Is religious hypocrisy disgusting? Is it sickening? Does it even matter?
It certainly does. And it mattered to Jesus too.
Jesus spent a lot of time decrying the hypocritical religious leaders of his day. He even used scathing language to expose and denounce their double standards. Here’s what he said:
The scribes and the Pharisees… preach, but do not practice… They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!.. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
In today’s world, many people are also repulsed by hypocrisy. And in this sense, they are like Jesus.
However, some people take things a step further and they refuse to have anything to do with God because of the religious hypocrites they encounter. Furthermore, they don’t want to go to any church, where God is worshiped, because of hypocrites. Their lives are devoid of any expression of love for their Creator.
This refusal to love God, to worship him, and to praise him, is all justified by pointing to hypocrisy.
Does this make sense? Is it justified?
Not at all.
To understand why, imagine you had a sister who was always telling you to love your parents and to love all people. One day you found out that she had been very cruel to a large group of people, and so she was clearly a hypocrite. She had repeatedly said to love everyone but she obviously had not done so herself. She clearly did not “practise” what she “preached.” If you found yourself disgusted by her, that would be a completely understandable response. But what if you decided to take things a step further and you cut off all contact with your loving and kind parents? Would that make sense?
Obviously not.
Why should your parents be rejected and ignored because of your sister’s actions? They were not hypocrites. She was. So why should you reject them because of your sister?
This same reasoning applies to those who ignore God because of religious hypocrites. Hypocrisy is certainly something to be disgusted by; but how does that justify ignoring and rejecting God? If the Christian God exists, then he deserves to be worshiped no matter how many hypocrites there are.
Pointing to hypocrisy as the reason we don't worship God, is just a lame excuse. It’s simply an attempt to justify one wrong by pointing to another wrong.
Learn More
Short Blog: Fake News Highlights Dangers of Fake Religion
Video (below): Why the Hypocrisy of Christians is a Bad Excuse
Reference
Matthew 23: 2,3,5,29,33 (ESV)