Too Many Hypocrites?

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “I don’t go to church because there are just too many hypocrites down there.” I’ve always said that that was a copout. People don’t keep people from going to other places they want go to. After all, what is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is a person who is a pretender. It is derived from the Greek term that means an actor, actually a person behind a mask. Jesus used the term to describe the Pharisees because they used a mask of piety to hide their sinfulness.
 

The Pharisees hid behind religion. Jesus called them hypocrites because they knew the Law but did not follow it. Ron Carpenter, pastor of Redemption World Outreach Center, once said about religious people, “Religious people are full of rules but don’t follow any of the rules they’re full of.” We’ve all heard the motto of the hypocrite: “Do as I say and not as I do.”

 

This is why hypocrites should not come between us and our God. My question is this: what does that hypocrite have to do with our relationship with the Lord? We already know they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, so because the hypocrite isn’t doing what he or she should be doing, what has that to do with us? When we worship God, it should be between us and God. Our focus should be on Him and not on anyone else. Our worship of God has nothing to do with anyone else. We can use another person’s spiritual progress to encourage our own, but we should not allow another’s failure to discourage us.

 

Second, shouldn’t we know that the devil put hypocrites in the church for just that reason? In Matthew 13: 24-30, Jesus told us that the devil would sow tares among the wheat. What are tares other than pretenders—hypocrites? Tares pretend to be wheat when they are not. Hypocrites pretend to be Christians when they are not. Why does he sow tares among the wheat? He does so to dissuade and divide the believers and lead them into heresy. So when people refuse to go to church because of hypocrites, they are playing into the devil’s hands and just doing what he wants them to do, which is really what they want to do anyway—not go—and they use hypocrites as an excuse. The question could be asked, “Who is really the hypocrite?”

This is why I say it is a copout for people to use hypocrites as a reason for them to not go to church.