Living Truth

Those who teach by their doctrine must teach by their life, or else they pull down with one hand what they build up with the other. (Matthew Henry, 17th-18th century Bible commentator)

“Do what I say, not what I do” may be the clearest expression of hypocrisy. People who put on an act, talking one way but living another, may be among the least liked in the crowd. Henry states the obvious: teaching one thing as authoritative loses its impact when the same person is teaching something entirely different from the way he lives. Don’t just speak truth, live it!

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Mark 7:6).