The Big Questions About the Christian LifeSýnishorn

Why Are There So Many Hypocrites in the Church if Christianity is True?

This is a very good question, so let’s think it through carefully. People often judge a product based on how it works for other people. If it works for others, they’ll want to try it themselves.

Many people have decided to reject Christianity because they don’t like how it has worked for other people.

They may have met some supposed Christians who aren’t nice people – judgmental rather than accepting, rule-oriented rather than people-oriented, mean-spirited instead of generous. They may be judgmental instead of gracious. They might say one thing and do another. In short, they’re hypocrites. The fact there are followers of Jesus who are like that is really tragic.

However, you can’t use the behavior of some people to judge the truthfulness of Christianity. To put it plainly, just because some people are hypocrites doesn’t mean the Christian faith isn’t true. It doesn’t mean Jesus wasn’t born in Bethlehem or that he didn’t die and rise again.

The Christian faith doesn’t stand or fall on the behavior of its followers. As a historically factual faith, it stands on the historical reality of the person, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Even if all the followers of Christianity were hypocrites, the Christian faith would still be true.

Still, it is sometimes difficult for people to understand why many supposed Christians don’t show it in their lives. The reasons for this go back to the fundamental aspects of human nature. The principal reality we must face is that we are all sinners. Some sinners aren’t Christians, and there are Christian sinners as well. In that sense, there is no difference. As shocking as it might seem, you shouldn’t expect to find fewer sinners inside a church than outside it.

This means that there will always be a misalignment between how Christians want to live and how they do live. As I said, this is common to all humanity. It is true for every human being, and there is nothing inherently wrong with this. We all have this same yearning to be better people.

However, the problem occurs when we try to justify the faults in our actions, our thoughts, and our relationships. The more we do this, the more “hypocritical” we become. In doing this, we also invariably relegate other people to a lower status than ourselves.

Again, this isn’t limited to religious people. It is a trait common to all humanity. While it’s often easier to point the finger at religious people, you can find hypocrites everywhere.

What makes it worse when Christians are hypocrites is that they shouldn’t be. It’s the opposite of the kind of people that followers of Jesus should be.

However, let us remember that even Jesus himself had Judas as a follower! It didn’t stop him rising from the dead, and it hasn’t stopped his message from being true.

– Eliezer Gonzalez