The Problem with Hypocrisy

One of the biggest complaints against Christians today is that many lead a life that is hypocritical in nature, and for the most part these allegations can be somewhat true. This is not to say that we are never allowed to make mistakes, but hypocrisy calls out a larger problem that plagues the Church. Hypocrites are leaders of double lives. That is the problem that those in the world have with those who are supposedly followers of Jesus; they pretend to be one thing while truly being another.

The worst part of hypocrisy is that those who participate in it are so delusional that they are unable to recognize that they are living this double life. Jesus had a serious problem with those who led a double life. In Luke 6, Jesus makes the point that one can not help those around them until they are aware of their own situation and condition that is often worse than the person that they are trying to help. Hypocrisy tricks us into believing that our problems are insignificant and do not affect us. In effect, we cannot see the forest for the trees. Jesus said it this way, “How do you expect to get the splinter out of your brother’s eye when you have a log in your own (Luke 6:42)?”

Hypocrisy hinders us from being effective in this life. It’s easy to slip in and out of church going unnoticed and being uninvolved because we are afraid of being to closely knit with a church family. It makes it all the easier for us to live how we want without the repercussions of guilt for leading a double life. Jesus demands that we pick a side. We cannot continue to claim to be a follower of Jesus, but live a life that is measured by the world’s standards. If we have put on Christ, we have to live a life that is according to God’s standards. When we become Christians, we are not our own anymore. That means that we cannot live life as we please, because we have sacrificed ourselves over to Him.

Hypocrisy is crippling the Church today because so many “Christians” claim to be one thing while living in the complete opposite of what they claim to be. Imagine if a charity asked you to join and help them to feed starving children around the world, but you saw that they were doing nothing to feed those children and in many cases were actually starving them intentionally. Would you want to take part in that organization? I wouldn’t! That’s how the world perceives the Church when it is filled with those who lead a double life. IF THE CHURCH IS TO GROW, WE MUST BECOME COMPLETELY DEDICATED TO CHRIST! That is what will set us apart from the rest of Christianity, and will show those in the community around us that we are children of God. It begins when we start to live that way!