Historical Posts
Avoid Hypocrisy – Walk the Talk
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not” (Matthew 23:2-3).
Jesus offered those words of warning regarding the strictest of the Jewish sects. He was not complimentary and pointed out their hypocrisy. It is hypocritical not to practice what one preaches. The Pharisees were notorious for demanding of others what they were unwilling to do themselves.
Francis Bacon once said: “It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; not what we preach but what we practice that makes us Christian.”
Our life reflects our relationship. We can talk a good religion and still make a miserable failure of it. The apostle Paul instructed Christians in the church at Philippi: “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ: so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). What we preach and what we practice must be the same to avoid hypocrisy.
Many people have been “turned off” to New Testament Christianity by the inconsistent practices of “professed” Christians. True Christianity isn’t something we do just on Sunday. It involves a life of holiness, godliness, and righteousness consistently lived every day. Christians are not perfect. We do, however, have a perfect Savior whose life and example we seek to imitate (1 Peter 2:21). We may not always do a good job of it, but we are trying.
Yes, there are some who claim to be Christians who, like the Pharisees, don’t walk the talk and show their hypocrisy. Please don’t judge us all by them.
Content by Roger Rush
Visit Roger at the 6th and Washington Street Church of Christ in Marietta OH.
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Religious, or Righteous?
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).
Ironically, many people equate religion with righteousness, but the two do not always go hand in hand.
I suppose the best example in the New Testament would be the Pharisees, the predominate Jewish sect of our Lord’s day. They were the religious elite, but they weren’t very righteous. Jesus urged the people, “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not” (Matthew 23:3). Seven times in Matthew 23 Jesus called them hypocrites. They were pretending to be something they were not, and Jesus saw through their hypocrisy. To be sure, they would reap what they had sown (Matthew 23:33).
Christianity is more than ritual and ceremony.
The religion of Christ is a religion which makes men holy, righteous, and godly. Those who do not understand this do not understand Christianity.
Holiness is a hard word to define.
Scholars are uncertain as to its exact roots in ancient language, but it involves being remade, set apart, and living a radiant and pure life. It is the word which Peter used to describe the nature of God (1 Peter 1:16). Christians are admonished to “follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Righteousness involves doing what is right, acceptable and approved of God.
It includes integrity, virtue, purity of life, uprightness, correctness in thinking, feeling, and acting. A religion without righteousness is a religion without redemption. We must live “soberly, righteously, and godly” (Titus 2:12).
Godliness implies reverence and love for God and things divine.
Godly men and women have the right values and priorities. Christianity makes men godly, so don’t be deceived into thinking that religion is nothing more than a Sunday morning exercise in ritual and ceremony. The religion of Christ is characterized by holiness, righteousness, and godliness. Anything less is unacceptable.
Religious men are not always righteous, but righteous men are always religious!
Content by Roger Rush
Visit Roger at the 6th and Washington Street Church of Christ in Marietta OH.
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Do You Believe In God?
Most acknowledge faith in a Supreme Being.
If the statistics can be believed, more than ninety out of every one hundred Americans believes in God or some higher power. When asked, most folks are quick to acknowledge faith in a Supreme Being. But, the life they live frequently betrays the faith they profess.
Folks often talk a much better religion than they live. The apostle Paul described his situation in his second letter to the young preacher, Timothy. In it he condemned those who have a “form of godliness,” but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). The AMPLIFIED BIBLE does a good job of conveying Paul’s meaning. It reads, “For (although) they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it—their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession.”
There is more than one kind of atheist in our world.
Sure, there are folks who deny the existence of God and belittle those who believe, but they do little harm to the cause of Christ. The real damage is done by those who claim to believe, but live like unbelievers.
The Bible makes specific demands upon those who follow Christ.
We must “follow after peace and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Paul challenged Christians to be different from the world (2 Corinthians 6:17), and urged them not to conform to the world’s standards (Romans 12:2). Everyone who follows Christ must depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19). We cannot live like the devil and still be a child of God!
Do you believe in God?
You will never win the world for Christ if your preaching is contradicted by your living.
