What is a Real Christian? One cannot just look around and compare oneself with the average Christian. Unfortunately, many self-proclaiming Christians do just that. In so doing, Godly morals are compromised by saying “Everybody else is doing it, why can’t I?” (Thus the Godly standard is lowered and worldly people can easily see the hypocrisy of their ways).
Too many times it is heard that Christians are hypocrites, but what is a hypocrite?
One definition goes as follows:
Hypocrisy is the act of preaching a certain belief or way of life, but not, in fact, holding these same virtues oneself.
The Bible has many references about hypocrisy.
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,” (1 Timothy 4:1-2 NKJV throughout unless noted)
“That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment?” (Job 20:5)
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” (James 3:17)
“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (1 Peter 2:1-3)
It is obvious from the above verses that you do not want to be a hypocrite. In fact James 3:17 says that if you are a Hypocrite, you do not have God’s Wisdom.
The word hypocrite is not an English word; actually it is a Greek word.
Hypocrite: (Easton’s Bible Dictionary)
One who puts on a mask and feigns himself to be what he is not; a dissembler in religion…
Strongs:
5273 hupokrites hoop-ok-ree-tace’
1) One who answers, an interpreter
2) An actor, stage player
3) A dissembler, pretender, hypocrite
A person who worked as an actor in New Testament times was literally called a hypocrite.
Do you act at being a Christian?
“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” (Titus 1:16)
Yeshua (Jesus) had much to say against hypocrisy.
“Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:2)
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:5)
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:16)
Hypocrisy is presenting an image of daily life which is not true, giving others the impression that we are all right (physically or spiritually) when we may not be.
“…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Could Hypocrisy be the reason the name of Yeshua is so dishonored, both among the heathen and the saints? Do you have a more abundant life? I do not think this verse is only talking about material things.
The 2nd President of India Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is known to have said “You Christians make such extraordinary claims, but you live such ordinary lives”.
Do we Christians make claims that we don’t live up to?
Is Christ really alive within us, or are we only pretending?
Is our “ordinary” life actually doing harm to the Gospel of Christ?
Ghandi once said: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Here are a few of the sins that Yeshua spoke against: Hypocrisy, Pride, selfishness, inner impurity, and unbelief.
These sins are not even listed in the 10 commandments.
For the most part worldly people do not consider these as sins. Do Christians consider these sins? Do your sins keep cropping up like a cold sore? You may rub an ointment on it, which may help the sore disappear, but it always seems to re-occur, to re-appear, especially when you are weakest.
Do you think the standard of living of the average Christian preacher compares to that of Isaiah, or Moses, or Jeremiah? Can you imagine these biblical men running after money or women or fame like some of our modern Evangelists? How is it that pride and selfishness and lack of self control is seen as “normal” in modern Christianity?
If these biblical men were able to live a Holy life, we to should be living a Holy life when we have the Holy Spirit living within us? Now that we are the temple of the living God!
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14)
How do you know when you are truly under grace?
Not the counterfeit grace that many proclaim but true grace.
What do I mean when I say counterfeit grace? All too often people think they understand Grace as un-merited favor from God. While this is true, it is not stand the full definition. Below I have compiled some additional definitions of Grace that present a fuller picture.
Definitions of Grace: (Taken from the Web)
-Grace is enabling power sufficient for progression. Grace divine is an indispensable gift from God for development, improvement, and character expansion. Without God's grace, there are certain limitations, weaknesses, flaws, impurities, and faults which humankind cannot overcome.
-Grace can also be defined as God's sufficiency or God's fullness in the life of the believer. God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). That is to say: The grace of God in Paul enabled him and empowered him in his weakness.
-Grace comes from the Lord and is simply the God-given desire and the power to do God's will.
A good explanation of grace is found in the epistle to the Philippians: "For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
Romans
6:14 is very clear. How do you know when you are under true Grace? “For sin shall not have dominion over you”! You
see it is God’s Grace that enables us to overcome our sin.
Christ came to lay the axe at the root of the tree that does not produce good fruit!
“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:10)
“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17-18)
Christ wants to root out the Adamic nature in us, this nature that is full of greed and covetousness and lust and bitterness and jealousy and anger and strife and the lust of the eyes and the love of money and material things that invade our lives. This nature is very easy for us, because we are born with this nature. The power of God (God’s Grace) is the axe that cuts out those evil things.
