which he calls "earthly, unspiritual, demonic" (James 3:14-15). The last quality in his list, "sincere", is *anupokritos* again. Verse 13 says the wise person shows it by good conduct.

### 1 John 3:18

> "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

**Reflection:** The verse before gives the case John has in mind: someone who has the world's goods, sees a brother in need and closes his heart, and he asks "how does God's love abide in him?" (1 John 3:17). Love that stays in word or talk is set against love "in deed and in truth," measured by verse 16: Christ "laid down his life for us."

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