Join the Hypocrites

Jesus had strong words for religious people who didn’t live out what they said they believed.

Jesus replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.’” - Mark 7:6

Ouch.

And yet, seen from another another angle, it’s easy to see those lines as a gracious invitation. We’re all invited to a new level of honesty and integrity. For some of us, the best part of the message yesterday was when Kevin Robbins was sharing his story and he said that he’d always thought of churches being filled with hypocrites… so he didn’t mind being part of a church now because he fits right in. That was a level of self-awareness that many of us often lack.

One author summarized our situation this way:

I know of only two alternatives to hypocrisy: perfection or honesty.

- Philip Yancey, What's so Amazing About Grace?

So this week we’re looking at how to free Jesus from the layers of religiosity that have built up around him over the years. And it’s going to be really easy to think that the problem is other people. But how about you - are you willing to look in the mirror and honestly acknowledge your own hypocrisy, and then come to Jesus to for the grace you need to press on into a more congruent faith (where your insides match up better to your outsides)?