A police officer pulled a driver aside and asked for his license and registration. “What’s wrong, officer,” the driver asked. “I didn’t go through any red lights, and I certainly wasn’t speeding.” “No, you weren’t,” said the officer, “but I saw you waving your fist as you swerved around the lady driving in the left lane, and I further observed your flushed and angry face as you shouted at the driver of the Toyota Camry who cut you off, and how you pounded your steering wheel when the traffic came to a stop near the bridge.” “Is that a crime, officer?” “No, but when I saw the ‘Jesus loves you and so do I’ bumper sticker on the car, I figured this car had to be stolen.”
Unfortunately, one obstacle for some to the acceptance of Christianity is provided by Christians themselves (or those who claim to be Christian). It goes like this, “How can I believe Christianity if the church is full of hypocrites?” In other words, if Christianity is really supposed to change people for the better, then why do people who profess to believe in Jesus live so counter to what they claim?
This article will answer the hypocrisy objection to Christianity. But first, let’s explore the definition of hypocrisy and then provide three answers to the question.
What’s a Hypocrite?
Hypocrisy has been described as “the gap between public persona and private character.” The hypocrite is the person who uses the veneer of public virtue to cover their private vice. Jesus reserved his harshest words for the hypocrites of his own day:
You’re nothing but show-offs. You’re like tombs that have been whitewashed. On the outside they are beautiful, but inside they are full of bones and filth.
Matthew 23:27
The sin of hypocrisy is not being more messed up than we appear. The hypocrite is not the Christian who struggles against sin, fails and yet keeps striving to do what is right. The sin of hypocrisy is in using the appearance of goodness for self-promotion. It is when you think that what others think matters a great deal more than whom God knows you to be. From the hypocrite will not come the selfless devotion to discipleship or a life of surrender to mission for the sake of others. There will be a “churchianity” to impress others rather than true Christianity which lives fully to God.
Jesus railed against it:
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:3-5
With these sharp words, Jesus causes his listeners to carefully examine their own lives. It is not that his true followers will not have their own faults or even greater faults, at times, than others. The issue is whether we will confront our own faults before we confront those of others. If we are unwilling to confront our own errors, and we seek to confront others, we are hypocrites.
Answering Christian Hypocrisy
Jesus was clearly against this hypocrisy. How, then, do we answer the charge? Let’s look at three ways.
Number 1: A concept like hypocrisy requires a standard of morality with which a person agrees but willfully and consistently chooses not to behave. Christ lived that standard out perfectly. At the end of his life he challenged those who had lived with him night and day, for over three years, to point out any hypocrisy in him.
Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?
John 8:46
They were silent because there was none. Since Christianity depends on Jesus, it is incorrect to try to invalidate the Christian faith by pointing to the bad behaviors of Jesus’ followers. Because some of Jesus self-proclaimed followers flaunt the moral standard does not invalidate the moral standard. We’ve all heard of medical quacks, but we’ve not stopped going to the doctor. Because there are bad practitioners of medicine does not invalidate the medical sciences or it benefits. If beef or chicken gets contaminated with E coli people do not give up McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken, altogether? There have been traitors to our country, but we are not going to leave the country because of them. Christianity does not stand or fall on the way Christians have acted throughout history or are acting today. Christianity stands or falls on the person of Jesus.
Yet, some have been hurt by hypocrites in the church. This is where it becomes very personal. As sensitive as we should be to those hurts, it does not invalidate the claims or truths of the Christian faith. When we go to the doctor’s office, for example, whether or not the doctor has a kind bedside manner does not change the facts of the test results that he shares or the medicine he prescribes. His accurate analysis and prescription does not excuse bad bedside manners, but neither does his bad behavior invalidate his evaluation and report.
Number 2: A distinction needs to be made between Christians who are struggling in areas of maturity and consistency and Christians who are outright hypocrites. No less a person than the apostle Paul confessed his struggle to live up to what he knew to be true:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Romans 7:15-18
Christianity isn’t about pretending to be good or even proclaiming to be better than others. The apostle John teaches we need to be open about our imperfections and confess them:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:8-10
Jesus says he didn’t come for people who have everything sorted out; he came for people that are messed up. Addressing the brokenness of people because of sin, he declared,
It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Mark 2:17
In an age of tolerance and acceptance, the message of Christianity truly does offer acceptance for people who have many imperfections and short comings while providing a path to overcome them. God loves us where we are at, but he loves us enough not to keep us there. The difference between the normal Christian who struggles and the hypocrite is one of honesty and continued work to change and improve by the power of God’s love. The Bible is filled with men and women who often failed but found growth through their failures. They are examples of God’s continued love.
Number 3: When people say the church is “full” of hypocrites, they are in most cases referring to a very small percentage of people who have turned them off. They take those hurts from the few and project them on to a whole group. The Bible makes clear the unfortunate reality that there will be hypocrites in the church. Paul writes:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
1 Timothy 4:1-2
The bigger questions that really need to be answered are these: What do authentic Christians look like? What about all of the people who live lives of service and dedication for the good of others because of their faith in Jesus? What about all of the people who have experienced life-long radical change for the better because of their encounter with Jesus Christ? What about all of the good Christians have done in the world which have been motivated by selfless acts? (Medical missions being foremost among them.)
Conclusion
Let’s conclude with this analogy. Think of your favorite song, the one you sing along to in the shower or the one that makes you tap your foot whenever you hear it. Now imagine hearing a terrible cover version. It’s not the same. Rather than a smile you have a confused and puzzled look. It is in some ways like the original but still a far cry from the song you love. The cover version nearly always disappoints, the original doesn’t. What does this have to do with Christian hypocrisy? The church or Christians are the cover version of this analogy. They are the less adequate, less authentic version of the original. That original being Jesus Christ, God himself. It is this, look at the original before making your judgement based on the cover version. Why not read one of the accounts of the life of Jesus? Please don’t settle for anyone less than the authentic original for yourself.
storyofgrace.org 