Preaching is dangerous; most of all for the preachers.  There is a moral and spiritual expectation that what they say is what they do (James 3:1-2).  

By asking these four searching questions, Paul affirms Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21-22, Matthew 5:27-28).  Pleasing God is not just about actions but attitudes as well, even the hidden things of the heart.  Jewish-background believers, who boasted about their Bible knowledge, despised the Gentile Christians.  But they should have been ashamed: even the unbelievers knew their lifestyles were inconsistent.

The hypocrisy of believers leads to blasphemy by unbelievers (Ezekiel 36:20-22).  Hypocrisy shows up the fraud as a cheating and self-deceiving liar; but blasphemy shows that the person also has little care about the character of God, and that they have no fear of God.  Psalm 111:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; ..." and those with no wisdom or understanding are quite unsuitable to be teachers.

Every leader, teacher, spouse and parent reading this, feels the shame of past sin.  Despite all our knowledge we are as unworthy as those we lead.  So, our instruction must be soaked in humility.  The Apostle Paul recognised his own weakness in Romans 7:14-25.  The only way through for the teacher is the grace of God … and that is what we need to receive for ourselves before we teach.  Identifying what is sinful, we must also teach God’s loving provision in the cross of Christ.  We are all in desperate need of our Saviour Jesus and unless we submit our weaknesses to Him, we will pretend we have none and become a hypocrite.