Hope For Hypocrites

Our church is studying hard questions friends may ask about the church and our faith. This week we talked about how people say they don’t want to go to church because there are so many hypocrites there. The first thing I thought was, yes, there are hypocrites in the church. I am one.

 

Josh, the teacher who spoke this week, reached out to people who have had trouble from someone in the church in their lives, and to veterans in the church, those who need to make sure we are showing people the truth of Jesus.

 

Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

These are some of my favorite verses, and I believe they can help both people who have been harmed by hypocrisy in the church, as well as veterans in the church, those of us Christians who know we are not perfect.

 

Matthew 23:13,15: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”

 

Josh said that it is not okay with Jesus when people in the church keep others from getting close to him. It hurts Jesus. It makes him mad.

 

Christians are often accused of judging others’ actions, while not being truthful to god’s ways themselves. I know I do this, but that is not what Jesus wants to do. He loves you and calls you to let him walk beside you and help. Matthew 11:28-30.

 

For those of us who are long-time Christians who are caught by sin, Josh said it may not be because we are evil people. We love God and want to obey him. But, for many reasons in our lives, we are hungry. There’s something we need that we can’t find, and Jesus wants to fill that need in us. He loves us. He offers to help us from the inside out. Jesus saves us, but our walk with him is a process. He offers to walk with us on a daily basis, giving us what we seek hungrily, changing us from the inside out.

 

Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

This does not happen the moment we become Christians. It is a process. Jesus loves us and wants to help us. As we are healed, we can more easily help others to be healed.