What are the two types of hypocrites? A hypocrite is someone who wears a mask, claiming to be one thing while living as another. In church life, hypocrisy usually shows up in two forms. The legalistic hypocrite judges everyone else while hiding his own sin. The permissive hypocrite admits he’s a sinner but keeps living in sin and refuses correction. Both wear a mask, and Jesus calls both to genuine faith.
What Makes Someone a Hypocrite?
At its core, hypocrisy is a lack of integrity. The hypocrite isn’t who he says he is. There’s a gap between the person he shows the world and the person he really is on the inside. Jesus confronted this again and again, especially among the religious leaders of his day.
Matthew 15:8-9 “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.'”
Here Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah to describe people who said all the right things but whose hearts weren’t in it. That’s worth noticing, because hypocrisy isn’t the same as struggling with sin. Every follower of Jesus still stumbles. Hypocrisy is pretending, either pretending you don’t struggle or pretending your sin doesn’t matter. Those two kinds of pretending lead to two different kinds of hypocrites.
Type #1: The Legalistic Hypocrite
This is the hypocrite most people picture. He’s the religious person who loves to remind everyone of the rules. He’s quick to tell others they’re wrong, but in reality he’s just as broken as they are. He tends to minimize his own sins and maximize the sins of others. Jesus told a parable about this kind of person.
Luke 18:11-12 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
In the story, it was the humble tax collector, not the proud Pharisee, who went home right with God. The legalistic hypocrite often projects his own shame onto other sinners. He hides his problems while pointing out everyone else’s, and in the process he becomes blind to his own need for grace.
Type #2: The Permissive Hypocrite
This type usually isn’t recognized as a hypocrite, because he doesn’t come across as the “religious type.” He’s easy to relate to. He doesn’t go around judging people, because he knows he’s a sinner too. But here’s the catch: he keeps on sinning and thinks nothing of it. When someone challenges him about honoring God, the wall goes up. “Don’t judge me!”
Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
This is a mask too. The permissive hypocrite calls himself a Christian on the outside but isn’t truly submitting to Christ on the inside. Jesus never treated obedience as optional. Grace doesn’t give us permission to keep sinning; it gives us the power and the desire to follow Jesus. Calling him Lord means letting him actually lead.
Taking Off the Mask
Most of us lean one direction or the other. Some of us are tempted to look down on others; some of us are tempted to shrug off our own sin. Either way, the solution is the same: honesty before God. You can read more about this contrast in the difference between a disciple and a hypocrite.
1 John 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
This passage speaks to both types of hypocrites. The legalist needs to stop pretending he’s better than others, and the permissive Christian needs to stop pretending his sin doesn’t matter. When we confess honestly, Jesus forgives completely and begins making us into people whose outside matches our inside.
The Takeaway
The two types of hypocrites are the legalistic hypocrite, who judges others while hiding his own sin, and the permissive hypocrite, who claims Jesus while ignoring what he says. Both need the same thing: to take off the mask, confess honestly, and follow Jesus for real.
