'You hypocrite!'

I dare say that we all know what it means to be a hypocrite; in fact I'll bet that we have all had the term directed at us, at some point or other in our Christian walk! Don't get me wrong; I'm not condoning hypocrisy: I'm not saying that it's okay to be one! I'm also not saying that we shouldn't do our best not to be hypocritical; we should!

Wikipedia's definition of hypocrisy is 'acting in a manner contradictory to one's professed beliefs and feelings, or conversely, expressing false beliefs and opinions to conceal one's real feelings or motives.'

Concerning the Christian 'walk', as it often does; hypocrisy is probably one of the greatest reasons that people, both Christian and non-Christian, give for not fellowshipping together in a church setting. 'There's just too many hypocrites there', they might say. Unfortunately; this is all too true! 'Why would I want to be a Christian; I don't see any difference', might be another response you have heard of. One problem that we, as parents, face ( and I must admit that I have failed miserably, and still do ! ) is that our children, although sometimes following our good examples, more often than not, follow our failures, our bad examples, and then when we reprimand them for acting wrongly, they tell you that you're a hypocrite, and them blame their own failures on you. Again; I'm not excusing our own bad behavior, but neither should we excuse theirs, just because we're at fault as well!

I have recently had an email 'conversation' with a friend of mine, in which he brought up the fact that he used to pray to God to be free of his smoking habit. He admitted that; because he did not want to quit: he could not. He had what he termed 'a false faith'! He said that because he had prayed ( in faith ), but didn't actually want to quit: he was not able to quit, because James said, 'faith without works is dead'. Even if we pray in faith, if we do not act upon that faith, then that faith is useless, even to the point of being hypocritical!

We, as Christians, need to be very careful that our 'walk' is not hypocritical, not least, because of the position that God has placed us in, as the only Christ that most people will ever see, and as fellow-workers with Him, building and working for His Kingdom on earth!

Let us pray for one another, building each other up, and acting upon those prayers, and using the strength that Christ has given us to make better choices, changing the patterns of our own lives! I have much to work on in this area myself, and I ask that you would pray for me, that I would follow this example by practicing what I preach!

for the Kingdom,
Charles Shank