A dose of anti-hypocrite medicine

If you’re a Christian, you too may find hypocrisy creeping up at times in your own life. If you’re one of the weak-kneed, doing the following may help steer you away from hypocrisy:

Be honest with yourself and God and recognize hidden traps of sin in your life.

Confess your sin, profess your earnest desire to rid yourself of those trappings, and give God permission to deal with those areas in your life.

Spend time daily with the Lord through prayer and Bible reading (see Chapter 14).

Find someone whom you can open up to and ask that person to hold you accountable (sharing openly your struggles, temptations, and victories) for your actions.

If you screw up, ask for forgiveness and move on.

On the other hand, if you struggle with being legalistic, keep in mind the following:

Recognize the hold that legalism has on your life and your temptation to focus on the external rather than on what God wants you to do.

Confess your sin, profess your earnest desire to rid yourself of legalism, and give God permission to deal with those areas in your life.

Spend time reading the Gospels, contrasting how Jesus lived compared to the Pharisees, identifying what’s true Christianity (the message of Jesus’ grace) and what’s false (the Pharisees’ idea that they could earn their way to heaven).

Make your motto “What would Jesus do?” (WWJD), not “What would the Pharisees do?” (WWPD).

If your legalism has caused you to treat others harshly, seek forgiveness from those individuals.

Be accountable with another Christian to ensure that you stay on track. An accountability relationship is also a way to keep you humble and not self-righteous, because when you form a relationship like this, you give that person permission to shoot straight with you.

Weighing hypocrisy against Christianity’s truth claims

Although the fact that hypocrites are part of the Church is sad and regrettable, Christians believe that this fact doesn’t in any way undermine the truth claims of Christianity. In this section, consider the relationship between hypocrisy and the Christian faith.

Examining examples of the relationship between hypocrisy and truth

Hypocrisy describes an inconsistency between a person’s beliefs and his or her outward actions. But it doesn’t have anything to do with the validity of that person’s beliefs. Consider two make-believe illustrations:

A scientist recently discovered that Teletubby-like creatures inhabited the planet of Mars. However, he didn’t have the photographic proof to convince his colleagues, because the Teletubbies always hid behind rocks when he tried to take a picture of them with his photographic telescope. In desperation, the scientist doctored up a few photos to come up with all the proof needed to further fund his research.

Although these rigged photographs perhaps prove that the guy is a crooked scientist who can’t be trusted, his poor decisions don’t have anything to do with the reality that Teletubbies do exist on Mars. In other words, the facts that the scientist knew in his head are independent of his actions.

I first heard of the musical group called Swino when I saw some teenagers wearing Swino T-shirts and snorting at everyone as they walked down the street. Because the fans were obnoxious, I was immediately turned off to the musical group and wrote them off as a bunch of punks. But later, while driving my car, I scanned the radio searching for a tune to listen to and heard a catchy song that I couldn’t get out of my head. When the DJ came back on, he informed me that none other than Swino performed the song.

I realized at that point that my disgust was pointed at the wrong place: My problem wasn’t with Swino, but with some of their obnoxious fans. If I hadn’t realized my error, I would’ve needlessly deprived myself of enjoying a catchy tune.

As you see from these hypothetical examples, one’s behaviour isn’t always in synch with the truth claims of what that person believes. The examples illustrate two ideas:

Truth claims aren’t automatically negated by problem behaviour. Like the scientist, Christians often make mistakes, but their behaviour doesn’t affect the truth of their claims.

God isn’t a party to a Christian’s wrongful behaviour. Like the Swinto fans I encountered, some Christians are obnoxious, but as a reaction, you can’t simply dismiss God, or you simply point your disdain in the wrong direction.

Understanding how hypocrisy supports Christian truth

If Christianity were a faith based on works – where God saves only the good people – then hypocrisy would prove that Christianity’s unrealistic or perhaps even a scam, because a lifelong pattern of outward moral purity and inner submission to God seems a tall feat, to say the least. But biblical Christianity says that hypocritical behaviour can and will happen, and that no one should be surprised when it does. In fact, hypocrisy only serves to reinforce two fundamental truths of Christianity:

Sin is real and exists in every human, no matter how good he or she appears to be (see Chapter 4).

Only by God’s grace are people saved (flip back to Chapter 3). Every other option is a dead end. Rules and regulations simply produce modern-day Pharisees. Will power alone also falls short; well-intentioned people see the truth, but time after time, their will power alone fails them and they can’t live it out consistently.