Hypocrites Part II

I'm going to go about this two different ways. First a short note to people who have been burned by the Church. I won't try to appologize because I imagine that an appology coming from a member of the Church might not carry much weight. I will tell you though that I believe Jesus is often saddened by the actions of those who claim His name. Hopefully you will be able to not judge our leader by his followers.

Second, I want to write to Christians. I want to challenge us to stop calling each other hypocrites. Of course we are hypocrites. We are all hypocrites. I believe that the most dangerous "hypocricy issue" to the Church is the fact that we have forgotten that we are all hypocrites. At the core, Christianity says that we cannot live up to the standard that God has set. Thus unless we lower that standard we are all hypocrites.

Here is an example from my life. Last week I lost my temper in a game of basketball. Let's imagine that some kids from my youth group saw me. Now I'm faced with a dilema. I can no longer talk to my youth group kids about anger without them seeing me as a hypocrite. So, I have a few options.

Option 1: avoidance- I never talk about anger again.

Option 2: I lower God's standard and tell kids that everyone sins so it really doesn't matter if we loose our temper- God loves us anyway.

Both of these options would prevent me from being hypocritical, but both of these options are dead wrong. How about option 3: I tell the kids that Jesus tells us not to loose our temper (Matthew 5:22). I admit that I struggle with this, but I remind them that I am not the example that they are to follow- Jesus is. I may be a hypocrite, but Jesus is not. I tell them that though I may fail, I am still going to keep striving for the standard that God has set. I challenge them to do the same, and I promise to support them as they try and sometimes fail.

I really appreciate the comments that were left on the post from Friday. I think you both were right on. I think that the Church would be far better off and make a much greater impact if we would constantly remember that we are all hypocritical sinners who are in need of the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Let's remeber that and strive to extend that grace to each other as well.

As a "Work in Progress" I want to leave you with my favorite verse: Philippians 3:12- "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."