Hypocrisy

Hypocrite is harsh word. It conjures up all kinds of images—for example, the church elder or deacon who is very severe in his judgment of others but freely makes allowances for himself. A hypocrite is basically someone who professes to have a particular set of beliefs and values but whose behavior does not conform to their professed beliefs and values.

We all are hypocrites to some degree. We all have lapses in conformity to the particular set of beliefs and values, which we claim are ours. We may temporarily fall back into old patterns of behavior that do not conform with what we claim to believe and value. We may have old character traits or habits from which we have not yet freed ourselves.

As disciples of Jesus, we are apprentices, learning how to become more like the one whom we call master or teacher and whom we have decided to follow. Our apprenticeship is a life-long one. While we may instruct others at some point in our apprenticeship, we never surpass Jesus. Jesus is always our master or teacher. We never become masters or teachers in our own right, with our own disciples. Should that somehow happen, we cease to be disciples of Jesus.

As long as we are leaning into what Jesus taught and exemplified, we may, despite our lapses into old ways of doing things, be seen as apprentices. We are learning to think, feel, speak, and act as Jesus did.

The danger is that we will begin to tolerate our lapses, explain them away, make excuses for them. We may become lazy in learning Jesus’ teaching and example and put little effort into it. We may cease to grow as an apprentice. Instead of moving forward, we begin to slide backward. We may reach a point where we may be technically regarded as hypocrites. We profess beliefs and values that embody his teaching and example, but our behavior does not conform to these beliefs and values.

I am generally inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt and to make allowances for them even though in my writing I may not always come across that way. Listening to a sermon and attending a Sunday school class or a small group is not enough to help people grow as disciples of Jesus. They need more.

My voice teacher provided me with a valuable insight today. She explained to the class that singing is a “motorized skill,” as she put it. We cannot learn to sing by reading a book or hearing a lecture or watching a video. What she meant is that singing is a motor skill, a skill we learn and develop by practice or experience. Just as we learn to sing and improve our singing by doing, by singing, we learn and assimilate a set of beliefs and values by practicing or experiencing them.

Christians whom we are tempted to call hypocrites have not learned and assimilated the beliefs and values that they profess to hold. They are like a karate student who has an intellectual grasp of the katas but has not practiced them to the point that they have become second nature to him or her. The beliefs and values which they profess to hold have not become so deeply ingrained in them that they give the appearance of being instinctive.

Every belief and every value which we hold has a behavioral component. When we have fully acquired a belief or value, we act on it. For example, I believe that God answers prayer, based upon what Jesus taught. I act on this belief by praying and persisting in prayer. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God to whom “all power in heaven and on earth has been given….” I act on that belief by accepting Jesus’ teaching and example as not only authoritative for me as his disciple but also for all humankind. Jesus is not simply my Lord. Jesus is Lord of all. I also believe that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion, is a means of grace, a means by which God works invisible in us to quicken, strengthen, and confirm our faith him. For those who are not familiar with the word, “quicken,” it means to give life to something. Consequently, I receive the sacrament as often as I can out of the belief that it will have a beneficial effect upon my spiritual life.

When we have not fully assimilated a belief or value, we do not have an empty space which that belief or value should occupy. What we do have is an old belief or value, what may be described as a belief or value of the world. That belief or value will also have its behavioral component. Unless and until it is replaced by a new belief or value, we will keep acting on it.

Most people that we are tempted to call hypocrites fall into this category: they have not fully assimilated the set of beliefs and values, which they profess to believe. Beliefs and values based on Jesus’ teaching and example focus on our relationship with God and other people. What may be described as the world’s beliefs and values in our culture focus on the gratification of the self.

They also may not be aware that they have not fully assimilated this set of beliefs and values. It may be a blind spot for them—an area of their life, which others perceive but which they do not. If it is any comfort, we all have blind spots.

What about the individual who has one set of standards for other people and another set of standards for themselves? Such individuals have a cognitive distortion, a habitual way of thinking that “is often inaccurate and negatively biased.” They may engage in a form of mental filtering, which focuses upon the negatives in other people while taking no notice of the negatives in themselves. It may be their way of avoiding facing up to the negatives in themselves.

I have a word of caution from those who are preparing to label someone a hypocrite or have labeled someone a hypocrite. Are their perceptions of a discrepancy between what an individual professes to believe and value and how they behave accurate? Or are they imagining a discrepancy?

We should be slow to jump to conclusions and not let our emotions or feelings do the thinking for us. Labeling some as a hypocrite can unduly harm their reputation and can negatively influence how other people perceive them.

Anger, fear, anxiety, and other strong emotions can influence how we see other people’s behavior to the point that we may misinterpret or misunderstand their actions. Because friends and coworkers may agree with us does not mean that they are accurate in their own perceptions. We may be influencing consciously or unconsciously their perceptions out of a desire for sympathy and validation.

Jesus taught that we should give people the benefit of the doubt, treat them as honest or deserving of trust, and make allowances for them. What we may construe to be wrongful actions on their part may be perfectly innocent and not prompted by immoral, improper, unethical, dishonest, or dishonorable motives. They may also not be at odds with what Jesus taught or exemplified. We may simply be reading too much into them.