ok, and what kind of hypocrisy? I mean, hypocrisy seems to me to mean a wrong heart. it encompasses almost everything because their hearts are not right with God. judging others when they do the same, trying to be self righteous, thinking they are good when they are not, abstaining from eating food, but still being self indulgent, the acknowledging of the small matters of the law, but missing the big ones. It seems to be religious scrupulosity. also, interesting thought. Jesus said something about how their sins were retained because they claimed to know. if they decided to start thinking of themselves as fools and not wise in their own eyes, would God have given them mercy?
Jesus calls the pharisees hypocrites in Matthew 23:23-36. I think God would have given them mercy if they showed mercy. If they had repented, because Jesus says that everyone has to repent. I don't think they repented though.
Matthew 23:23-36
23“
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
24You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
25“
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.
26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27“
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.
28So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29“
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
30saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
31Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
34Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
35so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah,
f whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
36Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Luke 13:1-5
Repent or Perish
1There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
4Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them:
do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
James 2:13
For judgment is
without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
