I do agree with you regarding those that truelly reflect and examine their lives. We all fall short. However, there are many that do not take the time to reflect or to examine their motives, instead simply continue on with their self-affirming ways. Their motives are usually varied but include pride, immaturity, narcissism, or some combination of these traits. These are the hypocrites that people refer to when they say that they will not set foot in any church. These are the people that drive a wedge between God and those that seek Him. That’s not to mention those hypocrites that use God to extort favors and other resources from people who simply want to worship God. These hypocrites use the good will of the innocents to benefit from the efforts of others all the while contributing little to nothing in the bargain. Such people need to be weeded out of the church and allowed to proclaim their self-love prinicples with their most beloved disciples- themselves.

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Loved the blog. I totally agree. My professor in college used to say, “In the church, most of us aren’t full-on hypocrites. We are what I would call semis who are working through all of this stuff by God’s grace. Oh and if you’re not a semi, you’re probably full-on!”

-Matt

When Jesus tells us in Luke 12:1 “…Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” we recognize that the Pharisees were ‘church’ leaders.

Of course the Pharisees rejected Jesus and were ‘self-righteous’ in their own eyes, as Jesus pointed out over and over to their faces – yet isn’t the temptation to hypocrisy always before us, especially the longer we are in church?

Aren’t we continually tempted to stay ‘in our comfort zones’ – and have our own little ‘clicks’ just like the world? And wouldn’t that also be a form of hyporcrisy?

Aren’t we all tempted to ‘go through the motions’ of going to church and singing worship songs, without having it be meaningful or from our heart in worship to our Lord, and then wouldn’t that also be a form of hypocrisy?

And isn’t finding fault with others when we are blinded by our own sin, which is like trying to remove a splinter from the eye of another when there is a plank in our own, also a form of hypocrisy in the church?

Sometimes we may feel like a hypocrite when we are being convicted of a sin that we love and don’t want to repent of.

But there are also times when the devil will condemn us for our failures even after we’ve repented, and we don’t experience God’s peace.

Then we must recognize the spiritual battle and be on the offensive and put on the whole armor of God.

We don’t want to own the thoughts that the devil tempts us with, they are lies. We own the truth of God’s word and remember what He says about us. He loves us!

When we are tempted to feel like a hypocrite because we are in a spiritual battle, we must hold onto God truths above our feelings, and rejoice in Him by faith. Our feelings will follow and the devil will flee . . . until the next time.

There are certainly hyporcrites in church, especially in churches who are ‘seeker friendly’ and who don’t speak of sin, consequences of sin, death and hell.

Blessings to all in Christ!