hypocrites, human frailty

[Christ_empowered]

I've been thinking on this one. My older, wiser, Pentecostal friend, Verna always tells me "don't let a hypocrite get between you and The Lord. Then they're closer to Jesus than you are." Fair enough.

Still...I wonder. Not that I'm the model Christian or whatever, lol, but...I never claimed to be. I remember when I was at Teen Challenge and the program manager got fired because of his obvious misuse of and addiction to Rx pain pills (he had some kinda surgery). Oh, that and some money went missing. Then I think about Christians who are materialistic and just as bad about a lot of other sins as other people, but they're...you know...respectable, conservative Christians.

And the liberal/progressive Christians aren't much better. Gay-affirming is the latest issue. In the name of tolerance and their version of Christian love, a lot of the more liberal end of the mainline denominations (and some mega churches, from what I've read) are "affirming" behavior that The Bible deems absolutely sinful. I'm not trying to single the whole gay thing out, just...I'm a former homogay, and I've seen what that lifestyle does to people. Its awful. I dunno, its like...I get out of that lifestyle after finally realizing the damage it does to people, including me, and the church I grew up in is now gay affirming. Weird, huh?

Anyway...I think also of other people at Teen Challenge, like one dude who'd been married 3, 4 times and got some shady "certification" to be a minister. The staff member who went to strip clubs and ended up spending TC money on crack. This is just one place, and probably not the best place from which to draw a sample, but....

Ugh. I just don't know. I know we're all just people. Christians actually admit that we're sinful and need Christ...I think very few of us claim to be super moral or anything. I just...I just don't know.

This was kind of a ramble, lol, but...what are your thoughts?

 

[WIP]

Are we not all hypocrites in one way or another? We claim the title "Christian" which implies that we are followers of Jesus Christ but in reality do we truly present ourselves like Jesus? We fall short and it is for this reason that we need Jesus. It is for this reason that I hope I stop myself short of passing judgement upon another's heart. God knows our hearts but we are able to deceive others quite easily.

 

[Obadiah]

My thoughts are similar. As I see it all sins are equal in God's eyes ("For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." James 2:10, NIV for example) so while the human consequences in this world may be more extreme for some things than for others, if a thing is actually a sin against God, the consequence (if there were no forgiveness) is always separation from God, which scripture actually refers to as "death"! That's not to say that since murder is "no worse" than telling a small lie (in God's eyes), that it's no big deal to murder. NO, just the opposite! That small lie is just as bad in God's eye's as is murder because both separate us from God if we haven't accepted the forgiveness that Jesus provided. Now if we consider drug use such as smoking crack to be a sin, it always strikes me as hypocritical that the "mature Christian" telling the brother that he is sinning terribly by smoking crack while he himself could hardly get out of bed that morning without feeding his caffeine addiction by loading up on a bunch of coffee. Yet he doesn't consider that drug abuse to be a sin. Does it matter that our society sees crack abuse as worse than caffeine abuse? Or murder worse than small lies? No, not in God's eyes. All sin separates us from Him, and in the long run separation from God is worse than any punishment that men can hand out!

My point isn't so much whether things like crack or coffee are actually sins or not as it is that we all would do well to not focus so much on what other people are doing and condemning them for it (if it's not hurting us directly), but rather to focus more on the love (agape love) that Jesus said he came to teach us. If we do this, we will not be discouraged by their assumed sins, even if they ARE a leader in a church or other ministry organization, but we will focus on our own relationship with God and on how we can share that with others.

 

[JoJoe]

Ohhh what a pill it is to swallow that no matter what we do, were going to sin. I agree with what Obidiah is saying about how sin is linier in God's eyes. It is worse for a murderer to deal with there own sin, then that of a liar but, both are punishable by death.

To me its hard not to be a hypocrite. Even though I consider myself one I do not let it judge others. Even the thought of sin (which we all do no matter what) leads to death if not repented.

I laugh a little when people say accepting the Lord into your heart is easy. No, fact is God asks for our unconditional love for him. Humans can't even do that for there own.

 

[WIP]

I laugh a little when people say accepting the Lord into your heart is easy. No, fact is God asks for our unconditional love for him. Humans can't even do that for there own.

Absolutely agree. If it were easy, a very large majority of the human race would do it. It's far more than just lip service.

 

[Christ_empowered]

I don't think my initial post was clear enough...I'm not saying condemn all acts of hypocrisy, its more like...how do we make room for human frailty but also deal with sin and encourage the pursuit of godliness? Especially in Christian leaders?

 

[evenifigoalone]

Seems like the best we can do is acknowledge that sin exists and it's not going away in this earthly life while also acknowledging that God can use us and wants us despite that. We can strive to look to scripture for all guidance, and should. But it's easier to have correct theology than it is to apply it perfectly, I guess. And our differences in views on so many subjects is just us having different ideas on how to fix and deal with it all.

 

[JoJoe]

I don't think my initial post was clear enough...I'm not saying condemn all acts of hypocrisy, its more like...how do we make room for human frailty but also deal with sin and encourage the pursuit of godliness? Especially in Christian leaders?

Sorry CE it was clear. I just responded and agreed to other posts. Should have quoted. I get scatter brained like that.

Well to me sin is what makes us frail, We can't deal with it. Jesus is the only one who defeated sin, so therefore we just get as close to our Lord as possible. Like I stated before the challenge doesn't fall under sin but, to love the Lord.

Many have read scripture but, not all believed. I was one and it's the reason I stopped for many years. I am coming to learn to accept sin for what it is, and no matter what we do we will be around it. No matter if its in the streets, home, church, or from within.

Now instead of reading scripture I equip it, to battle the enemy because there is no place on earth he can't reach us.

Pursuit of godliness... I have a hard time with the thought. I can never achieve any sort while here on earth. I see it more like, how to be as meek and weak as possible.
There is a lesson to be learned in this state, and in my humble opinion the spirit thrives in it.

Just my two cents. I am really off today so excuse my posts if they get off base.