I once heard it said that the biggest reason people turn away from Christ is Christians who profess Him with their mouths, but deny Him in their actions; hypocrisy extinguishes our light, and hinders unbelievers from truly seeing who Christ is. Are you guilty of it? I am. I confess that I have been a hypocrite; at times, I have allowed my pride, my "reputation", and my desire to fit in and have fun, to mar who I am in Christ. At times, I have been a horrible example of a Christain, and I have failed in my mission to be a light in the darkness.
The bible is clear in its teaching on hypocrisy. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." To me this says that you can't live life on the fence; just as a servant can't fully serve two different households at the same time, you can't serve God and the world...you have to pick one.
I've been studying Matthew 24 this morning. It's a heavy chapter; talking about the end times can be daunting especially if your faith is not strong. This chapter tells us what to look for, it gives us an idea of what is to come, and it warns us to be ready.
How can we be ready?
In verses 45-51 Jesus says, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Let me break it down...God has put us, His children, here to do His work. He has given us commandments and instructions on how to live. He has told us to be His light in this world, and He has put us just where we need to be in order to do that. In the verses above, we are the servant whom the master has put in charge of feeding the other servants; each of us as believers have a specific job God has given us to do...in everything we are to live for Him. We don't know when Jesus will return; we have no idea what day or what hour. The bible says God is the only one who knows when the end will come; not even the angels or His Son know (Matthew 24:36). No one knows when, but do you believe it's coming?
If you believe Jesus will return, if you have professed him as your savior, and you have given your life to him, you have a choice to make. It's like this: you can choose to be a faithful and wise servant who does the work his master asked him to do, or you can choose to be what the bible calls "wicked" and say "I believe in Jesus, but I'm tired of waiting, I'm frustrated and I want to do things my way". You have that choice because you have free will. Pay attention though to what verse 51 says about the servant who was living life for himself and whose master surprised him by returning home at an unexpected time, "He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Do you get what it's saying?
I struggle with saying certain people will find themselves in hell someday. I struggle with it not because I don't believe in hell or that there are people that will end up there, but because I refuse to judge anyone. I am not in any position to say what's inside someone else's heart just as no one can say what's inside mine. I do believe though, that the condition of a person's heart is reflected in their character, and in the way they choose to live their lives and spend their time. Heart-business though, is between that person and God...I'm not in the equation. For me, I just say what the Holy Spirit speaks to me through God's word and here's what I learned this morning:
Hypocrisy is bad. It has no place in the family of God. If you profess to know Jesus, live for him. If you profess to be a child of God, do the work He has given you to do. Don't go your own way, don't "eat and drink with drunkards" and don't "beat down your fellow servants". Radiate light, and if you can't...check your heart, recommit yourself to Jesus, ask forgiveness, and ask him to show you the way back to the Father. Hypocrisy leads to hell; hypocrisy is an outward sign of an inward problem...it signals heart trouble. Fix it now because we don't know the day or the hour of Christ's return, and I, for one, don't want to be counted among those caught unaware, not doing the work of the master...I don't want to be "assigned a place with the hypocrites". I don't want to be the reason someone turns from God; I never want to profess God with my mouth and deny Him by the way I live. I choose to do the work He has given me to do, and to be ready for what's to come. What do you choose?
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