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What is a Christian?<\/p>\n What is a Christian?<\/p>\n
A Christian is someone who is undergoing a theological, moral, and social transformation\u2014a radical change in their thoughts, actions, and relationships. A Christian is someone who holds tight to the good news\u2014the truth that Jesus died in our place for our sins, a fact proven by His resurrection from the dead.<\/p>\n
What is a hypocrite?<\/p>\n
A hypocrite is a person who does not preach what they practice or practice what they preach. A hypocrite is someone one who wears a mask and plays a role, pretending to be someone they are not.<\/p>\n
Almost half of our survey participants (45%) agreed with the statement \u201cMost Christians are hypocrites.\u201d In our focus groups for this project across the country, we heard intense conversations about what looks like phony faith.<\/p>\n
Often people outside Christianity see the faith not as good news but good deeds. By their definition, Christians are supposed to love people and feed people and help people\u2014not talk about sin and repentance and Jesus. I have found that often they say, \u201cChristians are hypocrites because they\u2019re supposed to love everybody, and then they talk about sin. And that\u2019s not loving.\u201d But as a Christian, we answer, \u201cThat is<\/em> loving.\u201d People point out my sin and help me get past it. I talk to them about their sin and assist them in finding forgiveness and freedom. That is how we love each other.<\/p>\n Bible scholar Larry Richards explains the concept of hypocrisy in the New Testament. He says:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Greek words hypokrinomai<\/em> (appears once in the NT), hypokrisis<\/em> (6 times in the NT), and hypokrit\u0113s<\/em> (20 times in the NT) denote someone acting out the part of a character in a play. In Greek drama the actors held over their faces oversized masks painted to represent the character they were portraying. In life, the hypocrite is a person who masks his real self while he plays a part for his audience.<\/p>\n That background of the word \u201chypocrite\u201d in Greek theatre makes for an amazingly concrete definition. Richards goes on to explain what it looks like when someone \u201cmasks his real self\u201d and \u201cplays a part for his audience\u201d:<\/p>\n What characterizes the religious hypocrite? In Matthew\u2019s Gospel (where 16 of the 27 occurrences of these Greek words occur) we note these things:<\/p>\n Jesus give us this warning that to the hypocrites of every age: \u201cWoe to you\u201d (Mt 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29).\u201d(1)<\/p>\n In the real-world setting of the New Testament, Jesus called out the religious leaders as fakers. Koukl explains, \u201cOn the outside, they were putting on a religious display, but on the inside, they were deeply corrupt and evil.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no doubt that there were religious hypocrites in the New Testament. They have a sizable role in the unfolding drama as a foil to Jesus. But we are wondering about believers today. A sizeable chunk of people in our survey and focus group agreed with the statement \u201cMost Christians are hypocrites.\u201d But that raises a very big question: Does that shoe fit most Christians? Like Koukl says, \u201cI actually don\u2019t think so. The reason I can say that is because I know a lot of Christians. When someone makes the charge, \u2018The church is filled with hypocrites,\u2019 I have what I think is a fair question, \u2018When was the last time you were in a church?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Koukl points out that many people who throw around that accusation never darken the doors of a church, but they still have no problem drawing conclusions about what the people inside are like. No surprise there. That is just human nature. But that does not make their accusations factually true. Koukl says, \u201cMost of the Christians I know are real human beings deeply committed to their values, and they are not fakers. Are they perfect Christians? No. Nobody is. I\u2019m not.\u00a0 You\u2019re not. The only perfect \u2018Christian\u2019 was Jesus. The rest of us are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n I agree with Koukl when he concludes, \u201cI think it\u2019s fair to make a distinction between somebody who is inconsistent and someone who is a hypocrite.\u201d As we try to answer whether Christians are by and large a bunch of hypocrites, I want to suggest we attempt to wrap our heads around three interrelated truths that grow out of biblical teaching:<\/p>\n All human beings are sinners.<\/p>\n All hypocrites are sinners.<\/p>\n Not all sinners are hypocrites.