Fighting Hypocrisy

One of the meanings of hypocrisy is to be an actor or pretender. It is tragic that our churches are filled with so many people acting more spiritual on Sundays than they are the rest of the week. Sin is consuming the house of God. There is very little difference in the way people live who are without Christ than those people who faithfully attend church week after week. The moral lines have been blurred by the world and the church but not by God or His word!
My heart is pained and grieved to know the things so called Christians get wrapped up in. Adultery, fornication, pornography, drug addictions, lying, cheating, and every other sin known to man. When will it stop? When will the church start holding other Christians accountable for their actions outside church? How long will wickedness be tolerated in the leadership of our congregations as we bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we don’t know anything.
When hypocrisy is tolerated in the church, it discredits and undermines all we are doing. The lost world cannot hear the truth we are preaching due to the lies they see in pretender’s lives. Where is integrity in the church? Where is accountability? Do these things matter anymore? They matter to God and therefore should matter to the rest of us.
Jesus had some harsh words for people living in hypocrisy. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are filled with robbery and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it will become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s and all uncleanness. Even so, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” [Matt 23:25-28]
Jesus was calling those people to repentance and integrity. Shall we not do the same? It is not a fun task confronting people in their sin but James also addresses this issue. “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” [James 5:19-20]
To do that takes courage. It takes courage to hold someone accountable for the way they are living their life. If you do the confronting, you had better have your own life in order or you will have no authority whatsoever. It is easier to pretend like nothing happened. Yet, our Christ is shamed by what many people see in the lives of Christians and the reputation of His church is harmed. This is a very serious matter. So serious in fact, that the Lord at times has taken drastic measures. In some instances people have been expelled from church until there was genuine repentance. [I Cor 5:1-5] At other times the Lord actually took people to Heaven [I Jn 5:16-17]
Hypocrisy is not to be continually tolerated in the house of God. Now, let me say, none of us is perfect. I am not talking about the person who blows it every now and then. I am referring to the pretender who knowingly, willingly, and rebelliously continues in a sinful lifestyle while maintaining an act at church. This kind of hypocrisy must be opposed at all costs. There are some things laid out in scripture on how this could take place.
First, if someone is a true child of God and living in blatant hypocrisy, the chastisement and discipline of the Lord will be on this person. [Heb 12:5-6]
Because of God’s great love for His children, He will chastise and discipline. If a person does not experience nor acknowledge this chastisement from the hand of the Lord it very well may be that they are lost and not legitimate children of God saved through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The end result of this chastisement from the Lord is to bring the fruit of righteousness and repentance in His children and salvation to the one who is without Christ.
Second, how can true Christians watch our brothers and sisters in Christ fall away and do nothing about it? If you love someone, you must get involved and confront, love, speak truth, pray. Love motivates and compels people to take action. I would not knowingly watch my child run into harm’s way and do nothing.
We live on a major highway. All day and all night, rock and gravel eighteen wheel trucks zoom past my house with the only thing separating them from my front yard being a chain link fence. If I were sitting on my front porch one day watching my children play and a ball bounced over the fence and one my sons went out the gate and onto the highway and into oncoming traffic to retrieve the ball and I sat by idly not saying a word while watching my son be demolished, what kind of father would I be? In the same vein, what kind of friends, or church family are we to sit back in silence and say nothing or do nothing when we see loved ones straying into sin? Love demands action.
We need active believers who will contend for the faith and who are willing to stand for truth even if that means standing alone. Believe me. It may very well come to that. No one may stand with you. You may be labeled as “holier than thou”, “judgmental” and “condemning” but is truth and are the people we love in our lives worth fighting for? Is Jesus Christ worthy fighting for and opposing hypocrisy at every turn? Is the church worth contending for? If not, what are we doing? We are wasting our time and mindlessly going through religious repetition. No wonder the lost world does not take us seriously because we do not take the truth of God’s word seriously. We must stand and fight hypocrisy.
Some time ago I set an appointment with a brother in Christ for one reason. He was living in sin and God called me to confront him in love and yet in truth about his life. We sat over eggs for breakfast in a secluded restaurant with my asking penetrating question after question until he admitted his lifestyle was not honoring to God. I challenged him to repent and get back on track. Yet, I also looked this young man in the eyes and told him I loved him and wanted to be there for him.
During the course of our conversation he told me how other Christians had mostly abandoned him. He told me how he was isolated and talked about but rarely talked to. What a lesson for us to learn. Wayward and hypocritical Christians need confrontation and tough love, not isolation and rumors.
I urge you with all my might to stand for truth and to fight hypocrisy. Let our churches become filled with real people serving a real God and giving real service and worship back to Him. I’ll see you on the battle lines.