The Art of Leadership
If you ever had a choice between a sincere person and a hypocrite, what would you choose? We are all likely to make the same choice! When Jesus was alive, there was a group of people he did not get along with. They were the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whitened sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
Matthew 23:27
Sooner or later, people will see the different standards that you maintain. They will see beauty on the outside, but ugliness inside. A leader wants to have followers, but you will surely not attract followers when you are beautiful on the outside and ugly within. This has the potential to drive away every follower.
Hypocrisy is an offensive vice. It has the power to scatter all your followers in a short period. Make sure that what you do outside is what you are inside. The reason why so many children do not obey their parents is because they resent what they see at home. They see hypocrisy. They hear their parents talking about ideal values in public but there is only ugliness at home.
This makes many children decide within themselves: I will never be like Daddy, and I will never be like Mommy. They turn away from all the high standards and expectations of their parents. Do you consider yourself a leader? Do your best to remove the skeletons from your wardrobe. Be as pure inside as you are outside and you will have a good following.
A good leader is able to sustain trust over a long period. Sometimes, as time goes by, much trust is eroded. But this must not be. But God is raising a new breed of leaders who do what they say and say what they do. And may you be one of those leaders!
Ten Signs of a Hypocritical Leader
- Hypocrite leaders do not practice what they preach.
All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Matthew 23:3
- Hypocrite leaders simply want to be noticed by men.
But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.
Matthew 23:5
- Hypocrite leaders love titles and positions of honour
Those who love titles and positions of honour enjoy sitting at the head table at dinners. They love to bask in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving flattery and getting called amazing titles. Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates.
Matthew 23:6-8 (Message Bible)
- Hypocrite leaders take advantage of poor people.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For YE DEVOUR WIDOWS’ HOUSES, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore, ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Matthew 23:14
- Hypocrite leaders love long impressive prayers in public.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and FOR A PRETENCE MAKE LONG PRAYER: therefore, ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Matthew 23:14
- Hypocrite leaders strain out mosquitoes and swallow camels.
Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Matthew 23:24
- Hypocrite leaders have no justice, no mercy and no loyalty.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Matthew 23:23
- Hypocrite leaders say that they would never have done the evil that others did.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
And say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Matthew 23:29-30
- Hypocrite leaders love money.
And the Pharisees also, who were COVETOUS, heard all these things: and they derided him.
Luke 16:14
- Hypocrite leaders feel that they are better than others.
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
May sincerity be the mark of al leaders and may all leaders strive NOT to be hypocritical leaders!
theaol@ymail.com
By Dag Heward-Mills