Question 8: Are Churches full of Hypocrites?

Not quite. The church is not full of hypocrites - there is always room for a few more. To see if you qualify imagine this scenario. It is your birthday party and your friends and relatives have gathered to celebrate your life. Halfway through the speeches one of your friends jumps to his feet grinning mischievously and waving a video cassette. It turns out that he has been secretly filming every moment of your life - your conversations, your secret actions and even (by some technological wizardry) your thoughts! Best of all, he has edited this interesting insight into a fifteen minute snapshot.

As he slides the video into its slot, how do you feel? Are you comfortable with your secret life and thoughts being revealed? What will those close to you think of you after seeing this video? Will the things they discover about the real you make you proud?

The point is that we are all hypocrites. Christians of course make easy targets because they tend to talk more about virtue and love and so look more pathetic when it turns out they have the same nasty, selfish streak found in everyone else. But really we are all in the same boat. All of us do and think things that we would be ashamed to have others know about.

The serious side of this is that God knows all about those parts of our lives that we hide from other people. The Bible says that, "humans look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart," (1Samuel 16:7) and there will come a "day when God will judge the secrets of humans" (Romans 2:16). If we are to avoid condemnation for those parts of our lives that we know to be rotten we must ask God's forgiveness and receive his pardon and help so we can begin to change.

For more information:

1. http://www.probe.org/docs/e-hypocrites.html
2. Read Is the New Testament History by Bp Paul Barnett