— Roger
Content by Roger Rush
Visit Roger at the 6th and Washington Street Church of Christ in Marietta OH.
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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!
Content by Roger Rush
Visit Roger at the 6th and Washington Street Church of Christ in Marietta OH.
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Two Kinds of Atheists
Men have forgotten God
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn made an astute observation when he wrote: “I heard a number of older people offer this explanation for the great disasters that have befallen Russia: `Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.'” He went on to say, “If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: “Men have forgotten God.'”
Whenever men forget God disaster is inevitable.
The apostle Paul wrote of this ruinous sin in his letter to the church at Rome. He attributed the Roman decline to the fact that men “did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Romans 1:28). Men had forgotten God.
What happens when men forget God?
They become wicked, greedy, evil, envious, murderous, malicious, gossipers, slanderers, insolent, arrogant, boastful, disobedient to parents, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful (Romans 1:29-31). It’s not a pleasant picture to contemplate, but it is clearly where atheism leads, and we are rapidly going in that direction.
George Gallup, Jr., readily recognized as one of America’s leading pollsters, has observed that “We want the fruits of religion, but not the obligations…That we revere the Bible, but don’t read it…We believe the Ten Commandments to be valid rules for living, although we can’t name them.” We may claim to believe in God and revere the Bible, but most of those who profess to be Christians don’t know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount, can’t name one Old Testament Prophet, and almost never read the Scriptures. We, too, are in danger of forgetting God. The warning of the prophet Hosea bears repeating. He wrote, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Specifically, they had forgotten God!
Almost a century and a half ago Abraham Lincoln wrote: “We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have grown in number, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand that preserves us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior virtue and wisdom of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us… it behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
Little difference
There are two kinds of atheists in our world. The first make no pretense of believing. They foolishly say, “There is no God!” The second profess to believe, but live as though He did not exist. In reality there is little difference between the two. Both have forgotten God!
Content by Roger Rush
Visit Roger at the 6th and Washington Street Church of Christ in Marietta OH.
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It’s a Crazy World
Some time ago I read a story in the Columbus Dispatch about a child-custody case in which the parents were in disagreement over their daughter’s education. The mother was insisting on home-schooling her daughter, and the father was just as insistent that the child attend public schools. My interest in the story had nothing to do with the pros and cons of home-schooling. What caught my attention was the reason the mother gave for wanting to home-school her daughter. She said, “I believe when you teach your children, you teach from the Bible.”
Claiming to be a Christian
Again, I have no quarrel with the home-school movement, nor do I have a problem with our local public school system. I feel my children received a good education in our public schools. But, as parents, we also played a significant role in their education. So, what’s the point? It seems this girl’s parents were never married. They have lived together for the past four years. The child was the result of that relationship. Still, the woman claimed to be a devout Christian.
While living an immoral life
I realize that many in our society see nothing wrong with two people living together outside of wedlock and conceiving a child in that environment, but the Bible does not condone it. It is sin. And, someone living in open sin cannot be called a “devout Christian.” Granted, I don’t know the whole story, only what I read in the paper. It is possible that this woman just acquired her faith, and as a result, kicked the father out of the house because he would not do the right thing and marry her.
Christians are called to live godly lives
At any rate, living together outside of marriage, and conceiving a child in that sinful relationship is not right. Devout Christians do not live that way, and they do not defend those who do. Christians are called to live godly lives. And, although we are not perfect, we certainly do not live in open sin while professing a devout faith. We are called to live a different life. Paul wrote to Titus that “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12). Anything less is not devout Christianity but blatant hypocrisy. Though the world seems not to know it, Christianity demands a holy life! In our crazy world, this truth has been forgotten!
Content by Roger Rush
Visit Roger at the 6th and Washington Street Church of Christ in Marietta OH.
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Would We Have Believed Them?
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Introduction
1. I have often wondered…
a. How many of us living today, had we been living in the first century…
b. Would have been receptive to the preaching of those like:
1) John the Baptist?
2) Peter?
3) Paul?
