종교적 위선에 관하여

Religious Hypocrisy: A Perennial Problem of God's People

The present study explores the perennial phenomenon of spiritual hypocrisy within the community of God's people and the Bible's critique of it in its various stages. After a brief introduction about the current state of affairs in Korean church in general, it examines major portions of the Bible where the theme of spiritual hypocrisy stands out most clearly. The study begins with Jesus' criticism of the Pharisaic spirituality, which finds faults with them not so much for their alleged legalism or petty formalism as their outright hypocrisy, i.e., their eagerness to impress others by external, more visible, practices without, unfortunately, demonstrating the corresponding inner disposition of heart which is what counts before God. The study then explores the preaching ministry of John the Baptist, a direct forerunner of Jesus, showing how his message takes issue with Jewish complacency which has a lot to do with their hypocritical attitude, namely, a kind of easy faith which lacks proper disposition in everyday life. The next part traces the them back to the ministries of Israelite prophets. It first examines how the eventual downfall of Saul, the very first king of Israel, is closely related to his growing tendency of religious hypocrisy, relying more on external or ritual causes while blatantly ignoring God's demand for obedience. The study then discusses a couple of sample passages from Isaiah and Jeremiah to demonstrate how the prophetic message of the Bible takes issue with the religious hypocrisy of God's people as the prime cause of the deterioration in their covenant relationship with their God. The final section explores Paul's talk of justification, arguing that the context of Paul's discussion of God's righteousness or justification is the religious hypocrisy of the contemporary Jews, not the so-called legalistic attitude as is widely assumed. So the study pays special attention to Paul's depiction of the Agitators in Galatia or the "Jews" in Romans 2-3, with a view to showing how Paul presents them as those who are concerned about the external or national identity as Jews (God's people) without demonstrating corresponding life of obedience. The study concludes with a brief word about the contemporary relevance of the subject of spiritual hypocrisy, a phenomenon which goes a long way to explain the moral failure within the Church and her members.