The following is a brief excerpt from a larger book.
For a fuller treatment of this subject as well as a better context, see:
I’d Like To Believe In Jesus But..(The harder, less frequently discussed questions) By Bob Siegel
Published by CSN Books Copyright © 2007 by Bob Siegel All Rights Reserved
Published by Campus Ambassador Press Copyright © 1999 by Bob Siegel All Rights Reserved
This article is not to be reproduced without written permission from the author.
Perhaps you have had a bad experience with church. Maybe, as a kid, you were dragged to Sunday School against your will. Maybe you used to throw spit wads as Mrs. Pumpernickel tried desperately to interest you in the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. You may have grown up listening to long sermons, anxiously looking at your watch to see how much of the game you were missing at home on TV as the pastor made his sixteenth point.
Or perhaps you were not raised as a Christian. Instead, you have merely encountered Christians. Maybe some obnoxious personality tried to shove the Gospel down your throat, using all the tact of a lawnmower in a barbershop. Or, possibly, your rapport with Christianity had nothing to do with evangelism, but you have seen enough of life to observe that people who go to church often behave worse than the non-religious.
Hypocrisy is often cited as a reason to reject the claims of Christ and it is perhaps, the most understandable reason. When the philosopher Bertrand Russell was asked why he never become a Christian, one of his chief complaints came from an observation that so few Christians seemed to take the teachings of Jesus seriously.2
A hypocrite is one who acts contrary to his/her words or beliefs. I do not think anyone (Christian or otherwise) is completely free of this trait. I must certainly confess to such re-occurring inconsistency. At the same time, I do not claim to be perfect because I call myself a Christian. My claim is that of a covenant relationship with God in which He is at work in my life, slowly but surely changing the inner character. I have many instances of downright rebellion against His rule in my heart. Even after I repent and focus on God as much as I can, all that means is that I’m better than I was yesterday but not as good as I will be tomorrow. What God does with me, He is willing to do with anyone. I am not superior or singled out in any way.
Although the “born again” person does not claim perfection, we must also keep in mind that many of the people who call themselves Christians are not really Christians at all. It is easy for people to use this title because of the strong Christian influence upon western civilization. This has created a variety of pseudo-Christian traditions, from the sincere, faithful church attendee who does not understand what it means to know Jesus personally, to the horrible bloodthirsty murderers of the Crusades and the Inquisition, who did not seem to share even the slightest resemblance to the simple loving message of the New Testament. My own people, the Jews, have been hounded and murdered for centuries in the name of Christianity, and this shameful horror kept me blinded to the real Jesus for quite some time.
If hypocrisy is your concern, it may surprise you to learn that you actually have something in common with Jesus, for Jesus hated religious hypocrisy and preached against it quite often.
“Not everyone who says to be ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers’” (Matt. 7:21-23).
This interesting discourse given early in Jesus’ ministry proved to be very prophetic. Therefore, hypocrisy in the church, while sad, is not a phenomena which contradicts the words of Christ, for He not only spoke of hypocrisy but hypocrisy in his own name! Try to imagine some mere man, ambitious, anxious to start a following, gathering people together before things even get rolling and saying: “Can I have your attention? I just want you to know that many of you who call yourselves my followers will be cast into Hell by me personally. Just thought you should know.” Not very likely. Such chilling honesty suggests from the onset that there is more to Jesus than meets the eye. He is making it clear that regardless of terminology or sworn allegiance, true Christians have two minimum qualities: 1) A personal relationship with God. The term know in Greek (Prognosko) referred to an intimate knowledge. B) An obedience to God that follows this relationship. Although elsewhere in scripture it is made clear that sinless perfection cannot be obtained in this life (I John 1:8), Jesus is nevertheless emphasizing that true followers are at least on God’s path and His words here in Matthew let us in on a little secret: Those who aren’t truly on the road with God can perform mighty religious deeds, even supernatural ones. This is a scary and sobering thought. Still, we conclude that religious hypocrisy is not a genuine reason with which to reject the real Jesus and His true teachings.
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