Culture and Worldview: Are all Christians hypocrites?
People outside Christianity often see the faith not as good news but good deeds. By their definition, Christians are supposed to love people and feed people and help people—not talk about sin and repentance and Jesus. Maybe you’ve even heard someone say something like, “Christians are hypocrites because they’re supposed to love everybody, but then they go and talk about sin. And that’s not loving.” But as a Christian, we answer, “That is loving.” People point out my sin and help me get past it. I talk to them about their sin and assist them in finding forgiveness and freedom. That is how we love each other—because that is how God loved us. Now, that does not exclude all the other expressions of love people might expect—like caring for the needy— but those acts of love must be born out of a heart of love that comes from believing in the message of Jesus Christ.
A Christian is someone who is undergoing a theological, moral, and social transformation—a radical change in thoughts, actions, and relationships. A Christian is someone who holds tight to the Good News— the truth that Jesus died in our place for our sins, a fact proven by His resurrection from the dead. In contrast, a hypocrite is a person who does not preach what they practice or practice what they preach. A hypocrite is someone who wears a mask and plays a role, pretending to be someone they are not.
Bible scholar Larry Richards explains the concept of hypocrisy in the New Testament. He says:
The Greek words hypokrinomai (appears once in the NT), hypokrisis (6 times in the NT), and hypokritēs (20 times in the NT) denote someone acting out the part of a character in a play. In Greek drama the actors held over their faces oversized masks painted to represent the character they were portraying. In life, the hypocrite is a person who masks his real self while he plays a part for his audience.1
That background of the word hypocrite in Greek theater makes for an amazingly concrete definition. Richards goes on to explain what it looks like when someone “masks his real self” and “plays a part for his audience”:
What characterizes the religious hypocrite? In Matthew’s Gospel (where 16 of the 27 occurrences of these Greek words occur) we note these things:
- A hypocrite does not act spontaneously from the heart but with calculation, to impress observers (Mt 6:1–3).
- A hypocrite thinks only of the external trappings of religion, ignoring the central, heart issues of love for God and others (Mt 15:1–21).
- A hypocrite uses spiritual talk to hide base motives (Mt 22:18–22).
- Jesus gives this warning that to the hypocrites of every age: “Woe to you” (Mt 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29).2
I had an interesting discussion about hypocrisy with Greg Koukl, co-author with Francis Beckwith of the book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid- Air. He says that whenever someone throws around a loaded word like tolerance or hypocrisy, he asks for clarification. He says, “When somebody says, ‘Well, you’re intolerant. You’re a hypocrite,’ maybe I am, maybe I’m not. It kind of depends on what you mean. So I ask, ‘What is it that you’re seeing in my life that you think is an example of hypocrisy?’ That is, ‘What is your definition of hypocrisy that you’d think I’m one of those?’”
In the real-world setting of the New Testament, Jesus called out the religious leaders as fakers. Koukl explains, “On the outside, they were putting on a religious display, but on the inside, they were deeply corrupt and evil.”
There is no doubt that there were religious hypocrites in the New Testament. They had a sizable role in the unfolding drama as a foil to Jesus. But we are wondering about believers today. A sizeable chunk of people in our survey and focus group agreed with the statement “Most Christians are hypocrites.” But that raises a very big question: Does that shoe really fit most Christians? Like Koukl says, “I actually don’t think so. The reason I can say that is because I know a lot of Christians. When someone makes the charge, ‘The church is filled with hypocrites,’ I have what I think is a fair question, ‘When was the last time you were in a church?’”
Koukl points out that many people who throw around that accusation never darken the doors of a church, but they still have no problem drawing conclusions about what the people inside are like. No surprise there. That’s just human nature. But that doesn’t make their accusations factually true. Koukl says, “Most of the Christians I know are real human beings deeply committed to their values, and they are not fakers. Are they perfect Christians? No. Nobody is. I’m not. You’re not. The only perfect ‘Christian’ was Jesus. The rest of us are struggling.”
ALL HYPOCRITES ARE SINNERS
People who only know a Jesus who is meek and mild must be unaware of the ferocity He unleashes on true hypocrisy. Pretty much every time He speaks of hypocrisy it comes as a stinging indictment of religious leaders (e.g., Matt. 6:2, 6:5, 6:16, 15:7, 22:18, 23:13, 23:15, 23:23, 23:25, 23:27, 23:29, 24:51; Mark 7:6; Luke 13:15). He saw where only God can see, past their external show and into their empty hearts. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and pall uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:27–28 ESV).
