Calling All Christians: On Hypocrisy - Part 2

I have been a Christian since I was about ten years old. I made the decision to accept Jesus Christ into my heart with full knowledge & comprehension about my decision. I remember being baptized, in the Baptist church that my family attended, when I was around twelve years old. We were supposed to choose someone who touched our lives, to read a scripture verse before the pastor baptized us. I remember that I couldn't decide between my father or my mother, & not wanting to hurt the feelings of either one, I chose the neighbor across the street. Well, that ended up hurting both my parents' feelings. My good intentions caused my parents to be hurt. 

When I speak of the hypocrisy of Christians, I am not attacking Christians. I am admonishing all of us who claim to love the Lord, to think about our words & actions, because people are watching & reacting, & some people are turning away from God altogether, if they have been hurt by us. A good intention gone wrong, such as my baptism flub, is not what I'm talking about. I'm referring to a willful word spoken or action, which contradicts the example that Jesus set for us to follow.

• Do you herd your family in the car, go off to church, sing praises to God with hands held high in the air, nod in agreement to the sermon & say your amens, shake hands with people after church & smile politely, talking of how good God is & what he's done in your life, & then drive home, cutting people off in traffic, cussing in front of your kids, & then mistreating your spouse & children when you are home in private? Hypocrisy.

• When you are at church, do you feel entitled to special treatment, perhaps a seat closer to the front, or someone making an exception to the rules designed to keep things flowing smoothly on Sunday mornings, because after all, "my tithes paid for this building, & I should be able to do this". Hypocrisy. Giving to the church is actually giving to God, & your gift is between you & God, as a matter of faith & obedience. It does not entitle you to special privileges. You display your absence of a right relationship with God when you claim entitlement based upon your giving. Jesus gave His very life, & stepped off His Heavenly throne for you & me. If anyone is entitled to special privileges based on giving, it would be Him, not us.

• When you disagree with someone's beliefs on current issues & you take a stand for what's right, but you do so in a way that disrespects the person you disagree with, that is not Biblical nor Christ-like. You can disagree with someone, but do so in a way that shows respect & the love of Jesus to that person or group of people. To do anything less is to be hypocritical.

• Tooting your own horn, bragging about how many people you brought to the Lord, boasting about the good works you've done.....all are examples of hypocrisy. For one thing, you were saved through the Holy Spirit convicting your heart. No human being had anything to do with it. People are instruments of God to be used to do His will, but it is the Holy Spirit that convicts the heart to want to follow Jesus. It is wrong for us to take the credit from God, just because He used us as an instrument for that purpose. It is hypocritical of us to take the credit for what the Holy Spirit does, when we ourselves were saved through God's grace when He convicted our own hearts, as He convicts the hearts of those we are trying to reach. Boasting about your good works is hypocritical when the Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9 that it is through "grace that we are saved, not through works, that any man should boast". 

• When you know someone has a need & you have the ability to help them, but you don't do it, that's wrong. As it says in Matthew 25:41-45, "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Jesus helped the poor, He healed the sick. He ministered to the discouraged. He loved everyone unconditionally. When we see a need & have the means to help someone, yet refuse to do so, we are not only practicing hypocrisy, but we are bringing dishonor to the name of Christ, whom we follow, as we are not obeying what He tells us to do. It can be a fine line, & difficult to discern, if you see someone on a street corner holding a sign that says "Will work for food. Anything helps. God bless". On one hand, the person could genuinely be homeless & hungry, & in need of the kindness of others to help meet his need. On the other hand, he could be someone who is deceiving the public into thinking he is homeless, when he makes more money begging each day, than many people make in a week. Sometimes you have to be able to discern between someone who will buy drugs or alcohol with the money you give them, or who are scamming others, from those with a sincere need. Certainly if there is a safety concern, then one should practice common sense & exercise caution. But when in doubt if the person has a true need or not, it's better to err on the side of obedience to God, & give to that person if you can. If the person is deceiving others or has bad intent, God will deal with that person in His own timing & way. At least you will have been obedient to God's prompting on your heart. Sometimes, it isn't a matter of whether or not the person is worthy of our help, but rather that it's a matter of whether or not we will be obedient to God & be willing to help someone in need, even when we can't be certain if they truly need our help.

