"You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"
~ Romans 2:21-23
Hypocrisy. It's an ugly word. It's a word you often hear thrown around about Christians. It's the excuse a lot of people use for not going to church. Supposedly everybody there is a hypocrite. Christians often don't look any different from the world, so what's the point in becoming one? At least that's what people ask themselves. But the truth is, we can't judge the value of Christianity by looking at individual Christians any more than we can judge the value of being good stewards of our environment by looking at Al Gore.
I know you've probably all heard this, but read it and really think about it:
"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." ~dc Talk
If we don't look different, how are people to know the love, the peace, the joy of coming to God? When is the last time you shared God at work (and that's pretty much pot-meet-kettle for me to be asking that)? Do you come to work grumbling and angry, or do you show up with a smile on your face, sharing what God has done for you this week? Sometimes we are the only God a person might see in their lives. Are we doing a good job?
If we preach and boast about keeping God's Word, but then don't keep it, we're hypocrites who blaspheme the name of God just like the Jews were in Paul's time were (Romans 2:24). We give God a bad name! God wants us to share His Word with others, but if we do, we need to be warned that we'd better walk the walk as well. Hypocrisy puts a sour taste in the mouths of non-Christians who might be seeking God, and so does judgment. That makes sense, because Jesus didn't bring people to Him through hypocrisy and judgment, but through a righteous life and meeting people where they were.
Jesus didn't boast about all His goodness to everybody, or brag about what a great keeper of the Law He was – and since He wrote the Law, was the Word made flesh, I imagine He kept it best, don't you? He also didn't turn people away just because they weren't perfect or perfectly dressed. I promise, if Jesus had been born in 1990, He wouldn't be hanging out with the well-behaved straight A students (they wouldn't be the ones who needed His help); He'd be out on the streets somewhere healing and touching and loving the unlovable.
So, what are we doing? Have we got this whole "growing the Kingdom of God" thing all backwards? Are we evangelizing the way Jesus would have us evangelize? I don't have the answer to that, but I still think it's a question worth asking. The world's a hurting, dying, dark, painful place. God is the Light in the darkness. Are we really sharing that Light the best way we can?
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