I've sinned. I've done "big" sins, I've done "small" sins, I've done "medium-sized" sins. I've justified my sin, by convincing myself that they weren't that big of a deal. Some of my sin was found out, a lot of it wasn't but in every case my sin was still wrong. The closer I get to God, the harder it becomes to sin because my desire to please God grows greater than my desire to sin daily. However, making the conscious decision not to sin moving forward does not erase the fact that I have sinned before, nor does it mean that I won't ever sin again. I am still human and as such I err, but I've learned to be careful not to allow my humanity to be the crutch in my salvation. Romans 5:20b says, "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" yet a few verses later Romans 6: 1 & 2 says, " What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead in sin, live longer therein?"
Here lies what I call the Christian Conundrum, where I believe a lot of our hypocrisy creeps in.
One of the plights of the Christian is to constantly be under scrutiny. God calls us to "Let {our} light so shine before men, that they may see {our} good works, and glorify {our} Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16), but so often we feel the world sees us more like Paul when he says, " For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do"(Romans 7:19). I know that for me it always seems like my biggest mistakes as a Christian I've made in front of an audience. So, how can I tell others that His Word is infallible and true when not only have I behaved contrary to His Word, others have seen me do it too?
If it is in your heart to do right your actions will speak loudly of that truth. Conversely, if it is not in you to do the right thing, you are always talking about what the right thing "ought to be" and all anyone sees is how well you do your wrong...you are a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs that you do not actually possess, especially because your actions belie your stated beliefs (Dictionary.com). That's the exact definition of a hypocrite.
May 9th 2016 I posted a blog titled "Read Yourself". At the end of this blog I essentially professed to having given up clubbing. The year 2017 I made a hypocrite of myself. So much so that I took a self-imposed hiatus from blogging. How dare I take such a public stance and then fall so easily and so often into the thing I said was no good for me. Then of course I had to take some time to wallow in my guilt and self-pity. If in my daily walk all those around me see me living contrary to what I claim I believe, could I be surprised when they called me a hypocrite?
Philippians 3: 13 & 14 says, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus". I choose to move forward and be different from what I was before and with God's help I am able to be a new creature in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:17) This means that I acknowledge my wrong, repent and move forward. It means that I shouldn't be found in that same mistake again.
Thankfully, by the time I wrote "Whoops" I had repented and corrected my behaviors, but it was not an easy process. I had to admit to myself and to God not only my sin, but my hypocrisy.
Talk about a humbling experience.
It is so important for us as Christians to live the life we claim to live. How can we draw others in to meet God, if as representations of Him we are contrary? It bothers me so much that people see Christian, and they hear hypocrite. Or you say God and they hear hateful. But the only way to change the perceptions of what a Christian is, is to live the way a Christian should.
Post a comment below about how you are going to let your light shine this week!
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