But Christians are Hypocrites

The Excuse of Rejecting Christianity Because Christians Are Hypocrites

Unfortunately, we live in a world where people sometimes claim identities that do not belong to them. People have impersonated police officers, for example. We rightly condemn such acts, but we do not therefore hold the police department—or genuine police officers—responsible for the actions of someone merely pretending to be one. The same distinction needs to be made when discussing Christians. Not everyone who calls himself a Christian actually is a Christian, and the actions of someone merely claiming the name of Christ should not automatically be attributed to Christ or Christianity.

That said, we cannot dismiss the accusation that easily. Even setting false professions of Christianity aside, yes, genuine Christians can absolutely be hypocrites. I am not going to deny it, make excuses for it, or pretend that everyone who calls himself a Christian consistently lives according to everything he claims to believe. Some Christians are hypocrites. Many Christians are hypocrites. In one way or another, perhaps all Christians have been hypocrites at some point in their lives. That should not surprise anyone. You see, Christians—like everyone else on this earth—are broken.

I am sorry if this disappoints anyone, but Christians simply are not perfect in this life. We say things we should not say. We think things we should not think. We become angry when we should be patient. We are selfish when we should be generous. We judge others for things we excuse in ourselves. We know what is right and sometimes do what is wrong anyway. Sometimes we even teach others what they ought to do and then fail to do it ourselves. That sounds rather hypocritical to me. If you are looking for a perfect group of people to associate with and become a part of, then I personally hope you never find them—because, to put it bluntly, you would ruin that perfection. So would I.

That is the part we sometimes conveniently leave out of the accusation. It is easy to point through the church doors and identify the inconsistencies of the people sitting inside. It is considerably more uncomfortable to turn that same examination upon ourselves. Have you ever said one thing and done another? Have you ever condemned behavior in someone else while excusing something similar in yourself? Have you ever known the right thing to do and deliberately done otherwise? Have you ever lied? Been selfish? Hurt someone? Broken a promise? Judged another person’s motives while giving yourself the benefit of the doubt?

Welcome to the human race.

The Church Is Not a Museum for Perfect People

Perhaps one of the greatest misunderstandings about Christianity is the idea that Christians claim to be better people. Biblical Christianity says almost precisely the opposite. A Christian is someone who has come to recognize that something is terribly wrong—not merely with the world around him, but with himself.

Paul wrote, “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Notice the word all. That includes the atheist. It includes the agnostic. It includes the person who has never entered a church. But it also includes the pastor standing behind the pulpit, the Sunday-school teacher, the missionary, the theologian—and the person sitting quietly in the back pew and it definitely includes me. Christianity does not divide humanity into good people who go to church and bad people who do not. Christianity begins by putting all of us on the same side of the equation: We have sinned. The difference is not that Christians have no disease. The difference is that Christians have gone to the Physician.

Hypocrisy Is Still Wrong

None of this excuses hypocrisy. Jesus certainly did not excuse it. Some of His strongest rebukes were directed toward religious people who carefully maintained an outward appearance of righteousness while inwardly remaining corrupt. He repeatedly called the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites (Matthew 23). So when someone identifies genuine hypocrisy within Christianity, Christians should not automatically become defensive. Sometimes the criticism is deserved.

There have been Christians who preached honesty and then lied. Christians who preached sexual purity while secretly living otherwise. Christians who preached humility while behaving arrogantly. Christian leaders who abused authority. Churches that protected reputations instead of people. People who publicly displayed Christianity while privately behaving in ways utterly contrary to Christ.

Call hypocrisy what it is: sin. But the existence of hypocrites does not demonstrate that Christianity is false. It demonstrates that Christians remain capable of doing precisely what Christianity says human beings do—sin. The relevant question is not whether Christians always live perfectly according to what Christ taught. They don’t. The question is whether Christ is true.

Don’t Judge Christ by Me

If you want to know whether Christianity is true, please don’t make me the standard. Don’t make your pastor the standard. Don’t make your parents the standard. Don’t make the obnoxious Christian you work with the standard. Don’t make the televangelist who embarrassed Christianity the standard. Don’t even make the best Christian you have ever known the standard.

Look at Jesus Christ. Christians do not claim that Kevin Clark died for your sins. Thank God for that, because you would be in serious trouble. Christians claim that Jesus Christ died for your sins. The truth of Christianity does not stand or fall upon whether I perfectly obey Jesus Christ. If anything, my failures demonstrate why I need Him. And so do yours.

You Would Fit Right In

That brings us back to the accusation: “Christians are hypocrites”. Perhaps, you would come join us. 

Not because hypocrisy is acceptable.
Not because sin does not matter.
Not because God shrugs His shoulders at our failures.
But because you would fit right in.

You will find people who have failed. People who have made terrible decisions. People carrying consequences from things they wish they could undo. People struggling against sins they thought they had conquered. People who sometimes understand Scripture incorrectly. People who become impatient, discouraged, proud, frightened, selfish, and confused.

You will also find people whom God is changing. That is Christianity. Christianity is not God searching the earth for sufficiently good people and inviting them into His exclusive club. It is God calling sinners to repentance and offering them forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31–32). The prerequisite for coming to Christ isn’t perfection. It is recognizing that you aren’t perfect.

Perhaps the Hypocrite Isn’t the Person You Thought

There is an irony worth considering. A person can condemn Christians for failing to live perfectly according to God’s moral standard while simultaneously rejecting that same moral standard for himself. Think about that. You recognize dishonesty as wrong. You recognize selfishness as wrong. You recognize adultery, cruelty, arrogance, greed, hatred, and hypocrisy as wrong. In fact, your objection to Christians may be precisely that they ought to know better.

I agree. But now we have another question: Do you live up to the standard by which you are judging them? If the answer is no, then perhaps we have finally arrived somewhere useful. Not because I have proven myself better than you. I haven’t. Not because Christians have won the argument. They haven’t. But because perhaps, for just a moment, we are standing together in exactly the place Christianity says we have been standing all along: We are sinners who need a Savior.

That’s Why I Am a Christian

I am not a Christian because I believe I am a good person. I am a Christian because I know I am not good enough. I don’t trust Christ because I have conquered every weakness, perfectly understood every truth, or consistently practiced everything I believe. I trust Christ because I need Christ. And if your objection to Christianity is that you have discovered Christians are imperfect, sinful, inconsistent people, then you have discovered something Christianity has been telling us for two thousand years.

Now I would encourage you to make one more discovery. Look in the mirror.

Not at the Christian beside you. Not at the hypocrite on television. Not at the church that disappointed you. Not at the person who claimed the name of Christ and treated you terribly. You, and when you see the same pride, selfishness, inconsistency, ignorance, hypocrisy, and sin staring back at you that you so easily recognize in the rest of us, perhaps you will begin to understand why Christians need Jesus Christ. And perhaps you will begin to understand why you need Him too.

As a quote from JJC: “Yes, Christians can be hypocrites, but they are saved hypocrites“.