{"id":898,"date":"2010-03-26T07:48:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T12:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/?p=898"},"modified":"2010-03-26T07:48:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-26T12:48:30","slug":"hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/hypocrisy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The charge of hypocrisy is the one I most often hear levied against the Church and used as an excuse by those who want no part of it.\u00a0 “I don’t want to hang out with a bunch of hypocrites”\u00a0 This is often the claim made by those who fail to realize that that statement is incredibly…well…hypocritical.\u00a0 It is the equivalent of saying, “I don’t want to be a hypocrite by hanging out with a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites who judge people.”\u00a0 That is, of course, in their judgment<\/em>.\u00a0 Hellooooo.\u00a0 But I digress.<\/p>\n

The truth is, they’re right.\u00a0 There are a bunch of hypocrites inside the church just like outside.\u00a0 The goal, though, is for us to strive for obeying Scripture consistently so at least if we’re accused of something, it’s not that we’re wishy-washy.<\/p>\n

Case in point:\u00a0 I had a great conversation this week with a person who told me they know of someone who won’t come back to The Gathering because I made an unmarried couple mad when I told them that until they were married, they would have to stop living together (yeah, literally<\/em> move out) and repent of that sin before I would consider performing their wedding and before they could consider joining our church.\u00a0 That was, in their judgment, too much to ask.\u00a0 We were accused of being hypocritical for “judging them” and making them feel uncomfortable.\u00a0 They were essentially upset because we insist on labeling what the Bible calls sin…well, sin.<\/p>\n

OK, so this person was right.\u00a0 Guilty as charged: we do call sin, sin (though it is Scripture that is doing the judging…they’re not my<\/em> rules).\u00a0 They are also right that we call people to repentance (just like Scripture does).\u00a0 We do not, however, do it to be<\/em> hypocritical but to prevent<\/em> us and them from being so and we strive to be consistent.<\/p>\n

It is<\/em> OK not to be OK, but it’s not OK to stay that way<\/em> and for us to say we believe Scripture yet dismiss what it says as unimportant to live by would be fatally flawed.\u00a0 The unpopular fact is that God cannot and will not<\/em> bless a life that is characterized by willful<\/em> sin and we really want to see lives blessed.\u00a0 It’s that simple.\u00a0 What would be hypocritical on any church’s part is to say, “they<\/em> are sinners but we<\/em> are not.”\u00a0 But we all<\/em> have to repent and turn from our sin.\u00a0 Every single one of us!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We work really hard to communicate this in a compassionate way, but at the end of the day, we don’t want any<\/em> of us to be comfortable<\/em> in our sins and so we address it.\u00a0 To do otherwise would be like the crew of a cruise ship refusing to point out to passengers that it’s sinking because they don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable.\u00a0 After all, they came on a cruise to escape<\/em> stress and discomfort.\u00a0 Sheesh<\/em>, everybody knows that<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, (and this is a bit of a side note) too many churches have allowed the “abandon ship (read: sin)” to be silenced because (to adapt my metaphor) they’re afraid someone might decide to get off of their boat!\u00a0 So the ships are full to overflowing with sinking people who don’t even realize it.\u00a0 The popular (though, thankfully, not universal) solution?\u00a0 Just build bigger ships.<\/p>\n

So, we must call for and expect more, from ourselves and each other.\u00a0 See, what is hypocritical is when we use<\/em> the label “Christian” to characterize ourselves (see 95% of FB profiles) yet neglect or refuse to structure our lives according to what that label dictates.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The charge of hypocrisy is the one I most often hear levied against the Church and used as an excuse by those who want no part of it.\u00a0 “I don’t want to hang out with a bunch of hypocrites”\u00a0 This is often the claim made by those who fail to realize that that statement is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[42,683,684,685,110,227],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-eu","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2589,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/i-am-a-hypocrite\/","url_meta":{"origin":898,"position":0},"title":"I Am a Hypocrite","date":"March 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Listen to an audio version of this post. \u00a0 Yeah, it's true...I am a hypocrite. There. Said it. You want to try it? Really, you should give it a shot.\u00a0 Ok, say this with me, \"I am a hyp...\". Wait, not yet.\u00a0 Let's make sure you should say it.\u00a0 I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1336,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/your-serve\/","url_meta":{"origin":898,"position":1},"title":"Your Serve","date":"February 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I meant to post this here earlier in the month of February, but this is article from our monthly RoadSigns mag: Quick question: Why are you here? No, not why are you on this earth\u2026why are you at this church? Or any church for that matter? Does it make you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":797,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-rant\/","url_meta":{"origin":898,"position":2},"title":"A Rant.","date":"February 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been thinking a lot about the state of The Gathering and where we're going and how we will get there.\u00a0 I am incredibly encouraged by the spirit of the people who currently make up this Body and the excitement that is present about our future. There is a focus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":854,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/real-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":898,"position":3},"title":"Real Community","date":"March 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been thinking about the real purpose of church and what we're supposed to be about.\u00a0 Ultimately, of course, it's to glorify Christ by making disciples (Matt. 28:19-20), but how do we do that together...as a church; a family? Hebrews 10:24-25 came to mind: 24\u00a0And let us consider how to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":489,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/what-does-organic-church-really-look-like-anyway\/","url_meta":{"origin":898,"position":4},"title":"What Does Organic Church Really Look Like, Anyway?","date":"September 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Thinking a lot about church lately.\u00a0 Yeah, I know - it's my job.\u00a0 But I'm thinking more in terms of reformation and growth.\u00a0 You know, what we're really supposed to be...and be about.\u00a0 At our church, we're in a place where we're re-thinking how things are done - What's important.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1549,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-church-that-fails-to-pray-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":898,"position":5},"title":"A Church That Fails to Pray…","date":"March 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"(This post is re-published from the March edition of Road Signs, the monthly informational newsmag of The Gathering, Chattanooga.) A church that fails to pray, fails. I believe this statement and am coming to understand it more and more.\u00a0 How easy it is to become so busy that the very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}