September 29, 2015 (Tuesday)
It’s word time. Define the verb, “binge.” The dictionary’s simple definition is, “indulge in an activity, especially eating, to excess.”
Due to technology, a new kind of “binge” has made its appearance. If you get access to an entire season of a television series, you can “binge” on it by watching every episode, one after the other.
That’s what I’ve been doing lately. And the series I’ve been watching features an actress 
(actor, to be PC), who plays the parts of several characters. She’s good. No, check that–she’s great! I forget from one character to the next that it’s the same person acting different parts. She is absolutely perfect in pretending to be someone else. If I were handing out awards, she would certainly receive one.
Jesus knew some folks who had great acting skills. They pretended to be good, but they were really evil. Their doing that really angered Jesus. Normally, Jesus was kind to sinners, but the sins of these people were over the top. They were “hypocrites,” which actually means, “play actors.”
What made their sins so bad? They said they represented God. By itself that’s arrogance at its worst, but while supposedly representing God, they acted like the Devil. They were deceiving their followers, and leading them away from God while pretending to lead them to God.
Here’s some of the things Jesus said to them:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:13-15 NIV).
He said much more than that (Read Matthew 23). He sadly predicted destruction of the nation because of their hypocrisy.
Any outward show of religious faith should be genuine, and never practiced to impress others or to influence others to think we are better than we are. You don’t have to go to acting school to “play like” you are a Christian. Those who pretend to be pious are on dangerous ground.