2. Most of us would probably say, “Of course, for we receive them now!”
a. But maybe that is because what they taught has become socially acceptable…
b. And more often than not, their teaching is presented to us in a non-offensive manner
3. But how was the truth originally presented?
a. By what manner of men?
b. If we had been there, would we have believed them?
4. I hope in this lesson to challenge our thinking along these lines…
Body
I. THE HARSH HERMIT?
A. JOHN THE BAPTIST, WHO…
1. Did his preaching in the wilderness, forcing people to come out to hear him? – Matthew 3:1-2
2. Dressed himself in camel’s hair and a leather girdle, eating a diet of locusts and wild honey? – Matthew 3:4
3. Called religious people coming to be baptized a “brood of vipers”? – Matthew 3:5-7
B. I SERIOUSLY DOUBT WE WOULD…
1. IF we balk at having to travel some distance to study God’s Word!
a. As is sometimes the case today (e.g., going twice on Sundays, etc.)
b. But consider what Jesus taught in Matthew 12:42
2. IF we tend to judge people by the clothes they wear!
a. It is easy to be affected by the “Dress For Success” philosophy
b. But we need to remember God’s perspective – 1 Sa 16:7; James 2:1-4
3. IF we get upset or offended when a preacher points out our faults!
a. Some would have preachers never preach “negative” sermons
b. But even Jesus demonstrated that sometimes the occasion calls for strong measures – Matthew 23:13-15
[Or how about the…]
II. THE HILLBILLY HYPOCRITE?
A. THE APOSTLE PETER, A MAN…
1. Whose “country ways” demonstrated his lack of formal religious training? – Acts 4:13
2. Who denied Jesus three times? – Matthew 26:69-75
3. Whose hypocrisy on one occasion split a church? – Galatians 2:11-13
B. IT IS UNLIKELY…
1. IF we expect a man to be formerly educated before we would want him as a preacher!
a. In some churches, a preacher is required to have a degree to be considered acceptable
b. But the wrong kind of learning can be a dangerous thing – 1 Corinthians 1:18-29
2. IF we aren’t willing to give others another chance who fail us, especially more than once!
a. If Peter had been treated like we sometimes treat fallen preachers today, would he have remained an apostle?
b. Fortunately, the early church took to heart what Jesus taught Peter about forgiveness – Matthew 18:21-22; Luke 17:3-4
[And then, what about…]
III. THE NOTORIOUS NERD?
A. THE APOSTLE PAUL, WHO…
1. Had been a blasphemer, persecutor of the church? – 1 Timothy 1:13
2. Was not a fluent speaker? – 1 Corinthians 2:3-4
3. Had a physical appearance described as “weak”? – 2 Corinthians 10:10
B. I DOUBT WE WOULD HAVE KINDLY RECEIVED PAUL…
1. IF we hold a person’s pre-Christian life against them!
a. Such people must not believe in the power of the gospel to transform lives
b. But consider what it did for the people of Corinth – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
2. IF we don’t care to hear preachers whose sermon presentation lacks “polish”!
a. Many people will not go to hear preachers who may be young, inexperienced, or who are not eloquent
b. Yet “smooth words and flattering speech” can oftentimes be used to deceive – Romans 16:17-18
3. IF we tend to judge people by their physical appearance (size, weight, etc.)!
a. So people first judged Abraham Lincoln
b. Again, we need to remember God’s perspective on things – 1 Samuel 16:7
Conclusion
1. What I am suggesting is that how we receive people today is a strong indication as to whether we would have received such as John, Peter, Paul and even Jesus! – cf. Matthew 13:54-58
2. While we would like to think we would have been quick to listen and believe their message, perhaps we might have acted differently!
3. I hope that we appreciate the importance of looking beyond the messenger and how his message might be presented, to the message itself
4. But there is another way to determine if we would have believed them back then: HAVE WE OBEYED THEM TODAY?
a. It may be speculation on our part to say we would have believed these men back in the first century…
b. But one thing is sure…if we are unwilling to obey them today, we certainly would not have done it then!
5. How about you…?
Content by Donald W. Treadway
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