Matthew 12:36 "But I tell you
that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for
it in the day of judgment.
Do my
life and my words align with my Sunday attendance at church?
Of course
they don’t, no one does because even as we are saved, we still sin…too often.
If you’re
surprised by those words, then you are not being honest with yourself and ultimately
to God about your own behavior.
Too
often, we claim to be something and behave differently. We all do, me more than
others I fear too much.
But one
difference between us and non-believers should be that we are aware of our hypocrisies.
Yes, we are all hypocrites about something.
But we
should be aware of ours.
And we
should try to minimize them.
And
apologize, yes, we should apologize when we notice them in ourselves towards
ourselves or towards others.
Growing
up as an agnostic, I could not handle the hypocrites in the church, then one-day
Brother Mike Abbott explained to me how Jesus did not like them either…an
amazing epiphany for me at the time, and really still today.
So I’ve
tried to be more like Jesus in all aspects of life. You say “yea, so that’s
what you should do”, but then I see so many not Godly things posted on social
media and wonder what non-believers think about hypocritical behavior.
I can
hear them; “See…those Christians are a bunch of hypocrites, they post things to
make other people look bad, make other people angry, make fun of people, and
then they have scripture or a picture of a cross in their profile pic…. geez.”
And Satan
wins a small battle at that moment.
I’m not
judging you, I’m trying to hold myself accountable.
Sure,
coaches and superintendents and teachers and bosses and school board members
and other parents do make mistakes. They may not always do what you agree with
and you feel that venting on social media is the best thing to do, but I will
ask you one question:
If your
child, or spouse, or good friend was in one of these positions and you got on
social media and saw unfounded or exaggerated statements, heck even true
statements because we all want our actions splashed on Facebook, how would you
feel?
I’m
asking because these people in leadership positions are not super human.
They are
people just like I am and even more so…they have spouses and children and
parents that hear and read these horrible things too often from people who have
a biblical scripture tied to their identity.
We are
all hypocrites about something, we can’t avoid it in our sinful nature, but are
we as followers of The Nazarene aware of those hypocrisies?
And are
we attempting to lessen and hopefully someday remove them?
I know I
have a long way to go and I would appreciate your prayers because I sin and
fall short too many times.
