Hypocrisy was a practice for which Jesus had a low tolerance. In Matthew’s Gospel alone, he used the word “hypocrite” 13 times, and in Luke’s account, twice. In the original Greek, it simply referred to theater actors who wore masks and played a role.
So, as I look over the landscape of contemporary evangelicals’ comfort with both the lifestyle and criminality of “The Felon King,” I know enough Scripture to recognize this is a non-starter for the Lord. God never has been impressed with hypocrisy. Doing good deeds for the wrong reasons always tests our true motives.
Michael Chancellor
I once had a deacon who objected to a fellowship honoring two church members who had volunteered their time to lead the choir and worship without pay while we waited for a new music minister. He stated his objection simply: “Why are we doing this?” The obvious response he heard from me was that these two people had volunteered their time for several months, and we wanted to show appreciation for their labor. He responded, “But if we appreciate them, we’ll have to appreciate everyone!”
When I was settling into my first role as a pastor, I occasionally would stop by the bank where a parishioner named Anna was employed. Over time, I began to notice an increasingly familiar greeting from a table of men gathered there. As I stepped into the room, one would always say, “Well, hello, preacher,” making sure my identity was noted by everyone else in the breakroom.
I slowly learned that most of these men were church members somewhere in the community. But the presence of a minister deserved a brotherly warning: “Parson in the room — clean up your language.” Oddly, they did not offer the same courtesy to the women in the bank who took their breaks in that same room.
After I finally caught on to what was happening, I walked in one day, was identified in the usual way, and responded: “Carry on, men — just pretend I’m not here. If God isn’t offended by your language, who am I to disagree?”
Every Christian fails to live up to their relationship with God. That is why we never outgrow our need for repentance and confession. However, it is a different matter entirely when we deliberately play the part of an upstanding Christian while cheating, stealing or turning our backs on our neighbors.
That is the climate I believe we are living through today. There are too many masks, too many costumes and too many actors playing a part — all while knowing that each act we cover up and each time we pretend to be more than we are is not just an offense to God, but an offense toward those God loves and for whom Christ died.
Michael Chancellor served 33 years as pastor of four Baptist churches in Texas, six years as a mental health manager in a maximum-security Texas prison before becoming a therapist in private practice in Round Rock, Texas. He now lives in Taylor, Texas.
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