What is a hypocrite? What does a self-righteous person look like? Am I automatically a hypocrite if I hold to a standard that I occasionally break? For example, if I believe lying is a sin, and I have been known to tell a lie - am I a hypocrite? Can someone on the left be a hypocrite? Can a radical be just as self-righteous as a conservative?
The way that the terms are thrown around these days, everyone in the church is tarred with the same brush. We are all self-righteous hypocrites. This is a lie. In order to get the truth let's go back to the ultimate truth-teller and understand how he defines hypocrites.
Jesus was never afraid of labelling the Pharisees and religious authorities of his day as hypocrites. Again and again he called them out for their hypocrisy. So what made them hypocrites?
1. They were concerned more with the outward appearance of righteousness rather than actual internal righteousness. They liked to be seen. They liked to receive credit for their appearance of obedience to the Law.
Matthew 6:1-2 "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Matthew 6:5 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.
2. While demanding obedience from everyone else, they actually excused themselves from obeying the same Law. In other words, they had a double-standard. They had an unrelenting standard for everyone else, but let themselves off the hook.
Matthew 15:2-6 2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat." 3 He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' 5 But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, 6 he need not honor his father.' So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
3. They exchanged man's rules for God's Laws.
Matthew 15:7-9 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"
So how does the average Christian measure up to this definition of hypocrite? For that matter, how does the average non-Christian measure up to this definition?
Well, first, let me say, not every Christian who falls short of the Biblical standard is a hypocrite. Most Christians recognize that they every day fail to meet the Holy standard of our God. Their response is repentance and confession of sin. They are not hypocrites, because they recognize that the same standard of behaviour applies to everyone including themselves. As. well, the standard of measurement is not their own creation, but the actual truth of the Bible. They are imperfect. Like us all, they are sinners. But they are not hypocrites. They are not self-righteous.
By contrast, many of the people who accuse Christians are themselves hypocrites and self-righteous. They judge Christians by a standard that they themselves don't keep. They make up their own rules instead of honouring God's Law. They want to proclaim their own self-righteousness before the world. Is their anyone more self-righteous than a defended of animal rights, a homosexual activist or a vegan? The difference is that no one will ever call them on their hypocrisy because they are fashionable hypocrisies. Their hypocrisies fit the feeling of the age, just the same way that the Pharisees fit the spirit of their age.
Are there hypocrites in the church - sure there are - just the same way there are hypocrites and the self-righteous in PETA, NOW and in the LGBT communities. We are all sinners and we all tend towards hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Only in Jesus, however, can we find true righteousness - his righteousness not ours.
The way that the terms are thrown around these days, everyone in the church is tarred with the same brush. We are all self-righteous hypocrites. This is a lie. In order to get the truth let's go back to the ultimate truth-teller and understand how he defines hypocrites.
Jesus was never afraid of labelling the Pharisees and religious authorities of his day as hypocrites. Again and again he called them out for their hypocrisy. So what made them hypocrites?
1. They were concerned more with the outward appearance of righteousness rather than actual internal righteousness. They liked to be seen. They liked to receive credit for their appearance of obedience to the Law.
Matthew 6:1-2 "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Matthew 6:5 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.
2. While demanding obedience from everyone else, they actually excused themselves from obeying the same Law. In other words, they had a double-standard. They had an unrelenting standard for everyone else, but let themselves off the hook.
Matthew 15:2-6 2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat." 3 He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' 5 But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, 6 he need not honor his father.' So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
3. They exchanged man's rules for God's Laws.
Matthew 15:7-9 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"
So how does the average Christian measure up to this definition of hypocrite? For that matter, how does the average non-Christian measure up to this definition?
Well, first, let me say, not every Christian who falls short of the Biblical standard is a hypocrite. Most Christians recognize that they every day fail to meet the Holy standard of our God. Their response is repentance and confession of sin. They are not hypocrites, because they recognize that the same standard of behaviour applies to everyone including themselves. As. well, the standard of measurement is not their own creation, but the actual truth of the Bible. They are imperfect. Like us all, they are sinners. But they are not hypocrites. They are not self-righteous.
By contrast, many of the people who accuse Christians are themselves hypocrites and self-righteous. They judge Christians by a standard that they themselves don't keep. They make up their own rules instead of honouring God's Law. They want to proclaim their own self-righteousness before the world. Is their anyone more self-righteous than a defended of animal rights, a homosexual activist or a vegan? The difference is that no one will ever call them on their hypocrisy because they are fashionable hypocrisies. Their hypocrisies fit the feeling of the age, just the same way that the Pharisees fit the spirit of their age.
Are there hypocrites in the church - sure there are - just the same way there are hypocrites and the self-righteous in PETA, NOW and in the LGBT communities. We are all sinners and we all tend towards hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Only in Jesus, however, can we find true righteousness - his righteousness not ours.
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