Profession without Practice.
I. That even decently conducted Christians are most extensively and fearfully ruled by the opinion of society about them, instead of living by faith in the unseen God, is proved to my mind by the following circumstance: that, according as their rank in life makes men independent of the judgment of others, so the profession of regularity and strictness is given up. The great mass of men are protected from gross sin by the forms of society. The received laws of propriety and decency, the prospect of a loss of character, stand as sentinels, giving the alarm, long before their Christian principles have time to act. The question is, whether, in spite of our greater apparent virtue, we should not fall like others, if the restraints of society were withdrawn i.e.whether we are not in the main hypocrites like the Pharisees, professing to honour God, while we honour Him only so far as men require it of us.
II. Another test of being like or unlike the Pharisees may be mentioned. Our Lord warns us against hypocrisy in three respects in doing our alms, in praying, and in fasting. (1) Doubtless much of our charity must be public, but is much of our charity also private? is it as much private as public? (2) Are we as regular in praying in our closet to our Father which is in secret as in public? (3) We have dropped the show of fasting, which it so happens the world at the present day derides. Are we quite sure that, if fasting were in honour, we should not begin to hold fasts as the Pharisees? Thus we seek the praise of men. We see, then, how seasonable is our Lord's warning to us, His disciples, first of all to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy professing without practising. He warns us against it as leaven, as a subtle, insinuating evil which will silently spread itself through the whole character, if we suffer it. He warns us that the pretence of religion never deceives beyond a little time, and that sooner or later, "whatsoever we have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which we have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. i., p. 124.
References: Luke 12:1. Parker, Christian Commonwealth,vol. vii., p. 287; D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels,p. 135; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 271.Luke 12:1-3. S. Cox, Expositor,2nd series, vol. i., p. 372.Luke 12:1-5. F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven,p. 187. Luke 12:2. Homilist,vol. vi., p. 352.Luke 12:4; Luke 12:5. G. E. L. Cotton. Sermons to English Congregations in India,p. 12.Luke 12:5. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 53; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 237; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,3rd series, p. 90.