“I heard you say the church was filled with hypocrites. Do you deny it?”
That’s how one woman in Albuquerque, NM challenged me. But did I say that? If I disagreed with her would she accuse me of lying, thereby compounding a possible error? Better yet: how would she react if I agreed with her? In situations like this people either think fast for a way out, or relax and allow the truth to percolate to the top. I chose to relax.
Our prior conversation revolved around several problems in the church. Evidently the word “hypocrite” was a hot button for her and she spaced out much of the conversation; and what she missed was more important than what she heard.
How about you? When you think of a football team, do you think of the team’s headquarters? How about the accountants, lawyers, or the stadium? No; you think of a man coaching and a group of guys decked out with pads and helmets colliding with other guys with pads and helmets. Every one of them has agreed to the same code of ethics in order to play the game. Now, do any of them ever make mistakes? Yes. On purpose? Sometimes. Do any ever lie? Most likely. Are any of them Christians? Yes.
So the common denominator is: football players are humans who are employed by a football organization to play the game, who make mistakes, and some of them break their code of ethics. Doesn’t that make them a hypocrite or do you think that hypocrites lurk only in Church?
“Church” is not a building of any sort; it isn’t an ecclesiastical institution; and it is not a business. Having said that, the church meets in buildings, it is known through many identifiable denominations, and good business sense is mandatory. Simply put: the church consists of people – some mature, some not – most of whom abide by a common code of ethics and standard: the Bible.
Okay, but what is a hypocrite? The word is hypocrites (pronounced hi-pó-cri-tās in Greek) and means “actor”. In ancient Greek culture a hypocrite was a non-religious stage actor, or pretender; and by implication, a deceiver. So the question could be: is the church the only place in the world where we find actors, pretenders, or deceivers? I strongly doubt it: ever hear of Hollywood, Broadway, Politicians, or scam artists?
An Encyclopedia of Christianity said: “In 1985 David Barrett could count 22,150 distinct denominations worldwide.” However another edition claims that “there are 10,000 distinct religions, of which 150 have one million or more followers. Within Christianity, we count 33,820 denominations. [Latest count someone told me was over 40,000 denomination.]” And the last time I counted, I found no less than sixty Baptist and thirty Pentecostal denominations in the United States alone. I also found the statistic that as many as one third of our 7,400,000,000 people in the world claim to be Christian. I wonder how many non-Christians claim to be Christians. Wouldn’t that make them hypocrites? Maybe that’s why we find hypocrites in the church!
I find it interesting that many who defame the church are, themselves, hypocrites.
Back to the Albuquerque challenge. I did not say that the church was filled with hypocrites. But I did say that, as in every organization and in every religion in the world, there are also hypocrites in the Body of Christ – the Church. However, since numerically speaking there are more pretenders in the world than there are in the Church, why is the Church always defamed for having these terrible monsters in it?
According to the Bible, Jesus is the head of the Church, and the Church is the
body of Christ. And since we proclaim a high code of ethics as found in the Bible, we are expected to adhere to a higher standard, higher code of ethics, and higher morality than the world. The world is not expected to live up to our standard; but when we don’t, the world notices it. Therefore, when any of us violate our code of ethics, we not only let Jesus and the church down, we also let the world down. That’s why they view the Church as no better than they are and we become – you got it – hypocrites!
Church, for Jesus’ sake, and for the world’s sake, let’s practice what we preach.
Gene Linzey 