Today, we will begin to unpack Luke 12:1-12 and learn the first two reasons to fear God and flee hypocrisy:

Hypocrisy at its core is the absence of the fear of God. If hypocrisy is left unchecked and it grows, we reach an even worse state by becoming blind to our own hypocrisy. A hypocritical life is one hidden behind a mask; it is a façade. But, Scripture reveals that God exposes lives of hypocrisy:

Why is hypocrisy the epitome of ignoring the Fear of God?

In Luke 12, the first reason to fear God and flee hypocrisy is:

In the context of this passage, the Pharisees thought that they had the upper hand in their plot to provoke Jesus Christ. But Job 5:13 reveals that God “Captures the wise by their own shrewdness, and the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted.” God misses nothing. At the root of the Pharisees hypocrisy in Luke 12:1 is an absence of the fear of God.

It is the highest calling of the Christian life to have a proper fear of God. As believers, we do not fear God for personal judgment and we practice our fear of Him in new ways:

In this passage, Christ says to fear God and not man. Proverbs 1:7 tells us that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Additional passages for study include: Psalm 19:9, Genesis 20:11, Deuteronomy 4:5-10, Psalm 36:1, Romans 3:2, Psalm 67:7, Ecclesiastes 3:14, Isaiah 11:1-2, Jeremiah 32:38-39, Luke 1:49-50, 2 Cor. 7:1, Philippians 2:12-13, 1 Peter 1:17, Revelation 15:3-4, Revelation 19:4-5.

The fear of God in scripture is sensed in two ways:

In the coming weeks, we will unpack this passage and learn the five reasons to fear God and flee hypocrisy: