Are All Christians Hypocrites?
This is a well-worn criticism from many non-Christian people especially those who are sceptical about Christianity. The answer of course is No, not all Christians are hypocrites. A hypocrite is a pretender, someone who says one thing but belies their own words. A person who is a real nice guy in public but a horrible guy in private. So no very few Christians are like that.
The allegation that all christians are hypocrites comes from a mis-understanding about what Christianity actually is. In short, christians are not perfect not even the most pious amongst us. Christians are normal human beings who have experienced the forgiveness that Jesus offers and accepted Him as their personal saviour and Lord but are certainly not made perfect at that moment. I like to say that we are ‘under construction’. That is to say we are trying our best, with Gods help to live lives that are more truthful, more loving, more faithful and more compassionate. In short we are becoming more like Christ. That is the pursuit of all christians.
Let me illustrate. A person who swears a lot becomes a Christian. Invariably they will want to stop swearing and sometimes they do ‘there and then’. However, at other times there is a wee bit of a process and work to be done to stop the swearing resulting in them still swearing for a while yet confessing they are christians. That, I agree has all the appearances of being hypocritical. Same can be said for anger, gambling, playing the field etc etc.
It's true that every box has a few ‘bad apples’ whether that is law, medicine or wherever and unfortunately we have them in the Christian box.
Finally there is one other challenge christians face in this regard. We believe certain things that come from the Bible that have to do with ‘moral and social issues’. Sometimes we are compelled to speak out or even protest on a particular issue like abortion or uncommitted sex or euthanasia or human trafficking or war etc. As hard as most of us try for this not to be so it is true that in some cases our words are strong and may even sound judgemental. All christians are called to uphold goodness and beauty, and to speak the truth. Sometimes, a passion for truth and goodness is held up next to personal failures and the christians in question are labelled hypocrites or worse all christians are pinned with that label.
As the bumper sticker says ‘christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven’.
Written By Alan Vink
