Hypocrisy
SCRIPTURE: Romans 2:17-24 
Read the passage
BIO: I am Jamie Kite, software developer, wife, lover of Jesus, wearer of shoes — in no particular order. A small group, which a girl I’d never met dragged me to kicking and screaming, radically upended my life. Only through the community of believers have I been able to comprehend the radical grace of Christ and my own need for redemption and healing. It’s why I’m in a LIFE community and why you should be, too.
KEY VERSE: Romans 2:23-24 You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
CENTRAL TRUTH: When we profess a faith in Christ, in God, in the Gospel, we are commissioned to live and act as a response to that faith.
DEVOTIONAL: I’ve been thinking recently about what separates our nature from God’s. One thing that struck me is how only God can speak truth into existence. We can say true things, to be sure, but they aren’t made true because of us. The moment our bad acts run contrary to the ideals we "brag about," their meaning is lost. This is where Paul meets us in this passage, begging us to let the scales fall from our own eyes that we may see how the way we live our lives can mar the world’s perception of the Gospel.
Several months ago I was shopping for baby gifts at a local organic grocer when a woman in her mid-fifties with silver hair and worn TOMS caught my eye. She was pacing the personal care aisle, stopping periodically to pull products off the shelves and gawk at the ingredients listed on the back of the bottles. "Diethanolamine, Propylene Glycol, they’re just as bad as all the others!" The tongue twisting list of what was hidden inside didn’t match her expectations for products marketed as Organic. "Hypocrites!"
On September 18, 2009, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stood before attendees at the Values Voter Summit and proclaimed, "the audacity of hope has become the audacity of hypocrisy." The same word — hypocrisy — was invoked just eight days earlier toward a prominent pro-family lawmaker, who resigned after it was discovered that he’d shattered the trust of his own family.
Hypocrite.
The label doesn’t match what’s bottled inside.
But how can we, or Paul for that matter, stand in judgment? Anyone can betray the values they speak about with their mouth; anyone can act contrary to the Spirit they wrestle with in their heart.
We
all
fall
short.
It’s why we believe in the only God who answers to the depravity of the human condition with a Redeemer. Paul isn’t issuing this reprimand with the expectation that our propensity toward sin will be cured. He’s asking us to examine our lives as if they are all anyone we meet or teach will remember of the gospel.
QUESTION 1: When is the last time you told someone you were a Christian? Did you hesitate? Did you feel like you would be held to a higher standard?
QUESTION 2: Hypocrisy means "to play a part," as in an actor on stage. Do you find yourself "playing the part" of someone who has it all together? How often do you let your guard down to your friends? Your spouse? Your Lord?
QUESTION 3: The next time you hear the word "hypocrite" in a conversation or the media, pause for a moment. Consider what you have going on in your life that "doesn’t match the [Christian] label." And pray.
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