Description
Avoiding Hypocrisy
Join us in reflecting on the importance of avoiding hypocrisy in our lives, inspired by Paul’s words… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Nobody likes hypocrisy, and we particularly should not tolerate it in ourselves. Let’s meditate today on something Paul said in Romans chapter two, verse one. Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you the judge, practice the very same things.
Paul says that if you are judging other people, that shows that you have some kind of moral compass, you have moral standards, and you are attempting to apply them to other people. But so many people that do this are less willing to apply those standards to themselves.
And so, so easily when we take those rules and try and apply them to other people, we just end up judging ourselves, bringing ourselves into condemnation. That’s what Paul says. The hypocrisy is unacceptable.
Far better then for us to cling to the cross of Christ. Where no man is condemned because Jesus’s righteousness covers over all our sins. As soon as we lay down our lives and say we’re following him, there is no condemnation and there is no judgment. The judgment is left to God.
We should distinguish this from discernment where we can still know the difference between right and wrong. And we distinguish it from the operation of the law, which is still needed in a civil society. But we do not bring judgment on other people because we are aware of how much we have been forgiven ourselves.
Now, those who are in authority, particularly those who are leading churches, still have to bring church discipline, and that is right. But anybody who has responsibility for doing that needs to do that with fear and trembling, knowing that God the ultimate judge, sees everything that we do. And he will not be fooled by any outward pretense of self-righteousness.
So let’s take these words on board. And let us not be hasty in passing judgment on others, lest we condemn ourselves.
