The Hypocrisy Of Throwing The First Stone.
I find it amusingly ironic that the biggest complaint against the Christian Church is that we are hypocrites yet our accusers cannot see their own hypocrisy. It seems in our society that if you proclaim a saving faith in Jesus Christ you are automatically supposed to be ushered into perfection. To deny the resurrection and deity of Christ atheists sure seem to judge us by His word. I don’t find fault in their accusations nor do I dismiss their claims. What I take issue with is the fact that they are seemingly above the same judgment that they so willingly cast on us.
The term hypocrisy is defined by Merriam Webster as “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.” So aptly defined the word basically means to say one thing and do another. Who among us can deny our own hypocrisy? I will be the first to admit that my life may not always be perfect and I may sin, stumble and even be hypocritical but I am at least honest in my shortcomings. In fact let me go a step further and admit my frailty as a human being, my disgusting sin nature that I was born into and my reluctance to really let Christ change my heart sometimes. It’s easier for us to stay as we are instead of letting Christ define us as he sees us, as we really are. 2 Corinthians 5:17 is one of my favorite scriptures and it says, “therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old is gone the new has come!” When we are truly IN Christ and are defined by Him our lives will look more like Jesus and less like our old sinful selves. The issue is staying IN Christ, walking in constant relationship with him and allowing him to continually transform us, allowing us to die daily to our sins and former self.
Sometimes we just fake it because we think others around us somehow have achieved a higher level of spirituality than we have, but let me be the first to tell you if no one ever has, Christ overcame the world. That means he overcame your insecurity, your hypocrisy, you doubt and even your unbelief! Christ isn’t calling you to perfection, if that were the case we wouldn’t need him and the Law of Moses would have been all we ever needed for our atonement. Christ is calling you to a place of completeness, a place of real revival in him where you can know him relationally. So even when you drop the ball you know that his grace is there to pick you back up. We are all hypocrites, the real issue is admitting our brokenness and showing a glorified Christ in the midst of it all.