Christians are Hypocrites…
The Church is full of people who either A. Are Christian but don’t act like it or B. are not Christian at all but try to act like it and this produces a problem for C. the people who really are Christian and try to act like it.
Most people have this ridiculous expectation that they place on Christians of today in order to justify not being one. People will claim that Christians are fundamentalists and they are arrogant and they are not tolerant and they push their beliefs on others and they don’t accept all people and they don’t love and they don’t live up to what I think they should so they are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites and should be ignored.
In our society and in the minds of those people who are against it a Christian has to be perfect in order to reach the world and to not be a hypocrite. *NEWSFLASH* There is no Christian in the world except for Jesus who has or will exist who is not a hypocrite. Every single person who can honestly claim to be a born again believer will at some point or another be a hypocrite. Why? Because we all sin. Every last one of us sins because we are not perfect, and because we are not perfect we therefore do not live up to the expectations that the world places on us which gives the world leverage to pass Christianity off as nothing more than a crutch for those to weak to embrace real life. They scream “hypocrite!” simply for the fact that they don’t want to believe Christianity because it goes against the way they want to live and so they will find any way possible to reject it and what better way to do that than to claim that they do not practice what they preach. Hypocrites!
If every single Christian in the world began to practice humility, compassion, sacrifice, forgiveness, and meekness it wouldn’t solve the problem because we would all still be hypocrites and people who do not wish to accept Christianity would still find ways to condemn us. The fact that we do sin does not give us an excuse not to peruse humility compassion and sacrifice and all of those things that we should become and don’t get me wrong I am not knocking anyone who has this attitude, but I am saying that we are IN THE PROCESS of sanctification. This means that it is an on going change, something that occurs over time and something that will not be complete until the return of Christ which means I cannot be perfect until I am resurrected with my savior. If perfection is a requirement that people place on being a Christian then that is a requirement that no one will complete while they still live on this earth.
My point? Yes you can influence people by the way you live, but that doesn’t change people. Yes you can witness to someone by being humble and kind and compassionate and all of the things that God has commanded us to be, but that doesn’t change people. Bottom line, people don’t save people, God does. It’s God’s word, presence, and power that changes people and it is God who saves them, we are simply ambassadors, we simply carry the message, but we don’t do the changing. We have an obligation to God to live holy and to love people, but we will never be perfect enough to fill those obligations to the fullest, which means people are always going to find problems with Christians. But that is ok because it isn’t the Christian who is in control, nor is it the Christian who is the one who saves people, we simply present the message regardless of what people say and do about it. It isn’t our job to change the world, it’s our job to tell the world about Jesus.
I think that is where many Christians get confused. We focus to much on our own problems and sickness and we remove the focus from Christ. The church will always have sinners in it, the church will always have hypocrites in it, the church will always have lost people in it, which means the church will always have problems in it. You can’t expect a bunch of Christians and hypocrites and lost people and sinners to get together in a big group and not have problems. We are simply humans and cannot be completely perfect, so why should we waste so much time complaining and focusing on the obvious problems that will always be there and spend more time focusing on the message of Christ? It is good to want to change the church and it is wonderful to want to help Christians become more like Christ. It is an awesome thing to help others to become more humble and compassionate and loving. We have so many baby Christians in our churches who don’t know how to act and don’t know how to be more like Christ and it is a wonderful thing to disciple them and help them, but don’t get so caught up that you lose focus on the reason for doing it. To glorify God. It’s not about us, its not about me, it is about God. We are becoming sanctified not for the world but for God in order to glorify him more an more. Compassion and love for others and humility and kindness are not just learned behaviors that we must discipline ourselves to do but they are behaviors that stem from a loving relationship with God. The more we love God, the more we glorify God and the more and more we become like him then the more compassionate we will be and the more humble we will be and the more love we will show. It’s all about the savior and our increasing relationship with him. We love God first with all of our heart, mind, and soul and out of that then we love people. Will we still be hypocrites? Yes. But not for long… soon enough we will be with our savior, and I cannot wait for that day!