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One of the important things we need to remember all the time is that God is watching every part of our life (Pr.15:3). We may be able to deceive people with our external actions that they can see. But it is possible that we can do something that appears to be very good to people, while our real reason for doing it may be hidden to them. For example, we may act very helpful at times, while our real goal inside our mind is that people must get impressed with us, they should remember this and help us in turn when we need it, God should add this good deed to our account, etc. These kinds of devious motives may be the ones prompting us at different times, and not only do people get a good impression about us, but we also get a satisfaction thinking that we are good. We can't really think we can get away with this because we have a God who sees our hearts, and He is not fooled by what we say or do externally (1Sa.16:7).

We have this problem because even after we have been born again, we still carry with us our flesh, which is our old nature. God has given us a new nature in a baby form. But now both these natures constantly clash with each other, and it is only as we yield to the Holy Spirit that we can put the old nature to death and allow the new nature to grow (Ga.5:16,17). This battle goes on secretly inside our mind, away from the sight of man but before the eyes of God. It is here that God judges our faithfulness.

Because of our old nature, our heart has a great capacity to deceive ourselves (Je.17:9). By pointing ourselves to the actual deed we have done, we can blind ourselves to the ulterior motive we had! We can convince others to think that we had some noble intention for what we have done. For example, we may make a decision with the intention of making more money so that we can live in luxury, but we convince others that we did it in order to have more money to give to the missions!

If we say we want to become like Jesus, and continue to be hypocrites by focusing on our external behaviour while neglecting our motives, we will only harden our hearts against the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees in the days of Jesus trained themselves to become excellent in this direction (Mt.23:25). We Christians are not far behind.

Let us examine ourselves. Where is our focus? Is it on what people will think about us, or God? Are we very careful to ensure that our words and actions are unquestionable before people, while we allow selfish motives and secret agendas to slip through in our heart? What about Christians who say we will be ok if we follow the Ten Commandments? They can only come to the level of the Pharisees!

Jesus came and showed us what God really wants from us. He said it was not enough to avoid murder and adultery while we tolerated hatred and lust in our hearts. Once we understand this, it takes us to a whole new level of practical life. There is forgiveness if we fall, but we want to be truly pleasing to God.

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