Pub Talks is a conversation at the intersection of Christianity and culture. The goal is to have the opportunity for Christians and non-Christians to listen and learn from alternative world views with grace and understanding while still having a civil conversation. It is our hope that we could help cultivate a forum where people talk with each other, not about each other. Over the past few months we have been working through American’s top objections to Christianity, and this past month we discussed hypocrisy.
“Christians are so hypocritical.”
For many Christians it’s a difficult statement to respond to because it’s so glaringly true. Christians are people and people fall into the sin of hypocrisy. Christians, like all other humans sometimes act in a way that doesn’t line up with what they believe. As the late author and pastor Brennan Manning said, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
There’s no avoiding the objection, so we must be ready for it. As soon as you declare a specific belief, you’re immediately put into a fishbowl, with all eyes on you waiting for a contradiction. And to be fair, Christians often do the same to non-Christians. The Bible, however, does not take hypocrisy lightly. Matthew 7:5 says, “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.” The hypocrite is the one with a two-by-four in his eye pointing out the splinter in someone else’s eye. But notice the verse says to get the log out of your own eye first “and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Removing specks from eyes is perfectly permissible, but it’s hard to do that with logs in our own. The Bible doesn’t necessarily speak against correction or critique but rather against hypocritical judgement, and that’s the problem.
We are all hypocrites. Christians and non-Christians. And Jesus died to save and redeem hypocrites. For Christians, we should be the first to admit we are prone to hypocrisy. This is what makes the truth of Jesus Christ good news, there is help, there is hope, there is redemption and new life. Through Jesus Christ one can be made right with God and offered not just a new start, but a new life; a life that is grieved by one’s own hypocrisy but marvels at Jesus Christ’s marvelous grace. There is more mercy and grace in Jesus than hypocrisy in us. Receiving this good news frees us from the bondage of defining ourselves and needing to be right all the time.
Jesus calls us to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We’re called to remove specks, to call people to repent and believe along with us, and this can most easily be done when our own eyes are lumber free. So, next time someone calls you a hypocrite, that’s a hit you have to take. As Christians, we’re to submit humbly to the truth even when it’s presented by a person who disagrees with you. It’s a posture like this - humble, can admit when it’s wrong, and speaks truth in love, that we want to cultivate at Pub Talks.
Join us for our next Pub Talks session on Sunday, February 9th at Kunstler Brewing starting at 4pm. The first beer is on the house - bring a friend and come be a part of the conversation.