Thinking and Doing

When reading materials about the unchurched, dechurched, never been churched, one of the things they all seem to have in common is the word hypocrisy, not theirs, but the hypocrisy they see in the church. I don't know how many times since I've been a follower of Jesus that I have heard the phrase,"The church is full of hypocrites," as a reason for someone to quit attending a church or or never even going. To be honest hypocrisy does run deep in the church. We don't always practice what we preach. Our words and our actions are often out of sync.

In 1Corinthians 8, it seems that some people's behavior, was wounding the consciences of the so called weaker brother and sisters, and even destroying the faith of others. However hypocrisy was not the culprit. In fact some people were practicing what they preached. Idols are not real gods so food connected with idol worship doesn't matter. Food is even according to the apostle Paul morally, ethically, and theologically neutral. He writes," food does not brings us near to God-we are not worse if we do not eat, nor better if we do…" So it doesn’t matter theologically, ethically, morally, what we eat, even where that food came from, or even where we eat, food is food is food, and food is made for the body and body for food…

However; Paul also reminds them that though everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial- everything is permissible but not everything is constructive, not everything builds up or strengthens, or encourages growth. Doing some permissible things can wound consciences, destroy faith, and even stunt personal spiritual growth. Eating food offered to idols was right for some of the Christians in Corinth, but evidently not for others.

Knowing that some brothers and sisters in the faith could not handle eating food offered to idols and they still engaged in that activity, even flaunting it as a mark of spiritual maturity, was not hypocrisy. It was thoughtless and selfish.

The faith community is an interdependent community. How we live our lives in front of other Christians can impact their personal spiritual growth. Hypocrisy may still dog the church, but if Christians were a little more thoughtful and less selfish about what they do and how they do it, the faith community may quit shooting some of our own, and we can grow this faith community deeper in terms of interpersonal relationships, and wider in terms including more people under the sphere of influence of the kingdom of God.