There once was a farmer who had a bad apple tree, but he wanted everybody to think it was a good tree. He would cut off all the bad fruit that would grow on the tree and go and buy good fruit and tie this fruit on the tree. Then when people would happen by his tree they would see the fruit and say “Oh what a good tree you have”. But it was all an act, all a façade! That man was a hypocrite.
Are our lives like that? Do we put on a façade when we meet other Christians? Do we go to Church and act like everything is ok? I am not accusing anyone, but I am asking that we examine our own lives. Do not compare your life with others; compare your life with the holy standard of living defined in God’s Word. You know the farmer can fool his friends, but he cannot fool God!
“For what is the hope of the hypocrite, Though he may gain much, If God takes away his life?” (Job 27:8)
If you are a hypocrite then you are in danger of losing your life!
Are we fulfilling the commands in the New Testament?
“giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Ephesians 5:20)
Do we give thanks to God ALWAYS for ALL things?
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)
Are we ALWAYS rejoicing in the LORD?
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” (2 Corinthians 2:14)
Does God ALWAYS cause us to triumph in Messiah?
There are mines in South Africa that are 4 and 5 kilometers deep. Why would anyone put forth the tremendous effort necessary to dig a mine 3.1 miles deep? It is because you must dig that deep to get the gold!
The precious things are always deep. Gold is so valuable that the tremendous effort to retrieve it is worth it!
Are we putting forth a similar tremendous effort to build our relationship with God?
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
“Jesus said to him," ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
Do you put forth the kind of effort needed to put God First? Ahead of money, ahead of possessions, ahead of family, ahead of work, and ahead of life?
How long would you seek after a lost nickel?
But how long would you seek after 10,000 dollars you have misplaced?
How much effort do you put forward in seeking after God?
If you seek after God as you would a lost nickel, then you will never find God. God says you will find Me when you seek Me with ALL your heart.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
Do you put your father or mother or spouse or children before God? Do you put your own life before God? Do not misunderstand this verse, Yeshua expects us to Honor our parents, and to love our spouse and children, But we are to honor and love God more than them.
What do you think of people who go to the bar every night to drown their sorrows. Then for a few hours they forget all about their problems as they visit with their friends. Yet when they go home at night, have they solved their problems? No; their problems still exist. So they go to the bar the next night to drown their sorrows again.
I wonder if sometimes Christians do a similar thing for a few hours at church every week, they go there to praise God and to feel good and to be with their friends and when they go home their problems are still there. Is this your life? Do you go to a meeting and get energized only to have it wear off later? Do you find you are the same old person; that nothing has changed?
This is not what God desires nor expects!
The Holy Spirit is here to help us change permanently; to help us rejoice ALWAYS, rather than just a few hours a week. Not to keep us pure for a couple of hours every week, but ALWAYS.
“Do all things without complaining and disputing,” (Philippians 2:14)
Do we do ALL things without complaining, without disputing?
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
We are to be conquerors over the issues in our lives.
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57)
We are to have Victory in Messiah
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
The Christian walk is no easy thing; we must diligently seek.
If we truly want inner purity, and genuine godliness, then we must diligently seek this, and if we are truly seeking then nothing else will matter. Our job, our possessions, our money, none of these things will be important except seeking after the Goal.
All the material possessions and knowledge you gain while on earth, everything you have and seek after will be left behind when you die. The only thing that you can take with you is your character.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self–control, and self–control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.” (2 Peter 1:3-10 NLT)
It is so easy for us to lie, cheat and steal, to lust and be full of pride and greed. Why are these things so easy? It is because we were born with Adam’s nature, it is because that nature is our nature. It is this nature we must destroy, not us, but Christ in us.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
If we are Born Again then we are a new creature, the old man is dead. So the new man is Righteous and Holy.
“and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24)
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” (Romans 8:9)
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)
If we are Messiah’s then we have His Spirit in us. We are a new creature Righteous and Holy. Our old nature no longer has rule in our lives. The proof of this condition is inner purity, humility, and holiness. We fail in this when we start seeking after the things of this life, when we start putting other things before God. It is the Nature of Messiah we must seek after; seek after with all our hearts. We have to come to the point where we desire nothing in the entire world except God’s nature. If you do this, God will give it to you!