Why Don’t Christians Practice What They Preach?
In the Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). God wants Christians to obey Him and to live according to the ethical standards described in the Bible. This is no secret, even among non-Christians. Unfortunately, no Christian consistently measures up to this standard. In one way or another, and at one time or another, every Christian fails God’s standards. When unbelievers see this, regardless of the degree of the sin, they often respond with a critical admonishment that goes something like this: “I thought you were a Christian!” Or, “You call yourself a Christian?” Or, and even more contemptuous, “You Christians are a bunch of hypocrites!” Obviously, non-Christians expect Christians to practice what they preach. But does this justify the charge of hypocrisy? Even more importantly, is it a valid reason for an unbeliever to reject Christianity? I think the answer to both questions is no. Now let me show you why.
SINNERS OR HYPOCRITES?
THE LESSER CHARGE
There’s no doubt that Christians go wrong, make mistakes, sin, even deliberately. The Bible affirms this at every turn. In fact, it teaches that all people are guilty of sin—Christians and non-Christians alike. And if anyone denies this, he is a liar (Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:10). Indeed, the purpose of Jesus’ coming, and the heart of His present ministry, is to save lost sinners. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the healthy (Matt. 9:12–13). For this reason, Christians are the first to admit they are sinners. That’s how they came to Christ, accepting His invitation to all sinners to come to Him. Christianity even encourages its members to confess their sins “to one another” (James 5:16).
Does this make Christians hypocrites? No. Why? Because a hypocrite is a person who purposely and secretly claims to be something he is not. Christians who are honest and open about their sinfulness, therefore, are not hypocrites.
The heart of the problem, it seems, is that the non-Christian has the attitude that if a Christian sins, he is automatically a hypocrite. There are hypocrites in the church—this is true. Some people claim to be believers in Jesus Christ but secretly are not. Others vow to live according to Christian principles, but, when away from other Christians, don’t. The confusion lies in thinking that sinner and hypocrite are synonymous. If one is a hypocrite, he is certainly a sinner. But being a sinner does not automatically mean that one is a hypocrite. All people are sinners, and thus all Christians are sinners. But not all Christians are hypocrites. In fact, because Christians so readily recognize the presence of sin in all people, and therefore emphasize the confession and repentance of sins among themselves, it is likely that fewer hypocrites exist within the Christian church than in any other organization, religious or secular.
The truth of Christianity is not dependent on the actions of individual Christians. We do not falsify science and say that all scientists are hypocrites because of an occasional quack. Nor do we condemn the field of medicine because some doctors perform abortions or in other ways break the Hippocratic oath. Likewise, the Christian church is not full of hypocrites simply because Christians sin.
THE MORE SERIOUS CHARGE
A much more serious objection is the claim that Christianity is hypocritical and thus fraudulent because the church’s actions in history have contradicted its professed standards of love, forgiveness, and morality. The Christian church has been involved in some very brutal acts against non-believers, false religions, and even fellow Christians. Witches have been burned at the sake in the name of Christianity. Slavery has been defended. Science has been censured. Religious minorities have been persecuted. During the Middle Ages, holy wars and inquisitions resulted in the deaths of countless thousands of people. Even our present ecologic crisis has been blamed on Christian principles. Many people, judging Christianity according to the black pages of its history, have concluded that little or no good has ever come from the Christian faith. They consider Christianity a fraudulent religion and refuse to investigate its truth-claims.
This is a serious charge that deserves a serious answer. What I said above about the truth of Christianity not being dependent on the actions of its professed adherents is a starting answer, but we need to offer a fuller response.
A Borrowed Standard
First, the ethical standards critics use to judge Christianity have their source in Christianity. The critic claims that some Christians, over the ages, have engaged in horrendous atrocities, thus the Christian religion is hypocritical. But the moral absolute (ethical standard) by which the critic determines what an atrocity is turns out to be the Christian ethic. Why was murdering so-called witches wrong? God forbids murder. Why was torturing heretics during the inquisition wrong? God forbids torture. Why is abusing the environment wrong? Because God created nature “very good” and appointed man as steward over it. And so it goes. Non-Christians cannot stand in judgment over the actions of Christians without using the ethical standards described in the Bible as their source of reference. This can only mean that biblical ethics are considered the absolute standard of human morality by the very critics who reject Christianity. This reinforces the premise that Christianity is not the source of hypocrisy but people are.
Let me carry this thought a step further. Without Christianity, there would be no adequate moral foundation on which to make ethical decisions. Apart from God, one cannot judge what is right or wrong, know if what is wrong today will be wrong tomorrow, or know if what is wrong for me is also wrong for you.
All religions in the world, except Christianity, are founded on either the personal philosophies of men, without any objective verification, or are founded on historical claims that cannot be validated by archaeology or by other historical means of investigation. Only Christianity is based on historical events supported by objective, verifiable evidence. Because of this, only Christianity can legitimately offer objective truths as a basis for absolute moral decisions. Without a moral absolute independent of human thoughts and feelings, ethical systems are no more than arbitrary opinions and subject to man’s whims.
Secular humanism, the New Age movement, and other religious philosophies claim that morality is relative, that morality lies within man, not God, and is determined by whatever culture one happens to reside in or by whatever beliefs one happens to agree with. Morality is simply a projection of man’s own subjective feelings. There is no outside standard (such as the Bible) by which to judge good or bad.
