The exposure of former pastor Ted Haggard’s hypocrisy
has been much on my mind. I have been angry and sorrowful over the damage his
now exposed sins have done to the cause of Christ. Nevertheless, I appreciated
his eventual confession to his congregation. He accepted 100% of the
responsibility for his sin--most of us find the temptation to blame others for
our failings almost irresistible. At Valleyford Church we have prayed for God’s
forgiving, healing grace to be made manifest in Ted’s life and in his family and
in New Life Church.
But I have also been reminded of my own hypocrisy.
Webster’s defines a hypocrite as “one who pretends to be pious, virtuous, etc.
without really being so.” As a follower of Christ I am commanded to love others
as Jesus does (John 15:12) and to forgive as I have been forgiven (Matthew
6:12). I teach other believers to do these things and more, yet all too often I
fail to practice what I preach. It seems that if I want to see fewer hypocrites
in the Church, I’ll need to start with me.
The solution is not to
lower the standards of Christian ethics to a more “reasonable “ level. Instead I
ought to freely acknowledge my failures in obedience: first to God, then to
others who have been hurt by them. I need to pray daily for grace to live more
consistently by the power of the Spirit of God. I need to enlist the prayers of
others to that end, and to be mutually accountable to a small group of believers
with whom I maintain a transparent relationship. And I need to be ever more
grateful that my place in heaven does not depend on my performance as a
disciple. The Bible says of Jesus, “Such a high priest meets our need--one who
is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. . .
He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he sacrificed himself.” Hebrews
7:26, 27b NIV.
Pastor Charlie Scott
c. 2006
