Beware of the Infection of Hypocrisy
You've been exposed. Have you been disinfected?
Hypocrisy is like a germ. It’s transmissible, like the corona virus, from one infected person to another. Hypocrisy is highly infectious.
Read: Beware of the Danger of Hypocrisy (<click to read the article at Theopolis; about a 6 minute read.)
Rodney told me he was sorry that the church had to cut my salary to make the budget; he preached on giving and claimed to support his church, while he and his wife were fully employed, regularly buying new vehicles, annually taking pilgrimages to Disney World and splurging on such indulgences as annual passes to the Biltmore estate and elaborate tattoos, all the while he gave a mite, about one percent of his income. Such a shamelessly two-faced man is a “hypocrite.” But usually hypocrisy is more subtle. Are you infected?
Here’s some symptoms of hypocrititus:
love of made-up rules, like no alcohol or only use a 400 year old Bible translation you often doesn’t understand;
love displays, like using your Facebook page to show off how you had a group of homeless people in your living room;
love of titles, like “apostle” or “bishop”; if you go to a church where the leader likes those titles, see if he or she is infected;
love of empty words, like making a covenant to a church but then walking away or Rodney’s pretense to caring about his pastor but then not giving generously.
For the treatment for hypocrititus, see the article (linked above).
John B. Carpenter, Ph.D., is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, in Danville, VA. and the author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church (Wipf and Stock, 2022).