# Hypocrites



## Skyler (May 22, 2011)

What can a pastor (or anyone) do about hypocrites in the church? Specifically I'm thinking of children who have been raised in the church, have most of their friends in the church, and are pretending to be upstanding Christians in order to maintain their good social status with the rest of the church. Not necessarily full members or even out on their own yet.

Is there anything to be done besides preaching against it and hoping that the pretenders will wither under the tirade?


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## Andres (May 22, 2011)

A pastor/elder should directly confront the issue during home visitation. This would include addressing not only the parents, but also the child.


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## Jeffriesw (May 22, 2011)

X's 2 on Andres comment

Sent from my iPhone


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## earl40 (May 22, 2011)

Let God be God, and encourage young members do do what is right in His sight and be ever so patient.


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## torstar (May 22, 2011)

To carry on from concerns of another thread, I would posit that something could be said for the children to be beside their parents from 5 or 6 for services, learning how to behave and spending quality time with mom and dad worshipping God.

The church always is rife with hypocrites, every single person there is a hypocrite...


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## Skyler (May 22, 2011)

Andres said:


> A pastor/elder should directly confront the issue during home visitation. This would include addressing not only the parents, but also the child.



Okay, that's when. But how should it be addressed?

For pastors, how would you approach the issue?


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## Reformed Thomist (May 22, 2011)

torstar said:


> The church always is rife with hypocrites, *every single person there is a hypocrite*...


 
Ultimately, true.


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## JM (May 22, 2011)

[video=youtube;dS1Ottf6PwU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS1Ottf6PwU[/video]


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## Contra_Mundum (May 22, 2011)

Every week, we're calling every person present to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's the only way to live, and not die. Faith in Christ is a way of life, not just a door into Christianity.

I don't think a tirade is the answer. The church is a disciplinary institution. 24/7 the true church is disciplining every one of its members. Just like parents are disciplining their family, 24/7. Don't think so? Trust me, it's happening intentionally; or else it's happening haphazardly, and you have no idea what is being "disciplined-into" your kids, or your wife or husband, etc. The same is true with the church. Sometimes that discipline is more obvious than at other times; it may be especially visible on Sunday, or at a Session mtg. But it is always happening. Its why we call discipline one of the "marks" of the church. No discipline, no church. Calvin called it "the nerve."

A sermon is a form of discipline. Think of all the discipline in or associated with a sermon. It takes discipline to make/prepare a minister who will deliver it. It takes discipline to understand the text, to plan and prepare to deliver a message that captures the vital truth of the text, and preach the gospel. Discipline is the nature of every exhortation, whether to believe or to obey the truth. Discipline brings the congregation once again, dutifully to the worship location and hour, whatever the weather (neither snow nor sleet nor bitter cold... USPS, eat your heart out), to answer the summons (unless providentially hindered). Discipline is necessary for the "conscionable hearing" of the Word. The session must exercise discipline over the message, the preaching, and the hearers (or would-be hearers).

In other words, discipline isn't only rebuke for specific sins, or a warning against hypocrisy. It is shepherding, watching, driving wolves away, pasturing, caring, loving.

You or I will never change a single heart. That's not our job. And as often as a general off-the-cuff rebuke, or a warning against hypocrisy, might lead to positive change, it might just as well drive a hypocrite to new heights of duplicity. The pastors' job is to faithfully tend sheep, until Christ calls us out of this world. By our level of faithfulness, or in spite of it, Christ will build his church, as the means are brought to bear in a varying quality and strength. In the grace of God, I believe he appoints a good correlation between the due use of ordinary means, and positive spiritual results. It would be terribly disheartening to be convinced there was no reliable correspondence between diligence in discipling, and the formation of true disciples.

Paul calls the Christian life a warfare, because we never get a break, we never go on "leave," the enemy prowls around, and wants to strike us from ambush. We lay our arms down only when we lay our lives down. Heaven is the battle-o'er, not before. And church-discipline is ALWAYS the hottest place on the battlefield. Don't ever forget it, or one day you will awaken to the noise of conflict right around you, and you'll wonder how the enemies got inside the perimeter--too late.