Hypocrisy is all about wearing a mask, and the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were masters of playing a part.
As a spiritual leader, those words of Jesus terrify me. They move me to examine my motives to uncover any hypocrisy taking hold of my life. And of the thousands of other pastors I have met, most take Jesus’ teaching to heart. They are keenly aware of their own shortcomings and concerned about their integrity. They know they are sinners with faults, flaws, and failures, and they sincerely desire to not cross the line from sin to hypocrisy.
NOT ALL SINNERS ARE HYPOCRITES
Most Christians are not as great as they should be but not as bad as they would be without Jesus in their life. They have changed…are changing…and will continue to change by God’s grace.
So I come back to what I stated above: All human beings are sinners. All hypocrites are sinners. But not all sinners are hypocrites. There is a vital distinction between a hypocrite and a sinner. One puts on a mask and pretends to be what they are not. The other peels off the mask and strives to be more than they are. Most of us are just plain old sinners making the most of God’s grace to grow to be more like Jesus.
I coach myself to remain aware of this distinction between hypocrite and sinner every time someone walks into my office. I need to consider not just where someone is but also how far they have come. I acknowledge where people have already changed before I challenge them to something more. Whether or not we believe in Jesus, isn’t this how we want people to respect us? We owe others as much.
As a pastor, I confess getting frustrated with people doing what they should not or not doing what they should. Once I take time to understand the trajectory of their life, however, I have more compassion, patience, and hope for them.
Years ago, there was a solid unmarried guy in our church who dated some amazing women. But every time the relationship started getting serious, he broke things off for no good reason. He claimed he wanted to be married and have a family, but he fled every time that opportunity presented itself. I admit being frustrated with this guy who confused and hurt more than a few women by his actions. Then he sat in my office and explained his background as an only child. His father had been married seven times. He cried as he unloaded his fear that he would get married, have a kid, end up divorced, and cause his child to experience the hurt he felt as a little boy. He feared the one thing he wanted the most. He seemed like a bad guy, but the more I understood his story, I realized he was just a broken guy.
Our stories do not excuse our behavior, but they do help explain it. And the premise of Christianity is that the church is a hospital for people who need help. Jesus the Great Physician said this very thing. He declared, “I have come not to call the healthy but the sick” (Mark 2:17). This fact does not excuse hypocrisy, but it does help to explain it. Much like you wouldn’t show up at a hospital to declare it a failure because sick people were there, it’s unfair to show up at a church and declare it a disaster because sinners are there. In fact, I encourage you to challenge the people who think we are all hypocrites to join us on our journey of getting healed.
Jesus commanded us to get the plank out of our own eye before we try to pick a speck of dust out of the eye of another (Matt. 7:3–5). Christians and non-Christians all have plenty of planks. It is the human predicament that Jesus came to resolve. And the dynamic I see going on here is once again like the two brothers back in Jesus’ story of the lost sons. The religious brother and rebellious brother are like mirrors for each other. You see the worst of yourself in the other. The rebellious brother looks at the religious brother and is like, “You’re just a hypocritical jerk.” You know what? There is truth to that. The religious brother looks at the rebellious brother and says, “You’re absolutely self-serving.” And you know what? There might be some truth to that too. Maybe not. A non-Christian might not think so. But you’ve probably never met another human being who doesn’t have problems. I know I haven’t. Some people aren’t ready to call their stuff “sin,” but I think Jesus was on to something when He willingly bled, died, and rose from death to forgive and fix our “stuff.”
University of Virginia sociologist Bradley R. E. Wright wrote a whole book called Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been
Told. I want to direct you to it as a resource. My goal is not to pretend that Christians don’t have problems, but to point out that with the help of Jesus, we make measurable progress. Wright compiles statistic upon statistic showing that the more seriously Christians take their faith…the more committed they are to getting help in Christian community… the more likely they are to live differently from the world around them. Wright examines whether or not Christians really are hypocrites in areas such as marriage, divorce, sex, crime, substance abuse, and everyday honesty. The book is packed with compelling data to help all of us deal in facts when it comes to Christian hypocrisy and reveals that in general, Christians are not hypocrites. They actually practice what they preach as they grow by grace in what was preached to them through Jesus.
This is an excerpt from Pastor Mark’s Christians Might Be Crazy. You can get the free e-book here.
- Larry Richards, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words: Based on the NIV and the NASB (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999), 348.
- Ibid.