Are Christians Hypocrites?

The phrase, “the Church has nothing in it but hypocrites”, and “Christians are nothing but hypocrites” is popular among non believers. They love to use it when a believer is involved in sin which of course blows their witness and makes God look bad in the non believer’s eyes. It is essential as Christians for our walk to match our talk. As someone wisely said, people do not care how much you know they want to know how much you care.

In defense of the Christian, it is unfair to stereotype all Christians as hypocrites because of the sins of a few. Those that make these remarks are primarily the ones that have no desire to change their evil lifestyle and can’t wait for the Christian to do or say something wrong so they can say, "I TOLD Y’ALL THOSE CHRISTIANS ARE NOTHING BUT HYPOCRITES! I AINT NEVER GOING TO CHURCH!!”

Those that say these things are no better than the Christians they are judging. All of us have been hypocrites and some point in our lives. Since the word is so ingrained in our English language it would only make sense to get the meaning of it.

Hypocrite in the Greek language is the word hupokrites. The word has several meanings. One who was a diviner, an interpreter of dreams. Also the Greeks would call a stage actor who wore a mask impersonating a character a hypocrite. Later and currently it came to mean one who is a counterfeit, a fake, a fraud. 

Someone pretending to be someone or something they are not.

Those who were called hypocrites by the Lord Jesus were those who were pretentious, and the religious leaders of His day. In Matthew 6 we read, “when you do a charitable deed do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets…and when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites" (vs 2,5).

Jesus in Matthew 23 rebukes the Pharisees the religious-political group for being hypocrites. Jesus left His most imprecatory language for them due to their hypocrisy. Their lifestyles incensed the Lord hence His righteous diatribe against them.

There is a gross misconception of the meaning of a Christian by those who claim to be Christians, and those who hate us. Let me try to explain.

A lot of Christians think that when they are converted to the faith, that gives them the right to judge everyone else as a dirty rotten sinner headed for hell. They feel the need to “nit-pick” everything someone says or does that is wicked.

For example, if a particular Christian does not attend R-rated movies or listens to secular music, or has a drink, they often subconsciously want everyone to be as they are right? If it is wrong for them, then it’s wrong for everyone, especially every Christian as far as they are concerned. (Admittedly the writer was this way long ago when I was young and very immature in the faith). They want to proselytize the world. But this same Christian has dark secrets they have kept hidden in the shadows. They have a gambling problem and they are addicted to pornography. Once that person’s sins are found out, everyone will know they are a hypocrite. They were a hypocrite already in secret, but now their hypocrisy has been made public. It was wrong for them to chastise others for their faults when in reality their problems were bigger than the ones they were criticizing. We all can’t stand people like that. Jesus rebuked people like that (Matt 7:1-5). This is most tragic for the Christian for it destroys their gospel witness, and causes their light to dim among the unregenerate who are in their sphere of influence, and who need  the truth so desperately.

Proverbs 25:26 says, “A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well.”

The once proud child of God is made low by their sin of hypocrisy.

So, what are we to do when we get caught up in the sin of hypocrisy? The first thing to do is repent before the Lord and beg his forgiveness for your sin and He will forgive (I John 1:9). We also need to be intent on not committing that sin ever again. Second, go to those whom you have sinned against and implore their forgiveness. Those who are spiritual will love and forgive you restoring your relationship with them. Everyone of us can not withhold forgiveness or else when our time comes for restoration, it will not be available (Mark 11:25-26;Gal 6:1-2).

Another misconception of some Christians and those who watch us is that once we become born again, we become superhuman; impenetrable to sin’s attacks. We are supposed to be perfect.  This is due to ignorance and of what the Christian life is about, and the extreme ignorance of the critic pointing the finger at us.

When one becomes born again, we are instantly transformed on the inside, but we do not instantly change and immediately start doing good on the outside. The issues, temptations, evil thoughts, wicked tendencies, bad habits are still there. We are brand new within instantly, but still corrupt without. Our transformation on the outside is a gradual process known as sanctification. This we have to work on daily (Phil 2:12-13). The child of God is still a sinner, but the difference is as my wife constantly reminds me is that she is indeed a sinner “saved by grace.” We are never perfect in this life. Why? Due to sin being ever present with us (Romans 7). When we become born again God destroyed the power of sin; meaning it no longer dominates us nor are we slaves to it. He got rid of the penalty of sin because Jesus bore my sins on the cross, and the Father God punished Jesus for my sin so that sets me free from the guilt of my sins. I will never be judged for my sins in this life or the next. But, we are still dealing with the third “P”, the presence of sin. Sin will not be removed finally until we are glorified at the Rapture (I Cor 15 & I Thess 4).

Listen to these beautiful words by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:20-21a, “for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly (some translations say vile) body that it may be conformed to His glorious body…

When this blessed event occurs, then the presence of sin will be removed forever due to the fact we will have received our resurrected bodies perfect and fashioned like the Lord’s body. No longer subject to death.

True believers do not live a life of hypocrisy. Do we do hypocritical things from time to time? Absolutely!  Why? We are sinners. Because of fear our faith gets weak sometimes. That is what happened to Peter and why he denied the Lord three times (Matt 27:69-74;Mark 14:66-72;Luke 22:55-62;John 18:15-18, 25-27). Remember, we are still sinners essentially. But, I would say this to the Christian we have the ability, and I daresay the RIGHT to go to war against the sin in our lives now that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We have ultimate power to constantly defeat sin, and win many spiritual battles in this flesh and blood and spirit war.

Remember not everyone who claims to be a Christian is one. There are tares among the wheat in God’s house (Matt 13). These are the true hypocrites which defame the name of our God. Those of us who are truly saved want to live honorable lives before God and man. We will never do this perfectly in this life. A mature believer will pray for those struggling with sin not condemn them. We will have love and compassion for them. We will share with them with thus says the Lord (objective truth) regarding their sin, and not share our own often narrow-minded opinions on matters. A mature believer is not a fraud, a deceiver, or a stage actor portraying someone they are not. For them, living a life of integrity is their sole pursuit in life. When that is our focus, our light will shine before men, and they will see our good works (Gal 5:22-23), and we can glorify our Father which is in heaven (Matt 5:16).

What I have discovered is those who call Christians hypocrites are the biggest hypocrites of all. Sadly they do not even know it. What do I mean? Those who are enemies of the gospel often portray themselves as “good people” in their own eyes. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Bible makes it very clear that there is none who does good, no not one (Rom 3:10-12). Jesus Himself said there is none good but God (Matt 19:17).

In summation, where people have the most problems is with those who have what some call a “holier-than-thou” attitude. This mind set annoys those who are living ungodly lives to the core. They literally salivate at the opportunity to catch a believer in sin so that they can condemn them to hell themselves. The subjective minded person will conclude that this is how all Christians act and will avoid the Church like the plague. Truth be told, the unbeliever does that anyway. They do not need a Christian to sin to avoid the Church. Their own sin does that for them. What they love to do is use the Christians misdeeds as a crutch to excuse themselves from repenting and turning to God. If they are a religious hypocrite, they will make their annual pilgrimage to the Church on Easter and Christmas as if they are doing God a favor by showing up. To me that drips of hypocrisy.  

In the final analysis, many prominent preachers have done tremendous damage to the Church through sexual sin, money extortion, and one that many do not discuss and that is poor theology; that is teaching false doctrine. All of these things hurt the Church.

I continually pray to the Lord that we will mature as a body, and be a light in a dark, hopeless hell bound world.

As the saying goes, “when you know better you should do better!”