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Thursday, July 6, 2017

Hypocrites, critics, and other odd religious folks (Pt. 1)

(Part 1)

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach.”-Matthew 23:1-3

Talk to many people who do not attend church and you will hear them tell you that this is precise why they don’t like coming to church. They claim the church is full of hypocrites. Now, I understand that form many this is simply an excuse not to come to church; but for others there was a real hurt that caused them to have such negative feelings. Do we ignore the problem of hypocrisy in the church because some are hiding behind it to mask their desire to live sinful lives? Of course not! Should follower of Christ be offended by such a statement? No! In fact, it should challenge us to examine our own lives to determine if our words and our lives agree.

I did an informal poll on Facebook asking people to describe for me what it means to be a hypocrite. The answers were eye-opening. The first thing that caught my attention was that the only place associated with having hypocrites, from those who responded, was church. The second thing that caught my attention was the shear number of opinions given to define what it means to be a hypocrite. They were all similar in understanding but with just enough differences to basically encompass everyone who ever set foot in a church.

 A hypocrite by definition is: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion. The word has its origin in the Greek language referring to any person who was wearing a figurative mask and pretending to be someone or something they were not. It was adopted into religious texts in the 13th century to refer to someone who pretends to be morally good or pious in order to deceive others. Did you catch that? The intention of the masquerade is to deceive others. Lots of people who attend church make mistakes and bad choices, however that doesn’t make them a hypocrite. This begs the question: What is a hypocrite? One response I received on my Facebook post, I found to be very concise: “Someone who expects a high standard for others, but never lives up to it themselves; while acting like they do.”

Jesus spent ample time addressing this very problem with the religious leaders of His day. He recognized the distinct separation from what they taught and how they lived. In Matthew 23, Jesus calls them out multiple times for their hypocritical lifestyles:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.-Matthew 23:13-15

Jesus was calling them out, not because they claimed to be perfect but because they were pretending to be something they were not. People can handle imperfection, they just don’t have a stomach for people being fake. People don’t want to go to church with folks who are telling them how to live like Jesus, but aren’t trying living like Jesus themselves!

Pastor Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church

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