<\/p>\n One of the core convictions in Christianity is that everyone is a sinner who needs Jesus as their sinless Savior. The Bible is painfully honest as it exposes the sins of God\u2019s people\u2014Abraham commits adultery, Lot gets drunk and impregnates his daughters, Noah gets hammered and passes out naked in his tent like a hillbilly on vacation, David impregnates a married woman and then murders her husband, Solomon builds God\u2019s house then builds himself an even bigger house where he could have sex with hundreds of women like a bad prequel to a Hugh Hefner biopic. Even the guys who were with Jesus for three years do not come off unscathed. Peter denies knowing Jesus not just once but three times. Thomas doubts that Jesus rose from the dead. Even though Peter undergoes a radical life change, later in life he still needs Paul to rebuke him to his face for being a racist. The Bible is filled with villains, scoundrels, and sinners\u2014and 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.<\/p>\n My guess is that you\u2014like me\u2014would 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 \u201cin thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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,\u00a0\u201cWhat sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees [religious leaders]. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs\u2014beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people\u2019s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness\u201d (Matthew 23:27-28 NLT). Hypocrisy is all about wearing a mask, and the religious leaders of Jesus\u2019 day were masters of playing a part.<\/p>\n 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\u2019 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. While most non-Christians would likely disagree with me, in my mind abortion is also egregious example. The majority view among all Christians\u2014Catholic and Protestant\u2014is that abortion takes an innocent human life. Yet, plenty of Christians have abortions. The Christian pro-life group Focus on the Family relays hard data:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Alan Guttmacher Institute is a nonprofit corporation for reproductive health research and policy analysis. The Institute is also a public education arm of Planned Parenthood. It reports that one in six women who have had abortions are evangelical Christians. Based on these statistics, 5.6 million women in our churches have chosen abortion as a way out of an unwanted pregnancy. Each year, 1.5 million American women have an abortion. This means 250,000 evangelical Christian women could choose to abort a child this year.\u201d(2)<\/p>\n I do not doubt that many of these women are sincere Christians. I am aware of the pressures that make abortion seem like a woman\u2019s best option. I also assume that a substantial number of these women and their partners were sexually active outside of marriage. Any honest Christian would have to agree however that having premarital sex on Friday and an abortion on Saturday before going to church on Sunday pretending all is well is not best. It is one thing to sin. It is another to act like we have no stuff to deal with and to willfully reject a resolution consistent with what we profess. Whenever we get caught up in sin of whatever kind, God calls us to repent which simply means to agree with Him and invite Him to help us change. The difference between a sinner and a hypocrite is that a sinner sees they are wrong and seeks to stop that wrong whereas a hypocrite keeps on going. We will explore this distinction in the next blog.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n
\nFor this project, I had an interesting discussion about hypocrisy with Greg Koukl, co-author with Francis Beckwith of the book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air.<\/em> He said in our conversation that whenever someone throws around a loaded word like \u201ctolerance\u201d or \u201chypocrisy,\u201d he asks for clarification. He says, \u201cWhen somebody says, \u2018Well, you\u2019re intolerant. You\u2019re a hypocrite,\u2019 maybe I am, maybe I\u2019m not. It kind of depends on what you mean. So I ask, \u2018What is it that you\u2019re seeing in my life that you think is an example of hypocrisy?\u2019\u00a0 That is, \u2018What is your definition of hypocrisy that you\u2019d think I\u2019m one of those?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nEveryone is a Sinner<\/h3>\n
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\nThe Bible could not be more clear that everyone is a sinner\u2014me and you included. Romans 3:23 says, \u201cFor everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God\u2019s glorious standard\u201d (NLT). And 1 John 1:8,10 says, \u201cIf we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth\u2026 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts\u201d (NLT).<\/p>\nAll Hypocrites Are Sinners<\/h3>\n
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\nAny honest Christian will admit, however, that there are hypocrites among people who claim to be Christians. Every focus group brought up pedophile priests. As a Protestant pastor who was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy during my three years at Catholic school, as the father of five children, and as the pastor of children in our church, this devastates me. I tear up every time I read about yet another case in the news. Though He was single, Jesus loved children and they loved him. The Bible records occasions where kids wanted nothing more than to have fun with Jesus (Matthew 19:13-14; Mark 10:13-16). This kind of abusive behavior toward children is inexcusable, evil, and damnable.<\/p>\n