During the epidemic we are experiencing, there are many places you might go where people are wearing masks.

Sometimes, since the masks hide a lot of a person’s face, they may be harder to recognize. If you see someone on a regular basis this might not be the case, but it can make it more difficult to know who people are.

The truth of the matter is that masks don’t change who a person is on the inside, only their outward appearance. Another truth is that there are people who appear a certain way on the outside, but inwardly they are not what they appear to be.

There is a name for such a person and that word is hypocrite. There are those who talk a good talk and appear to walk a good walk, but inwardly they are far from God.

Jesus spoke about people like this when he said, “You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”

He said directly to them, “On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

The good news is that we can be changed on the inside so that change is evident on the outside. Jesus told these same people, “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

It is Jesus Christ that can and will come in and make a new person out of us, and the result is that it works itself from the inside out.