Detecting violation of principles
The fact that principles scale and transfer to adjacent applications can be a powerful way to screen your life for hypocrisy, which is a form of dishonesty caused by a mismatch between what you do and why you do it. Principles scale, and if you violate your principles in small7 or large8 things, you are not a principled person.9
Some people are not intelligent enough to realize when they violate their own principles. Others are smart enough to detect inconsistency, but too careless to notice. Still others know their hypocrisy well, but find sufficient comfort hiding behind the pretense of principle, having seared their conscience so thoroughly that their only source of shame is found in the negative opinions of others.
Jesus frequently pointed out the hypocrisy of others by identifying the principles the people pretended to keep, then measuring the consistency of their actions against them. For example, he pointed out that the Jews who attacked him for working miracles on the Sabbath didn’t actually oppose working on the Sabbath, since none ceased caring for their animals that day.10 The principle of the Sabbath is to provide a full day to dedicate to God’s work. Had they been living the principle, they would have celebrated Jesus’ work and not opposed it. You can detect hypocrisy through measuring the consistency of your intent across your actions. As an exercise, consider your actions in a specific area or timeframe. For each action, ask yourself why you do it, and then whether there is a better way to accomplish your stated intent. Pay particular attention to mismatches between seemingly big and seemingly small situations. You are a principled person when you continuously make any changes needed to bring your intent and actions into mutual alignment.1129
Footnotes
- 1. Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40) ↩
- 2. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12) ↩
- 3. “...he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law....if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Romans 13:8-9) ↩
- 4. ...ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one. (3 Nephi 28:10) ↩
- 5. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48) ↩
- 6. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John 15:12) ↩
- 7. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? (Matthew 7:3) ↩
- 8. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:23) ↩
- 9. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. (Luke 16:10) ↩
- 10. And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. (Matthew 12:11-12) ↩