• How many of us go to church every Sunday, sit in the pews, sing the songs, listen to the sermon, say hello to those we know, & then disappear, without ever having said hello to the newcomer beside us, or the person sitting all alone in the back of the church? Not everyone who attends church has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Some people are seeking God, or they are lonely or depressed & in need of someone to show them that they matter. If they sit in church, hoping to find Him, & those around them don't know they exist, then they may not feel welcome, & may not wish to come back. This may be the only time they will attend church. Will you waste the opportunity given to you to be the love of Christ that lives in your own heart, or will you be a hypocrite & talk about Christ's love in your own life, but refuse to share it with someone else?

• I have known of Christians who go through the motions of being a Christian when other Christians are looking, but when those whose opinions matter to them aren't looking, they behave in ways that dishonor the Lord . Some may gossip about others, plot revenge toward someone who's hurt them, cheat on their spouse, abuse their kids, mistreat their pets, lie to others, view pornography, take drugs, get drunk on a regular basis, explode with an angry temper at small things, cheat on tests & taxes, manipulate, coerce or blackmail others to force them to do their bidding, engage in adultery, & the list goes on. None of us are perfect, & just because we are Christians, it doesn't mean that we are now without sin or fault. Quite the contrary. Once we accept Christ into our hearts, the pressure will be even greater for us to remain in the lifestyle or old patterns of sin that we were in prior to becoming a Christian. Satan does not like to see people come to a relationship with Christ, because he wants to see us continue to sin & to be apart from God. He will do everything he can to try to trip us up. We will fail. We will sin & make mistakes. But when we accept Jesus into our hearts, our desire & goal should be to be "new creatures" in Christ, doing our best to try to avoid sinning, & to seek God's will & direction for our lives. Part of that goal includes giving up the destructive patterns of behavior that lead us to sin, & that bring harm to ourselves & others. Sometimes it's hard to give up habits that we have grown attached to, but as Christians, we're supposed to ask God to help us to live a right life, pleasing to God. God doesn't ask us to sacrifice our freedoms, including our free will, & to give up our fun in life. When we do things God's way, we actually gain more freedom, & more joy, because we aren't caught in the trap that sinful living can lead us into. For example: an alcoholic who is committed to refrain from drinking, actually has more freedom, not less. That's because he knows that he can wake up in the morning, not wondering what he said & did the night before that could have harmed others. He knows he can spend the next day without suffering the effects of a miserable hangover, & that his relationships with others, including with his employer, are not going to suffer because of the effects of his alcoholism on all areas of his life. He will actually have the freedom from the stress he would otherwise have, if he drank to his heart's content. If however, we are just too comfortable in our sin, & we think it's okay to do good works, go to church, act like a Christian when it's convenient, but go on deliberately doing what we know in our hearts is displeasing to God, then we are practicing hypocrisy in the extreme.

Finally, people are watching. Our children watch our example. I have been guilty of hypocrisy many, many times. This post is directed to me as well as to every Christian. To sum up what I've been talking about in this post, when we abuse our kids & then go to church on Sundays & pretend to be Stan & Suzie Christian, that's wrong. When we are rude to the clerk at the store, that's wrong. When others know we are Christians, & our attitudes are gossipy, disrespectful, rude, demeaning, condescending, abrasive, impatient, unkind, unloving etc., that is going to invalidate the Light of Christ living in our lives, in the eyes of those who don't know Him, & even in the eyes of those who do. Cutting someone off in traffic or flipping them the bird, might not turn your fellow driver away from Christ if they don't know you're a Christian, but it doesn't make it any less hypocritical. 

God sees your heart when you do that, & it's His opinion that matters the most. People should be able to tell that something is different about us, & should not be surprised when they find out that we are a Christian. They should be attracted to what they see in us, not repelled by it. We should be able to point the way to Christ by the Christian love in our hearts, & our testimony both by word & in action. If we could actually see Jesus Christ standing before us as we speak or act, would we feel confident that He would be pleased? This is something that we as Christians should ponder, because just because we can't see Him with our eyes, it doesn't mean He isn't watching with His. Ultimately, it is Christ who will judge us, according to the fruit we produce. If it comes time for the harvest, & we have produced mostly thorns, then we are going to be judged by God for that. Let's ponder that thought, shall we?