Am I a judgmental hypocrite?


Have you ever thought to yourself that Christians are judgmental hypocrites?  Well, you're in reasonable company.  Jesus himself said to the Pharisees of his time:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, who look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Matthew 23:27-28

Ah, but be careful before you jump on the bandwagon.  Christians get a lot of hate stuff on the internet.  Just recently I saw two consecutive internet memes on Facebook, essentially attacking Christians in general, that they are judgmental hypocrites.  I really had to laugh.  By posting up something like this - don't you see that YOU are being judgmental?  And doesn't that consequentially make YOU hypocritical when you accuse others of being judgmental?  Unless you believe you are the same as Jesus - sinless, and seeing his convictions through to death on a cross...?  No, I didn't think so.

It isn't surprising that Christians are open to criticism of being sinners and judgmental hypocrites.  Why is this so?  Because our entire faith is uniquely founded on this astounding starting point - we are no good.  We cannot earn salvation by our good works.  We are fatally flawed.  But the good news is that we have Jesus, who in His love and mercy paid the penalty for our sin.  Because we have Him, we are forgiven, and we are now empowered to begin a new, transformed life.

So, the church is absolutely full of (forgiven) sinners.  Hopefully repentant sinners.  Repentant sinners living a life of gratitude, which then fuels good works.  But nevertheless, sinners.  This is the awesomeness of Christianity - that God loves the sinner so much, so unreasonably, that He would send His one and only Son to die for us, and to raise us up.  This is the deep and unshakeable joy of being a Christian.

So, are all Christians moral paragons?  No.  But should all Christians be repentant sinners?  Yes.  I read this somewhere.  "Saying that you don't want to go to church because of the hypocrites is like saying you don't want to go to the gym because of all the out of shape people."  So hey, I invite you join me - I'm out of shape, I'm honest enough to admit it, and I'm going to church now to work on it.

Having said that - I think a disproportionate proportion of the nicest people I've met are Christian.  It's just that you don't remember the nice ones.  Because they're supposed to be nice.  And when a Christian disappoints you, you expect better.  You know, sometimes you read about people being charged in court, and how they find God, or are supported by Christian friends.  Does that mean Christians are moral failures and hypocrites?  No man, it means the church is full of forgiveness.

I also think a disproportionate proportion of the people who will tell friends that they're going wrong may be Christian.  I know this can be irritating.  But if you know where the lifeboat is, why wouldn't you tell your loved ones?  Should we instead say "It's cool man.  Do what you think best"?  You wouldn't do that to your kids, whom you love.  Why is it OK to let your friends go the wrong way?  Do you always do what you tell your kids to do?  To be kind, generous, honest?  Would you rather tell your kids "do whatever you like" than be a"hypocrite"?  No, I didn't think so.

So - tell you when you're wrong?  Yeah.  Sometimes fail to meet these standards myself?  Yeah.  Going to the gym to work on it?  Oh yeah.  Repentant sinner in the house.  Bring it on.

And to my Christian brothers and sisters - remember that the world is watching how we mirror Jesus, and that, like it or not, we are his open letter to the world.  We may fall from time to time, but let's step up!

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.  You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 3:2-3

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