Why Should a Person Become a Christian When the Church Itself is Full of Hypocrites?

Now I’ll answer the “why” of this question in just a moment.

A HAVEN FOR HYPOCRITES

But first I’d like to say that this idea of the Church being a haven for hypocrites (by the way, hypocrites are people who on the outside look like followers of Christ while on the inside they really aren’t) ~ this idea of the Church being a haven for hypocrites is indeed a fact. Even Jesus Himself taught that hypocrites would “nest in [the Church’s] branches.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed reads…

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that (and here’s the part I wanted you to see) the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)

Now this term “birds” in our Lord’s parables is used figuratively to denote (mean) the dynamic of evil.

Do you remember the Parable of the Sower? (Matthew 13:3-9; 18-23) In that parable “seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.” (Matthew 13:4) Jesus would later explain that “the birds” as used there represented Satan who snatches away the word (the good news of the gospel) from people’s hearts. (Matthew 13:19)

So we find that this concept of “birds” stands for the dynamic of evil in Jesus’ parables in two places (and there are more).

And so turning our attention back to the Mustard Seed parable we first have the dynamic of the kingdom of heaven on earth (that’s the Church ~ she sprouts forth from the mustard seed) ~ we have the Church growing up, as it were, from its infancy in the first century on down and through the ages to the point of it becoming a “full grown tree.” And in every stage of the Church’s growth ~ in every period of its time ~ evil men have nested in her branches. Sometimes there have been more of them and sometimes there have been less. Who knows, maybe even you have run into a few hypocrites in the Church in your lifetime as a believer. I know I have.

So we find that hypocrites not only have taken refuge, but they still do take refuge in the Church. And Jesus said it would be so. Now how many of you along with me are working hard to make sure that you aren’t numbered among that crowd?!

OUR RESPONSE TO HYPOCRISY

Be careful that you don't preach so much about the hypocrisy of Christians that you don't see the hypocrisy in yourself. #Tworship

— aheartforgod (@aheartforgod) October 21, 2013

So what should a person do if he sees hypocrites in the Church? Should he go and wag his finger at them and chase them away? Or should he do something else? What do you think?

Well if Christ were here I’m sure He’d answer these questions in the following way. Jesus would tell us that, rather than to root up hypocrites, we should allow them to remain. (Matthew 13:28-30)

Are you surprised?

Rather than root up hypocrites and throw them out of the Church, we should let them hang around. For how can a believer ever know if when he was trying to weed out a hypocrite that the hypocrite wasn’t on the verge of being saved and if the believer would have just left him alone and loved him the hypocrite would have become a believer, too?

And were we not all just hypocrites at one time or another? Can you imagine what would have happened if, while in that state, we were thrown out of the Church? Might we probably still be hypocrites to this day if that happened to us? I think it’s definitely possible.

So it’s important that we leave hypocrites alone in the sense that we allow them to remain in the Church. Hopefully, by hearing the gospel preached to them from week to week, even they’ll come to their senses like we eventually did.

WHY SHOULD A PERSON BECOME A CHRISTIAN?

Which brings me back (finally) to answering the first part of the question: Why should a person become a Christian when the Church itself is full of hypocrites?”

Why should a person become a Christian?

Well he should become a Christian because, if he doesn’t, he’ll spend eternity in hell with those same hypocrites.

It’s as simple as that.

“‘The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'” (Matthew 24:50-51)

(Parable of the Mustard Seed picture above is under the Free Art License: click here.)