I AM A HYPOCRITE!

"I am a hypocrite!" And from my observations and experiences of life, and my extensive reading, so are you! Sorry.

Paul says in Romans 3:10, "There is none righteous; no not one." (See the Hebrew writing in Psalm 14:1-3 and 53:1-3). The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, said in 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" We like to think we are ok, good, and have it all together, but if we are honest, we realize, we are not.

One of my friends said several years ago, and it was so true, "I have come to the conclusion that we haven't got a clue. None of us has got it all together." Yes, I can relate--and so can you.

Even the Apostle Paul, the greatest of Christian evangelists and church planters and authors (he wrote over 1/2 of the New Testament writings), said in Romans 7:15, "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." He didn't have it together either.

But a few verses later, Romans 7:24, he wrote, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" He realized on his own, he couldn't live a life where his beliefs and his actions always corresponded. He didn't have the power, in himself, to live what he believed or said he believed.

Interesting in Matthew 23:3, that Jesus said of the religious leaders and Pharisees, the very religious people--pious ones of their time, "And the things that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them." Glad I'm never like that! Don't you feel the same?

No one has it together--no one is righteous--no one can live their beliefs all of the time. Sounds like hypocrisy.

But Paul went on to say in Romans 7:24-25, "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

The only hope to overcome our hypocrisy is the help of God through the only One who ever lived on this earth without sin--without doing wrong. The Gospels call Jesus, "God in flesh" and "God with us." He was fully man, but also fully God. And He had the power of God to overcome the hypocrisy we struggle with. He has the way, truth and life, because He is the way, truth and life (John 14:6).

Need help integrating head and heart and feet--right thinking and right doing--beliefs, values, and living them out? Then seek Jesus. Read the Bible to learn more, especially the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As you do, you will find a power to live life that you never had and will never find anywhere else.

There is hope for us hypocrites. "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!"