How many of us have had conversation with those who choose not to believe, and we hear this response, “I use to go to church, when I was younger, and it was full of hypocrites, and people who claimed to be Christians, but didn’t follow their own preaching.”
You’ve all heard that, right? Folks, this is what a person says, that doesn’t know God. They are right! But what they are doing here is justifying their unwillingness to seek out God for themselves, by using the sins of man as a reason not to believe. If only we could convince them that those sins are the very reason that every one of us should allow God into our heart.
Jesus himself gives them the answer.
Mathew 23:1-4 “1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
What is a Christian?
We all know the answer to this. A Christian is a person who has made the decision to follow Christ, but! Here is the kicker. Tell this to a non-believer and you will get the rebuttal I described above, every single time. It’s because being a Christian is much more than that simple description, and it’s this part that non-believers don’t often hear. In fact, it’s very difficult to get a non-believer to even pay attention to this next part. They hear the noise of the words, but it gets lost in the translation and just becomes noise that they’ve learned to drown out with their inaccurate ideas and thoughts.
A Christian is someone who knows they sin. In fact, a Christian is well aware of their sins and hypocrisies. We Christians know that God made us as imperfect creatures that cannot live sinless lives. We can try to be sinless. We can use the Son of God as an example of how to live a sinless life, and we can do everything within our power to live our lives as close to his as possible. But we will sin again, and we will be hypocrites because of our sin.
Romans 3:23 “23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Think about this.
Who is the bigger sinner? A man who claims to be a Christian, while looking down upon non-believers for not proclaiming Jesus, all while being a hypocrite by his sins. Or, is it a man who refuses to believe what the “Christian” says to him, because the “Christian” doesn’t acknowledge his on hypocrisy? This is what we highfalutin people call, a conundrum. Perhaps we should seek out our answer in Jesus’ words in the book of Mathew.
Mathew 7:3-5 “3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”
Walk alongside and not in front of
Christ compels us to spread the word of God’s existence and of his offer salvation for our sins. But we can’t do this if we refuse to acknowledge our own sin. It is just simply not possible for us to lead non-believers to salvation, if we pretend that we are free of sin. They will catch us in our sin, and they will use our sin as a weapon and an excuse to remain lazy and unwilling to seek out God on their own.
The way to the soul of a sinner is through acknowledgement of our own sin. Take their hand, say to them, “We are all sinners, and if I refuse to admit my sin, I will be the hypocrite that you say I am. Walk with me and we can both be clear eyed.” Ask them not to follow you into faith, but to trust that you have seen the result of faith and that even though you sin, you have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and that you know with certainty that salvation exists.
Your pleas may go unanswered, and a non-believer may still refuse to believe. But, along with removing the spec from your own eye, you also remove the hypocrisy.
A great explanation here!
Love this brother. Often I have had to admit my sinful past and daily shortfalls in order to break the ice to talk with people who may feel unworthy of the love that God has for them and the gift of eternal life. God has given you an awesome gift. Keep writing and inspiring.
Thank you. Sometimes, it’s like a burden I need to let go of, so I write it all down and release it. It gives me great joy to write, and the feeling of sitting back after writing something is an addiction to me.
Jamey, you are such an inspiration to me. Always have been.
What a wonderful way to but this. I will be using this next time I witness.