Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky. The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps. (Psalm 85: 10-13)

Jesus was very attuned to hypocritical behavior. In Matthew 23 it is one of the principal accusations he throws at the Pharisees and Scribes.

Faithfulness, steadfastness, and truth are principal characteristics of righteousness.

Most scholars perceive Jesus spoke mostly in Aramaic. But it is likely he understood Greek. Hypocrite is a Greek word for actor. Before the criticism in Matthew the word did not have an especially negative meaning.

Matthew may be offering a Greek translation of Ce'eph an Aramaic word that means double-minded, ambivalent, or half-hearted.

We should not spend our life pretending. We should not try to mislead others. We should - especially - not try to fool ourselves. We should find the self that God intended and live out that intention boldly, steadily, and with love.