If this philosophy is followed, persecuting minorities or murdering babies, the aged, and the infirm are perfectly acceptable acts, providing one’s own belief system embraces it. In other words, carried to its logical conclusion, the philosophy that ethics are relative can result in moral anarchy because evil in one culture may be correct behavior in another. This is exactly what happened in Germany during World War II. Hitler’s decision to slaughter millions of Jews was philosophically consistent with the Nazi belief system. To them, the Jews were subhuman creatures and the cause of many of man’s misfortunes. Where there is no authority except man himself, there is no sin except in the eyes of the beholder. To the Germans, murdering the Jews was not a sin but a necessary and beneficial act. This kind of moral relativity is taught by many of the world’s philosophies, and it allows for no ethical standard outside of man to condemn such horrendous acts.
To sum up, without a moral standard mandated by God and recorded in the Bible, there would be no universal standard of behavior applicable to all men and every culture whereby one can judge and condemn evil. With regard to the issue of hypocrisy, regardless of what individual Christians do or what the Christian church has been guilty of in past history, Christianity as the voice of God’s moral will is in no way falsified. On the contrary, this is proven by the fact that the Bible is the very standard by which the Christian church has purged itself of evil and by which non-Christians themselves judge the actions of others.
Still another way to demonstrate Christianity is not hypocritical and thus fraudulent, in spite of the actions of some Christians, is to look at the positive influence Christianity has had on the world. Critics are quick to point out Christian involvement in holy wars and witch burnings, but they conveniently overlook the much greater good Christianity has contributed to mankind.
More than any other religion in the world, Christianity has contributed to human welfare, the arts, and social reform. Some of the finest paintings and sculptures in existence have been inspired by biblical characters and scenes. Many hospitals, and most colleges, orphanages, and charity organizations were begun and operated by Christians. The Christian church promoted child welfare programs until they became government policy. Today, hundreds of Christian relief agencies exist worldwide, and Christians are among the first to respond to disasters and famines wherever they occur. Christian ethics eventually undermined the structure of slavery. Before Jesus, women were the chattel of men. Jesus set the stage for women’s emancipation. Many of the brutal practices in the Roman world, such as contests between gladiators and infanticide, were abolished after Christianity became the dominant religion. The political concept of checks and balances, so important to democratic government, is based on the biblical principle of wisdom being found in a “multitude of counselors” (Prov. 11:14; 15:22).
By contrast, one can look far and wide and fail to find comparable achievements growing out of any other religion in the world. Human misery at the hands of Hinduism, for example, is well known. Rather than concerning themselves with “esoteric” matters, the Christian church ministers to people. And let me add this. If one were to take a “body count” of destroyed lives as a result of misguided Christians, it would come nowhere close to the extermination resulting from other philosophical systems. The torture and murder that occurred in the twentieth century alone under the atheistic political systems of Nazi Germany and Soviet Marxism is many millions more than the number of people wrongly killed in the name of Christianity throughout the entire history of the church. As Dr. Robert Morey states, “Over one hundred and fifty million people in the last forty years have been killed by atheistic governments.”1
THE BIBLE AND THE PROBLEM OF HYPOCRISY
There are hypocrites in the Christian church. Jesus clearly foretold this and spoke of a day when true believers will be identified and separated from the unfaithful (see Matt. 7:21–23; 13:24–30) and when all hypocrisy will be revealed (Luke 12:1–3). Jesus strongly condemns hypocrisy, especially among religious leaders who present a false sense of piety but are hypocritical to their calling (Matt. 23:15, 27).
Paul also addressed this issue. In 1 Timothy 4:1–2, Paul warns that in “later times” some people will fall away from Christianity due to the “hypocrisy of liars” (nasv). Elsewhere, in 1 Corinthians 5:11, Paul warns Christians not to associate with a professing believer who is living a life of open and direct sin (i.e., hypocrisy). In other words, Christians need to identify unrepentant hypocrites and remove them from ministering in the church. It is sad that when the church does this, so many critics take it as an opportunity to highlight the hypocrisy rather than to congratulate the church for trying to maintain its integrity. Recent events in televised evangelism illustrate this.
In his dealings with hypocrisy, Jesus did not show the gentleness. He normally exhibited when confronting sinners. He was harsh and abrupt. Jesus knew that the evil of hypocrisy would discredit His work and cause countless people to turn from the church in disillusionment and disappointment. Hypocrisy is one of the most potent weapons in Satan’s arsenal used to weaken the Christian testimony. A non-Christian, hearing the words and observing the actions of a hypocritical Christian, is quick to judge all of Christianity by his actions. It is tragic to think that there are many people alive today who will likely enter a Christless eternity because of the hypocrisy they observed in Christians.
Yet it must also be remembered that hypocrisy is not the product of Christianity. It is the product of sinful people. And like all other sins, the Bible condemns it. It is true that some Christians are hypocrites, but it is unfair and illogical to condemn Christianity for their ungodly actions. The truth of Christianity does not rest on the actions of its adherents. Rather, it rests on the reality of Jesus Christ and the fact that He rose from the dead to demonstrate His deity (Rom. 1:4) and confirm His promise of eternal life for those who receive Him as Lord and Savior (Rom. 10:9).
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1 Robert A. Morey, THE NEW ATHEISM AND THE EROSION OF FREEDOM (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany, 1986), 148–149.
[1]Story, D. (1997). Defending your faith. Originally published: Nashville : T. Nelson, c1992. (209). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.