Are Christians Hypocrites?

Sometimes you’re darned if you do or darned if you don’t. Christians are often criticized (and fairly so) on the one hand for hypocrisy…for not living up to the moral standards we profess to believe. But, on the other hand, Christians are taken to task for being prudish self-repressed puritans who don’t know how to have a good time. Which is it? Are we all white-washed hypocrites or pent up moralists?

I suppose this confusion is inevitable. Christianity simultaneously embraces sinners and demands righteousness.

But if you find yourself confused, you may need only to think of a the relationship between parents and children.

Good parents teach their children not to lie (to take just one example). When they lie anyway, as children do, good parents generally attempt some sort of corrective measure to reinforce the rule against lying.

And then they forgive. If there are consequences associated with the lie (say the child has lied to a teacher or some external authority) good parents often permit the child to bear them while offering, at the same time, love and support.

Does the act of forgiveness negate the offense? No. Does forgiveness imply that the rule against lying has changed? Of course not. Are parents “hypocritical” for both expecting honesty and forgiving deceit? Absurd.

Honesty is “good” despite human dishonesty and it is not hypocritical to uphold honesty while forgiving those who are dishonest.

Let’s think about this question of “hypocrisy” more deeply since this is the charge most frequently leveled at Christians by those in the secular world.

Undeniably, those of us who are parents have lied in the past and sometimes lie in the present. Does our failure to uphold the “good” of honesty disqualify us from disciplining our children’s dishonesty? Are we hypocrites for requiring our children to keep a rule we break?

Honesty, again, is good and right and true despite our own periodic dishonesty. Honesty is not “good” because we are honest and its goodness is not negated if we fail. We do not say to our children, hopefully, “Be honest because I, your parent, am honest” (although, hopefully, we model what we require). We say “Be honest because honesty is good.”

As parents we are responsible for training our children to do “good” for their own benefit and the well-being of human civilization. If the definition of right and wrong hinged on what we ourselves have done, then little would remain to hinder our society’s descent into barbarism.

Parents uphold the “good” and enforce it in their homes because it is good

Most everyone, irrespective of their religion or philosophy, maintains that certain character traits are “good”, honesty being one example, even though most arrive at that conclusion in different ways and support it with varied and often conflicting philosophies and/or faith commitments.

Christians believe that the standard for what is “good” is primarily a revealed one. It lies beyond us and above us, resting in and originating from the nature and character of God made known to us in the bible.

And here, perhaps, is where our non-religious friends might begin to grasp how it is possible for the church to embrace sinners while preaching against sin.

The Church is charged with proclaiming, maintaining, and obeying the “good” as God reveals it much like the parent must uphold “goods” like honesty. The Church is the parent, the “mother”, of those who come to faith in Jesus Christ and, beyond that, as Jesus says, the Church is supposed to be something of a “light” to the world pointing those who live in darkness toward the truth that Jesus came to announce and enact.

The truth is that God’s law is pure and good and perfect and that we, human beings, are not. We fail, we sin, we fall. And yet, despite our inability to do what God commands we cannot and do not pretend that he has not commanded it.

The law is good despite our own inability to follow it.

Which leads to another truth, the foundational truth of the Christian faith: Jesus Christ came to save sinners. He lived a pure, good, and holy life in our stead and when he died on the cross, he bore in our place the eternal consequences of human sin in his body and in his soul. Three days later he rose bodily from the grave and for forty days taught and lived on earth before ascending into heaven where he now resides until he comes again.

Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension opened the door to forgiveness, mercy, and reconciliation with God. The scriptures promise that whoever repents, turns from sin, and surrenders his or her life to Jesus Christ will be forgiven, cleansed, and granted an eternal life with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So Christians uphold and proclaim a standard that we believe rests in God’s own character. We cannot change it to make it conform to the culture of our day nor may we shape it to suit own desires. It cannot be compromised or hidden or watered down.

And yet we acknowledge that no one can follow it to perfection.

So forgiveness is an absolute necessity both for ourselves before God and as a habitual offering to others.

The Church can, then, on the one hand uphold the revealed truth that, for example, sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage is a sin and, on the other offer compassion, support, and forgiveness through Jesus Christ to those who fail to meet that standard. Note, again, how consistent this is with the actions of a parent described above.

The Christian response to sin and call for righteousness is not at all contradictory or confusing, but rather entirely consistent with the gospel revealed in Jesus Christ
(This week’s article was adapted from an article I wrote for Stand Firm)

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