There is a movement afoot to blame "Christianity" for the falling away of Christians from the church. There have been many articles in the past few years about the hordes of people leaving the church and becoming atheists. They blame "religion" on the hypocrisy they experience within the walls of the "religious" institutions.
They are right, those atheists, when they say there is hypocrisy in the church, not only is it there, but it is in all the institutions that are not Christian too. Perhaps we need to look at the definition of hypocrisy before assigning that term to an organization or person.
Hypocrisy: "pretending to be what one is not, one who pretends to be virtuous and pious when one is really not."
Obviously, a person who is judging another as virtuous when they are not, is the self righteous non-believer. They think that there should be a higher standard for believers than they assign to themselves. Anyone who will not live up to a particular standard, becomes a hypocrite when accusing others of also not living up to the standard. This flawed thinking is nothing more than verbal manipulation to confuse and embarrass the believer.
This definition describes every human being on the face of the earth. Those who say they hate hypocrisy and blame Christians for being so, do not hold the same standards that they expect out of believers, therefore they are what they blame others of being. This is Satan's tactic for silencing the believers. If he can make us ashamed of our failures and leave us with a sense that we have no right to speak boldly on the subject of the lost sinner, then we will have little or no effect on our culture, families or friends. We will be muted for the sake of shame and tolerance.
It is important to live up to God's standard, but not for the sake of the non-believer, but because of our love for God. When we love Him and live according to His will, He will bless us with a proper witness in the community. He will use us for His purposes. We do not have to walk about worried that we do everything to impress others, we can rest in Him. Obey Him and when we fail, confess it and move on to obedience once again.
There is one thing that the accusers can not know and don't think of and that is the nature of the human race. All people are "desperately wicked" and all people do not have the ability to be anything other than sinful, hypocritical and self willed. Everyone "falls short of the glory of God."
The only remedy to combat this wretched condition is to be changed into something we could not be on our own. Someone else would have to change what we do not have the ability to change in us. We can work ourselves silly to be something we would like to be, but we can not do it in our depraved condition. So how can non-believers open their mouths in protest at the imperfections of the believer when they are still in their lost status?
One of Satan's tactics is to keep the believer focused on their past sin and human failures. He is the accuser of the brethren in the heavenlies. God says that if we have trusted Christ, He has changed us and will keep us.
Don't fall for the attacks of the devil. Look to Christ rather than the words and manipulations of unsaved people. When they accuse us of being hypocrites, agree with them. We are all hypocrites when we do not obey the Lord. Some who are in the church are not saved just as the accusing unbeliever. They walk not with our Savior, but they claim His name. Any non-believer who loves his sin, has no standing to accuse others of theirs.
The non-believer needs the gospel message that he is lost in his sin and his only recourse is to trust Christ to avoid the punishment that is coming for those who will not love Him. The key to our emotional sanity is to ignore the accusations of the non-believer or the believer who is disobedient, and keep our eyes focused on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Pray for all those who are saved and walking disobediently, those who are unsaved and those in the church who would claim Christianity but appear to be unsaved. God knows who is who and what each one needs. Also we should be praying that we are not sucked into the whiles of the devil through argumentative spirits who wish to disarm us through shame and embarrassment.
The most effective weapons against the onslaught of accusation are to continually stay in the Word, prayer and the companionship of other like minded believers who can keep us focused on Him. May the Lord make us all effective, focused and bold in our witness and walk.
