One is One Too Many!

A preacher went out to talk to a farmer about his soul, but the farmer wasn’t receptive. “There are just too many hypocrites in the church,” he said. “You know Mr. Smith, and I’m just as good as he is. And there’s Mr. Jones, a member of your church, and I saw him downtown drinking last night. No sir, preacher, there are just too many hypocrites in the church to suit me!”

A few days later the preacher came back to the farmer to buy a pig. The preacher picked out the runt of the litter. “That’s the one I want,” said the preacher. But the farmer protested, “You don’t want that one! I have much better pigs than him!” The preacher assured him that he had made his choice. They agreed on a price and as the preacher was loading the little pig into his car, he turned to the farmer and said, “Now I’m going all over the county and show people the kind of pigs you raise.” The farmer protested. “You can’t do that. I have much better pigs than that one. You can’t judge the whole litter by that runt.” “That’s exactly my point,” said the farmer, as he drove away.

You can’t judge the whole litter by the runt

It’s sad, but there are a lot of people like that farmer. They judge the whole church by one or two runts. I readily admit that there are too many hypocrites in the church. One is one too many! But, we must not judge the whole church by them. And, we certainly should not let them keep us from doing what is right. Jesus condemned those who pretended to be something which they were not (Matthew 23:1-39). Those who are only “acting” at religion today stand condemned as well. We can’t use them as an excuse for our failure to honor God.

• It’s a very serious mistake to compare ourselves with others (2 Corinthians 10:12).
• Jesus is the perfect standard.
• His word is the final authority.
• Let us conform to it, even if others do not!