The following was a post Jack made at a discussion forum this week. For a simple post in an ongoing discussion, I thought it made a pretty complete article on the subject. And so I present it to my friends here.
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There are two kinds of hypocrites:
The Accidental Hypocrite. Those who are not yet aware of discrepancies between their stated paradigms/values, and who have not yet corrected themselves because they haven’t yet realized their fault.
The Deliberate Hypocrite. Those who do not care about the discrepancies between their stated paradigms/values and their behavior.
The second are the sort to come up with all manner of justifications for themselves, while the first will diligently correct whatever faults are exposed. In other words, the first continue along the road toward perfection, while the second find excuses to stay more or less where they are. The deliberate hypocrite does not reach excellence, for he has erected a wall made from the excuse of his own imperfection. He hides behind that wall, refusing the excellence he COULD reach, on account of the perfection that he theorizes is impossible for him to reach.
It is very likely that in making this choice, he forfeits promotion to the Holy City—all in the name of what he THINKS is a “humble” saying, “nobody’s perfect”. While he clings to his worldly status quo, he claims to be “seeking God”, whom he believes to be “perfect”. Yet he will not cross the wall into the humility of trying and failing until authenticity is attained. He irrationally considers not trying at all to be the nobler course, as if God no longer expects mankind to strive for righteousness.
He enjoys the company of others who prefer to live to the left of the red wall in the image above. Those who would cross that wall, they discourage by any of a number of dishonest means. Things like “you think too much” or “what are you going to do, start your own church?” or “you’re prideful” and so on. They do not realize that this makes them so dysfunctional that they can scarcely correct themselves of ANYTHING.
Such hypocrisy is for cowards and liars. Brave and honest people will have none of it. Even if they must travel alone for lack of willing company, they cannot stand to stay in the self-enforced confinement of the deliberate hypocrites who excuse their sins in the name of Jesus Christ. These brave ones are the sort to believe Jesus when he said that only those who “endure to the end” and who “overcome” would be worthy of the Holy City.
Indeed, there are a great many deliberate hypocrites who hope that Jesus will forget ever having said such things, and will heap upon them a profusion of “grace” in return for their stubborn insistence on persisting in their own sin. This is what they promise themselves during their present impunity on the earth. But they seem not to really believe that each one will meet God to be judged “for what he has done while in the body, whether good or bad”.
It will be amazing someday if I get to watch someone try to justify himself before God by claiming to be a hypocrite.
Jack
