Why Are There Hypocrites in the Church?

We’ve all heard these comments before, and we cringe when we hear them because they reek of a characteristic we all hate: hypocrisy. For many, nothing condemns Christianity more than hypocrites in the church.

People react differently to hypocrisy in the church, but more often than not it pushes them away—sometimes permanently. Something this serious needs to be looked at carefully, because we’ve all experienced, and perhaps been a part of, Christian hypocrisy. What should we make of this problem? Does it discredit Christianity? What would Jesus have said about this?


Jesus Also Hates Hypocrisy

If you feel angry thinking about experiences you’ve had with hypocrites, you’re in good company—Jesus felt the same way. The harshest words he spoke were directed at the Pharisees, whom he called hypocrites time and time again. In Matthew 23, Jesus sharply criticizes the Pharisees in front of everyone for being hypocrites—which is part of the reason they wanted to kill him—and explains what they were doing to deserve that label. Jesus says they “do not practice what they preach,” and that “everything they do is done for people to see” (Matt. 23:3, 5 NIV). Most hypocrisy can be summed up by those two phrases.
He doesn’t just speak to the Pharisees, though; he commands the rest of us not to follow in their footsteps. In Matthew 7 Jesus tells us not to point out “the speck that is in [our] brother’s eye” when there is a “log that is in [our] own eye” (Matt. 7:3–5). Other Scripture, such as Romans 2:3, also condemns hypocrisy: “Do you really think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet does the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?” (HCSB).
If Jesus hated hypocrisy, then it’s safe to say that Christianity doesn’t encourage it. Why, then, do we still find it in the church?


Why Do We Still Find Hypocrisy in the Church?

  Reason #1—Not Everyone Who Goes to Church Is a Christian

Have you ever considered that not everyone who attends church, or even says they worship God, is actually a Christian? There are some who are simply pretending, usually to appease their parents, their husband or wife, or their friends. Sometimes people pretend because they want the community and friendships that a church offers. Many of these people would, if asked, say that they are Christians when in reality they aren’t sure exactly what they believe.
Then there are those who believe themselves to be saved, but really are not. Jesus speaks about these people in Matthew 7:21, saying, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

This is a scary thought, the idea that some—or many—of the people we sit next to in church have deceived themselves and are not actually saved. Proclaiming the name of Jesus and showing up on Sunday does not make someone a Christian. Jesus says that every “healthy tree bears good fruit” (Matt. 7:17), so it’s entirely possible that if you’ve been grossly wronged by a Christian, they might be a Christian in name only.

Sometimes, then, the simple answer is that the “Christians” you run into may not actually be Christians at all. Of course, this doesn’t mean we suggest that you try to judge whether or not all the people around you are saved; actually, it is a good opportunity to gauge your own relationship to God. Does your life reflect that of a humble servant of God?


  Reason #2—Every Christian Is a Hypocrite

The other major reason the church has hypocrites is that every single Christian is a hypocrite. A hypocrite is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.”

Every Christian fits that description. Every day, every single Christian in the world sins, probably many times, while still claiming that we should all live the perfect life that Jesus called us to (Matt. 5:48). Every Christian is a sinner, therefore every Christian is a hypocrite.

Even as Christians seek to live godly lives, then, they are at risk of being called hypocrites because they will continue to fail, even though they are improving. But to be fair, probably very few people, if asked, would say they expect Christians to be completely perfect. What frustrates most people is the second definition of a hypocrite, which is “a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion.” 

This is someone who puts on the mask of a person who is spotlessly clean and is disappointed with the people around them who show any signs of imperfection. This fits the New Testament description of the Pharisees perfectly. Can this kind of person be found in churches today too? Absolutely. There are varying degrees of hypocrisy in the lives of every Christian.

Notice, though, that Jesus could technically have called every Jew a hypocrite, but instead singled out the Pharisees’ actions as hypocritical. This tells us that there is an important distinction we should make, then, between sinners and hypocrites. All Christians are sinners, and therefore hypocrites to some extent, but not all sinners are hypocrites in the way that the Pharisees were. If you’ve met one of those kinds of hypocrites, you can safely assume that Jesus shares your anger toward them.

But the Bible expects that this will be the case, that we will find this type of person among us. What should we conclude about Christianity, then, given that we find hypocrites in the church?


What Does This Tell Us about Christianity?

When we go to church or spend time with Christians, many of us go in with the expectation that we won’t find anything we don’t like, including hypocrites. These people have been fixed by Jesus already, right? It doesn’t take long to become disappointed if that’s what we expect.

But maybe this expectation is off. If you walked into a hospital, would you be surprised if you found sick people everywhere? What if some of them were really sick? This is much closer to how we should approach the church and Christians in general. We are not perfect; in fact, we’re all still very sick. But we are getting better. It’s easy to forget that we all came to the church at different points in life; many people come from broken lives that are now in the process of healing, and most of us are sicker than we realize. We should not be surprised to find people in different states of mending (see chap. 45 on sanctification). It would make more sense to compare a person to how they were before they became a Christian than to compare them to perfection. The church is not a place for perfect people, it’s a place for broken people slowly being made whole by Jesus. If we find ourselves surprised when we see sin in the church, we should rethink our expectations.

But often hypocrites do more than disappoint us—they have an actual effect on our relationships with God. On one hand, it makes sense why hypocrisy would have this effect. It’s hard to swallow the idea of worshiping the same God as someone who hurt us. But on the other hand, it seems strange that we should let a human being’s failures determine the way we interact with God. God did not cause them to behave the way they did. 

Even stranger, sometimes people question the whole of Christianity because of bad experiences they’ve had with Christians. Did God suddenly stop existing? Did he stop loving us? Why, then, would we run from God when we are wronged by people? Ultimately, Christianity hinges on the person of Jesus, not the conduct of Christians.

A more appropriate response to seeing the hypocrisy in the church would be to resolve ourselves not to make the same mistakes these people did and to ask God for strength, not to run from God. Your faith rests in him, and he will not disappoint you.