What Is a Christian Hypocrite?

The Bible could not be more clear that everyone is a sinner—me and you included. Romans 3:23 says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (NLT). And 1 John 1:8,10 says, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth… If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts” (NLT).

The Bible is filled with villains, scoundrels, and sinners—and a God who loves them in spite of who they are. The entire story of the Bible is that God loves us not because we are good but because He is good.

My guess is that you—like me—would admit you are a sinner. In fact, the more someone admits their imperfections the more likely we are to consider them honest, trustworthy, and even holy. We are sinners by disposition who sin by our action. In the words of a classic Christian confession, we sin “in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.” In our moments of reflection most of us also admit to seasons and circumstances when we were not just a sinner but also a hypocrite who violated our code of right and wrong.

All Hypocrites Are Sinners

People who only know a Jesus who is meek and mild must be unaware of the ferocity Jesus unleashes on true hypocrisy. Pretty much every time He speaks of hypocrisy it comes as a stinging indictment of religious leaders (for example, see Matthew 6:2, 6:5, 6:16, 15:7, 22:18, 23:13, 23:15, 23:23, 23:25, 23:27, 23:29, 24:51; Mark 7:6; Luke 13:15). He saw where only God can see, past their external show and into their empty hearts. Jesus said, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees [religious leaders]. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27-28 NLT). Hypocrisy is all about wearing a mask, and the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were masters of playing a part.

As a spiritual leader, those words of Jesus terrify me. They move me to examine my motives to uncover any hypocrisy taking hold of my life. And of the thousands of other pastors I have met, most take Jesus’ teaching to heart. They are keenly aware of their own shortcomings and concerned about their integrity. They know they are sinners with faults, flaws, and failures, and they sincerely desire to not cross the line from sin to hypocrisy.