Calling All Hypocrites

Knowing You Have Eternal Life

1 John 1:5–2:2

“Calling All Hypocrites.”

Christians are hypocrites!

That is an accusation that is regularly stated.

And there are times … too many times … when the accusation is well deserved.

Years ago there was a publication called the Christian Business Directory.

It was famous … for all the wrong reasons.

Too often I would hear people say that they had been so burnt by businesses listed in the directory that they used the Directory as a guide for who NOT to call.

The accusation was clear. Some Christians who were listed in the Directory were hypocrites.

Hypocrites.

It is an accusation which reflects the reality that, as Christians, we do not live a consistent Christian witness.

Saying that we want to be one sort of person … a Christ follower …

… who is loving and compassionate.

… who has a reign over their tongue.

… who is patient and full of hope.

Yet, in reality, being another person …

… who is quick to judge and lacks empathy.

… who gossips and speaks behind the backs of others.

… who has a short fuse and is full of doubts.

What we want is to follow the footsteps of Christ and be like Him

In actuality, there are many times when we follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.

You hypocrite!

You have heard that description spoken about you by others.

But it isn’t just others …

You know yourself so well.

You know what you are like when you think no-one is looking … at least when no other Christians are looking. There are so many inconsistencies. You often lose the battle. Sometimes it is spiritually ugly.

And the thoughts that you think. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul says that “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

But you know your thoughts.

They are not captive and obedient … they are running wild completely off any sort of leash.

You don’t need others to tell you. You know yourself.

It is self-evident.

I am a hypocrite.

In the struggle against sin … you know the truth.

But … well sometimes we don’t like to be confronted by the truth.

Or … we don’t really want to make the changes necessary to move away from the hypocrisy.

In fact, there are parts of the hypocrisy that we kind of like.

So we start to develop different versions of ourselves.

… The Sunday go-to-church version.

… The Monday I’m-at-work version.

… The Wednesday at-Growth Group version.

… The Friday with-my-secular-friends version.

When the Sunday version of you meets the Friday version of you, the Sunday version looks to the ground and shakes their head and says … “Hypocrite!”

Are you a hypocrite? Let’s find out.

Scripture calls out to hypocrites.

The calling is found in 1 John 1:5-2:2

1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

These verses are calling out to all hypocrites.

The word hypocrite, comes from the Greek word “hypokrites” … which literally translated means “an interpreter from underneath.” It was used to describe actors in ancient Greek and Roman theatre who wore large masks to show which character they were playing. Actors interpreted the story from underneath their masks.

The actor was one person. The mask was a totally different person.

The person they wanted to portray to the audience.

By extension the word “hypokrites” also referred to any person who was wearing a figurative mask and pretending to be someone or something they were not.

The mask was an act … a portrayal for an audience.