Then look at the hypocrite in the church—“a ravening wolf in sheep’s clothing,” devouring the flock (Matt. vii. 15); “making merchandise with feigned words” (2 Pet. ii. 1, 3); an “apostle of Satan,” so diligent is he in his master’s work of destruction (2 Cor. xi. 3, 13). “These false Christs,” we are warned, “deceive many,” if it were possible the very elect (Matt. xxiv. 24). . . . Learn the value of solid knowledge. Feeling, excitement, imagination, expose us to an unsteady profession. (Such as Eph. iv. 14.) Knowledge supplies principle and steadfast. “Add to your faith knowledge” (2 Pet. i. 5).—Bridges.
Hypocrites are awful stumbling blocks. Full many has the detection of their true character hardened in sin and worldliness, and established in infidelity. Full many have they thus destroyed.—Wardlaw.
When God converts a soul, He gives it light. That light makes it invulnerable. All things afterward help it. “Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt.” Satan is one of the blessings of a Christian.—Miller.
It was an ordinary prayer of King Antigonus, “Deliver me from the hands of my friends.” When asked why he did not rather pray for preservation from his enemies, he answered, “That he guarded against his enemies, but could not guard against false friends.”—Lawson.
How to detect a hypocrite. To make a man a good man all parts of goodness must concur, but any one way of wickedness is sufficient to denominate a bad man.—Tillotson.
A hypocrite is hated of the world for seeming to be a Christian, and hated of God for not being one.—Mason.
The meaning of the verse as a whole is, “By the protective power of that knowledge that serves righteousness, they are delivered who were endangered by the artifices of that shrewdness which is the instrument of wickedness.”—Elster.
The just man is too wise to be flattered, and too knowing to be plucked away with the error of the wicked (1 Pet. iii. 17, 18).—Trapp.
Beware of carrying deadly weapons. An untrue man is a moral murderer, his mouth the lethal weapon, and his neighbour the victim.—Arnot.
“Neither man nor angels can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By His permissive will, thro’ heaven and earth;
And oft though Wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At Wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness
Thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.”—Paradise Lost. Book iii.