Christians Are Hypocrites!

I’ve talked with you a little bit recently about the sociology class that I am presently participating in. It has a focus on issues of family. While conversing about different sociological theories involving the family we discussed perceptions. When we enter an environment our minds automatically begin to form opinions of the environment. The stimulation of the senses (hearing, touch, smell, etc.) begin to merge with regions of the brain that recall the experiences of our past and those combinations are where our preliminary perceptions or opinions come from.

This is true of people too. Everyday we see people we don’t know and based on our senses and our memory recall we draw an initial conclusion about that person. That conclusion can and most often does evolve as we interact with that person, but that initial snapshot our mind takes forces our brain to summarize our experience and form an initial assessment of the person. What kind of clothes is the person wearing? Are they designer or are they from K-Mart (nothing wrong with K-Mart)? Are the clothes new or worn? Is the person’s hair neatly styled and fashionable? Does the person know how to color coordinate? Are their hands and fingernails clean? How does that person smell…too much cologne or perfume, bad breath, etc? You get the point.

All of those things in a discussion may seem petty and shallow, but our mind notices those things whether we care to admit it or not. Some people are better judges of character then others and so their perceptions often appear to be more accurate, although I don’t know of any scientific evidence or systematic manner to increase the odds of prejudging someone based solely on their immediate presentation in a random environment.

So how does any of this tie in with the topic of Christians are hypocrites? One of the most prevalent excuses that are heard of why people do not go to church or participate in any organized religion is that they feel Christians are too judgmental and hypocritical. Guess what, they’re right. We are very judgmental, despite our best efforts not to be and despite our ability or inability to veil the judgment. Also, we often proclaim a certain attainment of righteousness that we’re unable to achieve and maintain ourselves. That is hypocrisy!

At this point I feel a need to discuss some of my own experiences with Christianity. I became a Christian at the ripe old age of eight just shortly after my father’s untimely accidental death. From that time till now my expression as a Christian has changed many times. I have had extreme high periods of moral character, integrity, and closeness to God and conversely I have had times when I questioned the very existence of God and acted in rebellion to what I knew I believed to be the will of God.

I’ve probably sinned more or at least in greater contrast to the good I have done as a Christian. During my junior high school days while trying to make it through early adolescents I stole merchandise on two occasions. I’ve lied, cheated, had impure thoughts that I chose not to bring into check, lusted over pornography, had premarital sex on numerous occasions, though never using any tobacco products or recreational drugs of any kind I did get drunk a lot for a period of time (I don’t drink at all anymore), violated the sacred bonds of best friendship, and I even came between a man and his wife once. I am sure this isn’t an all inclusive list, but it doesn’t need to be to drive my point home which is this…

During all my transgressions I had already encountered God and had a saving experience with His son Jesus Christ. I placed my faith in Christ making me, I believe, a Christian; a Christian that often professed one thing but whose lifestyle often did not parallel my faith or profession. My iniquities and their hard earned, often painful, consequences have helped to shape my perspectives and given me insight. Thank God for mercy and grace for without it we would all be doomed to eternal separation from God…damnation.

I’ve said all of this to bring me to this point. It is so extremely easy to draw a conclusion about someone from things that are superficial. It’s even easy to have knowledge about a person and rush to judgment. Herein lies the problem; not many people will willingly walk into a situation knowing a judgment will be cast upon them. The next time you encounter a stranger be conscious of the process your mind takes as it forms its initial assessment. Do it as an experiment.

We’re neither qualified nor responsible for judging each other despite the fact that we all do it to some degree or another. That doesn’t mean we have to accept a certain behavior or sinful act. We’re not responsible for the actions of another person, but we are solely responsible for our own actions. As the teaching of Christ goes, “Hate the sin, Love the sinner.” It’s through our expression of love and willingness to accept a person where they are that a person will begin to obtain a level of open-mindedness that will lead them to an encounter with Christ. We’re the first picture of Christ that many people will ever see. We need to reflect His image.

As long as people place Christians on a pedestal and/or as long as we put ourselves there we’re always going to have periods of failure. We fall down, but we get back up. We should be striving to reach a level of sanctification while we journey through life. Christians aren’t perfect, but we do have grace, mercy, and redemption because we know enough to seek it out. We can’t help but be hypocritical because we’re fallible. We are, after all, only human.