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## Rich Koster (May 22, 2011)

Well said Rev. B.


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## jambo (May 22, 2011)

The issue is not just children. Many adults are exactly the same. It is easy to pretend all is well and and appearing active in the church can mask a lot of spiritual deficiencies. Much of western Christianity is about _doing_ Christian things instead of _being_ a Christian. Preaching, praying, encouraging, nurturing, loving -you can't do much more than that. However the starting place for it all is to ask ourselves, am I _really_ any different?


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## torstar (May 22, 2011)

jambo said:


> The issue is not just children. Many adults are exactly the same. It is easy to pretend all is well and and appearing active in the church can mask a lot of spiritual deficiencies. Much of western Christianity is about _doing_ Christian things instead of _being_ a Christian. Preaching, praying, encouraging, nurturing, loving -you can't do much more than that. However the starting place for it all is to ask ourselves, am I _really_ any different?


 

You have to find or develop a church that is SERIOUS about worship, membership, knowledge and living.

And stop playing childish games with God.


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## Edward (May 22, 2011)

Skyler said:


> Not necessarily full members or even out on their own yet.



So we are talking about a mixture of teens and preteens that haven't made a profession of faith nor been admitted to the table, but are making efforts to not be disruptive at church? 

I'll repeat here what I've posted before: I was much better at giving child rearing advice before I became a parent. 

But if the pastor does decide to offer a 'tirade' on hypocrisy from the pulpit, I'd suggest gluing small mirrors into each bulletin, and putting a larger one in front of the pulpit, aimed toward the pastor, for the sermon.


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## kvanlaan (May 22, 2011)

I would also think that the issue would be addressed during house visitation, and I know that flagrant examples of this sort of behaviour would, in our church, entail the father being pulled aside on a Sunday and talked to by an elder, especially in cases where the response of the parents was overall indifference.



> But if the pastor does decide to offer a 'tirade' on hypocrisy from the pulpit, I'd suggest gluing small mirrors into each bulletin, and putting a larger one in front of the pulpit, aimed toward the pastor, for the sermon.



Then they'd best be kept there 24/7 for any mention of sin whatsoever, no?


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## Edward (May 22, 2011)

kvanlaan said:


> Then they'd best be kept there 24/7 for any mention of sin whatsoever, no?



I can see the merit of that. Might be cheaper and easier to use shiny foil on that basis. And it could lose its impact after a while. But a bit of self introspection can be useful prior to denouncing sin in others.


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## kvanlaan (May 22, 2011)

Fair enough, but I don't have a problem with the pastor preaching against hypocrisy as it comes up in scripture - it's his job. Our pastor always mentions that he is preaching as much for himself as for us in the congregation, and I think that's enough.


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## Wayne (May 22, 2011)

Reflecting on several points in Bruce's post, I would point to a sermon by B.B. Warfield, "The Saving Christ"

Recently I posted an edited version of that sermon, and began to think about how that sermon worked on several levels.
On one level it is simply a good presentation of the gospel by a faithful pastor. 

On another level, it is a pointed critique of the social gospel which was so prevalent in that era (and which seems to be making a comeback). 

But there is also the fact that Warfield is also preaching in those early years of spiritual decline at Princeton, proclaiming the gospel to both students and faculty, preaching in the face of hypocrisy. 

[though, as Bruce said, every sermon is preached in the face of hypocrisy]


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## Wayne (May 22, 2011)

Reflecting on several points in Bruce's post, I would point to a sermon by B.B. Warfield, "The Saving Christ"

Recently I posted an edited version of that sermon, and began to think about how that sermon worked on several levels.
On one level it is simply a good presentation of the gospel by a faithful pastor. 

On another level, it is a pointed critique of the social gospel which was so prevalent in that era (and which seems to be making a comeback). 

