Maybe You’re Not a Hypocrite After All!

One of the most common excuses I and I believe other pastors hear on why people are not involved in a local church goes something like this: “I believe in God.  I pray.  I occasionally read the Bible, but I don’t go to church because of all the hypocrites.”  Sometimes, you will have a person go a step beyond that saying that they believe in God, pray, and so forth, but they don’t want to be a hypocrite themselves because they know that their lifestyle and choices are inconsistent with what the Bible and church teaches.  In other words, they believe in God, they have said the “sinner’s prayer,” pray often (I have no doubt about this), but they love doing all the things that the Bible forbids and do not want to be seen as a hypocrite.  However, are such persons really a hypocrite?  I, for one, would actually say that they quite possibly are not!

The word hypocrite is Greek (hupocrites) and in Classical and Hellenistic Greek means an actor, pretender, or one who wears a mask.  This was used for actors on stage that would pretend to be something in front of others that they in real life were not.  Naturally, the term was later applied to those who claimed to be followers of Christ, who attended the worship gatherings, and who acted one way around Christian brothers while in front of others showed their true identity by engaging in all kinds of wickedness.  Jesus used this word often.  One recalls Matthew 6:5  "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

Here is the problem.  As true, regenerate followers of Jesus Christ, we still at times fall short.  There are times where we (Pastor included) choose sin over obedience to Christ.  While maturity in the faith helps one resist temptation, it will only be a matter of time before one sins and does the very things that go against the teachings of Scripture.  Is this person truly a hypocrite?  Many feel this way, adding guilt upon guilt and leading some to abandon their local church.

We must remember what a hypocrite is and what a Christian is.  A Christian is a sinner who has been transformed by the grace of God and adopted as a child of the King who now has received full pardon of his sins and a newness of life that is pleasing before God because of the work of Jesus on the cross.  As Christians, we boast in Christ and not in ourselves.  That means we boast in Christ who is the perfect one and lean on the grace of Jesus when we fail.  At no point do we claim that we have arrived, that we have it all together, or that we are the epitome of perfection.  We point to Jesus Christ!

If a Christian sins against God and turns back again to the grace of God, he is not being a hypocrite.  He is not trying to pretend to be something he is not.  No, he is being exactly who he actually is – a person who sins but repents and is cleansed by the grace of almighty God.  He is one who lives the Christian life which includes failure, repentance, and restoration. 

That means that the true hypocrite would be those Christians who find no need to repent in their life.  They are being something they are not, namely portraying that they are perfect, self-righteous individuals when in reality they are not!  They are the ones wearing the mask.  They are the pretenders because they appear on the outside as those who are one way (namely righteous) when inwardly they are engaged in sin.

Now, let’s go back to our examples up front.  There are people who claim to believe in God, claim to pray often, but their actions are inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture and they do not want to be seen as a hypocrite.  Good news!  Perhaps you are not a hypocrite after all!

I just saw an article on Yahoo! that spoke of Kristen Stewart, the girl off the Twilight series who recently cheated on her boyfriend Robert Pattinson with another man.  You can see the article here if you wish.  http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/now/pre-scandal-kristen-stewart-talks-not-being-fake-180514147.html.  Let me spare you having to waste any amount of time on pop culture with a  bit of summary.

Kristen Stewart in this article said before her scandal broke out that she did not like people who were “fake.”  She did not like those who pretended to be one thing but were really another.  The great irony here is that this is exactly what she was doing at the time, trying to portray loyalty to her beau Pattinson while having an affair with another.  Was Stewart being a hypocrite?  Yes and no!  She appeared to be loyal to her boyfriend while secretly having an affair (so yes, that is hypocritical), but was she not also being exactly who she really is (one apart from the grace of God who engages in all forms of wickedness to her own ruin all the while rejecting the salvation available through Jesus Christ)?

When people say they love Jesus, but they love and are unrepentant of the things that Jesus hates, they are actually not Christians!  Whenever people love the world above Jesus, they are not true Christians.  These are not my words but the words of Scripture.  James 4:4 “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  Jesus said in John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.”

As such, those who love sin over Jesus are not actually hypocrites.  Those who claim to be believers in Jesus, who claim to pray and read their Bibles occasionally (and I will even also be so forthright as to say who are members of the church, who are deacons, pastors, and Bible professors, etc.) who really love sin over Jesus, they are in a way not being hypocrites at all!  They (regrettably) are being exactly who they really are – unsaved.  May the grace of God change their hearts into being who they really need to be – children of God saved by His grace.