The Trouble with Christians!
Those who do not profess Christianity many times point their fingers at Christians who they consider are hypocrites. A hypocrite in this instance is one who professes the Christian principles with his/her talk, but does not demonstrate their Christianity in his/her walk.
Ecclesiastes 10:1 says, “As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor.”
I have always said that a little spirituality can make one very religious.
Jesus had harsh words for the religious Pharisees. Pharisees were very proud that they had memorized great portions of the Law and that they were able to judge others as to whether they were obeying the Law or not. They held themselves above others and wore their self-righteousness as a badge of honor. Jesus upset them by proclaiming what was really in their hearts.
In my many years of dealing with Christians and ministers of the Gospel, I have seen both sheep and wolves, and shepherds and hirelings. In the many years of dealing with the general public, I have seen the genuine and the counterfeit, the honest and the pretender.
In other words, even sinners can be, and often times are, hypocrites.
You have hypocrites at play, at school, at work, at the supermarket, on the golf course, at the hair salon, in your neighborhood, on the police force, at church and yes, in the ministry. Hypocrites are anywhere there are two or more people gathered together. People who profess one thing and practice another are all around you, and if you and I are honest, we have been a hypocrite ourselves more than once in our lives.
This is because we miss the main point about people; we all are born into a sinful world as sinners. We all have a fallen nature that desires to do anything and everything that goes against our conscience and the character of our Creator. Paul explains it in detail in Romans 7:14-25. The law of sin works in our bodies to do just that; sin. It takes the Power of the Holy Spirit to transform our natural minds to understand and to obey the law of life as found in Christ Jesus. The individual soul has to surrender its will to the will of God before the Holy Spirit can change that heart.
The Cherokee Indians understand this battle for our hearts and minds.
The Cherokee understood that he had to feed the good wolf to be able to demonstrate its character in his life. Jesus told the Pharisees that the outside was all polished for men to see, but the inside of their hearts was like a grave full of corruption and dead bones. Paul said we have to transform and renew our natural minds with the spiritual life that is found in the living Word of God before we can bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Paul lists the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit so that we make no mistake about what the Holy Spirit should be demonstrating in our hearts. Jesus said the mouth speaks from the heart and whatever is in the heart will come forth in our words. No matter how much we try to impress others with our superior spirituality, people will see us as religious instead of as a sincere follower of Christ.
Could this be what the wise man meant when he penned the words, “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise.” (Proverbs 10:19)
God says, “be still and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)
I fellowshipped with a Choctaw Indian, as a fellow minister, when I was pastoring in Maryland. He was a man of very few words; but when he stood in the pulpit and began to expound from the Scriptures, he had a lot of deep things to share. Old time preachers used to spend days in fasting and hours in prayer before stepping up to the pulpit to preach; and when they did, people were convicted of their sins and came to the altar in repentance, and walked away with their lives changed for the good. Could this be why we have mega-churches today where those who attend look and talk like the world? We live in a busy age where smartphones demand our attention, leaving little space inside the closet to be still and pray over God’s Word.
The bumper sticker which says, ‘Christians are forgiven, not perfect’ carries a lot of truth. The problem is that certain Christians forget we all are still sinners, no matter what label we attach to ourselves. The only difference between believers in Christ and those who do not believe in Christ, is that believers are forgiven of their sins and unbelievers are not. I am a forgiven sinner as I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. My past sins are forgiven, but I am still capable of sinning. Sin is the transgression of the Law, and there is no man who does not sin, except for Jesus Christ.
The Apostle John wrote his letters to believers in Christ, informing them that when they do sin they have an advocate with the Father in Jesus Christ the righteous, who is faithful and just to forgive us as we ask Him to do so. (I John 2:1)
The problem with sinners is that they wish to justify their sins by pointing out the faults of Christians. The problem with Christians is that they forget they are still very sinful and lift themselves up instead of Christ.
We live in a world of counterfeits: counterfeit money, counterfeit merchandise, and counterfeit people. To have a counterfeit, you must have the genuine article. There’s no point in counterfeiting a counterfeit. You counterfeit the genuine. The devil is the master at counterfeiting; as he even transforms himself into an angel of light to deceive people into following his false teachers.
Parents fail, teachers fail, public service employees fail, government leaders fail, ministers fail, people fail; but it doesn’t mean they are bad people or hypocrites unless they make failure and sin a way of life and still pretend to have never failed or sinned. Pretension turns us off in people, and it also turns God’s mercy off toward us.
God expects us to acknowledge our sins to Him, allowing Him to graciously forgive them; while we walk in humility, knowing that we have been forgiven a great debt, by being ready to forgive those who ask us to forgive them.
Some people carry a false humility about their sins being forgiven, by bringing attention to their shortcomings and failures; making sure others know about the details of their sins and how much they love God for forgiving them. False humility is another form of pride, which God hates. God doesn’t want us to be proud of being a forgiven sinner, but to lift up the Christ who showed mercy to us.
Other people judge those people who do things which they think they would never do. Love covers a multitude of sins; it doesn’t seek to uncover details. God doesn’t hang dirty laundry out for the whole neighborhood to see, and neither should we. Comparing ourselves to others by seeking the dirt in their lives, may inflate our ego, but it causes the love of God, that we should be showing, to stink as the fly in the ointment.
True humility comes from spending time on your knees before God, while meditating on the teachings of His Word. It is a character trait that can only come from being in the Presence of Christ day after day, and year after year. If you have to tell people you are humble, you just told them that you are proud. In all the thousands of ministers that I have associated with, there are only a few who I would describe as humble and gentle servants of God. This is because most of us do not spend enough time with the model for humility and gentleness, Jesus Christ; and spend too much time keeping our mouths and minds busy, without discerning what agrees with His Word and character.
Yes, Christians have problems, but this doesn’t mean that sincere, humble, honest, genuine Christians do not exist. Maybe they’re just inside their closets praying for you and I, whether we be a sinner or a saint.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14)