But there is also the fact that Warfield is also preaching in those early years of spiritual decline at Princeton, proclaiming the gospel to both students and faculty, preaching in the face of hypocrisy. 

[though, as Bruce said, every sermon is preached in the face of hypocrisy]


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## O'GodHowGreatThouArt (May 23, 2011)

Children should be dealt with in full, since it is their sin at the end of the day, and they need the counsel of God on the matter and to be exalted to come to faith in Jesus Christ. The biggest discussion should be with the parents though.

The child, especially a young one, can not learn hypocrisy by staring at a wall 24/7. They will all they can to walk in the shoes of those he/she trust and/or looks up to. As such, there's only one of two places they could learn it:

1) The parents showed them how to be hyprocites by being hypocrites 

2) The parents allowed others to show them and did nothing to prevent it. 

Hypocrisy is not an easy mask to wear either. Any parents paying close attention to their children will notice that something strange is going on with them over time. This is why I don't buy the "I didn't know _______ was going on" excuse. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but they can't tell anyone that they could not notice a change with their children as a result of it. 

Either way, its a serious problem.


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## KMK (May 23, 2011)

Skyler said:


> pretending to be upstanding Christians in order to maintain their good social status with the rest of the church.



How can a pastor know this to be true unless the person specifically confesses such? And once it was confessed it wouldn't be hypocrisy any more. Maybe it is different for Presbyterians.


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## Jack K (May 23, 2011)

Skyler said:


> What can a pastor (or anyone) do about hypocrites in the church? Specifically I'm thinking of children who have been raised in the church, have most of their friends in the church, and are pretending to be upstanding Christians in order to maintain their good social status with the rest of the church. Not necessarily full members or even out on their own yet.
> 
> Is there anything to be done besides preaching against it and hoping that the pretenders will wither under the tirade?



It sounds like you have in mind young people who've learned how to be churchy but whose hearts have not really been captured yet for God. This may play itself out by them acting good and religious when they're with church people but worldly at other times. Generally, they are quite aware of their double lives and are in danger, down the road, of rejecting Christianity completely as something they've tried but doesn't work.

Nagging and tirades are not usually the best way to melt a hard heart. It's better for the church and parents to use the Spirit's tools: telling the Good News of Jesus, prayer and Scripture. Apply these persistently and patiently.


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## J. Dean (May 23, 2011)

Skyler said:


> What can a pastor (or anyone) do about hypocrites in the church? Specifically I'm thinking of children who have been raised in the church, have most of their friends in the church, and are pretending to be upstanding Christians in order to maintain their good social status with the rest of the church. Not necessarily full members or even out on their own yet.
> 
> Is there anything to be done besides preaching against it and hoping that the pretenders will wither under the tirade?


 So they're "Sunday Christians?"

This reminds me of an excerpt from Spurgeon. He was dealing with an Antinomian in his church who was basically a hypocrite, and during a sermon, he turned in the direction of this fellow and said "There is a great difference between God justifying you and you justifying yourself." He went on to plainly say that if there were no fruits of repentance in his life, that he should not be calling himself a Christian. The parishoner immediately dismissed Spurgeon as being an Arminian, but the wise Spurgeon did not care.

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Jack K said:


> Nagging and tirades are not usually the best way to melt a hard heart. It's better for the church and parents to use the Spirit's tools: telling the Good News of Jesus, prayer and Scripture. Apply these persistently and patiently.



I agree not to "nag" about it, but it still may need to be brought up, from the pulpit if nothing else.


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## Jack K (May 23, 2011)

J. Dean said:


> Jack K said:
> 
> 
> > Nagging and tirades are not usually the best way to melt a hard heart. It's better for the church and parents to use the Spirit's tools: telling the Good News of Jesus, prayer and Scripture. Apply these persistently and patiently.
> ...



Yes, in the sense that preaching the gospel always includes being honest about sin and disobedience. But that alone won't do the trick. In the end, what are you going to preach from the pulpit that has any power to change hard hearts and bring obedience other than preaching Christ?


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