The Biggest Hypocrite

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:39-43)

I was that guy, the first criminal (or malefactor as per the KJV). For a while my reason for not being a Christian was that they were all a bunch of hypocrites. I knew because I had a "drug" problem as a child, I was drug to church every Sunday. Worse yet, I was enrolled in a private Christian school!

Well, surprisingly not all people who call themselves Christians are truly followers of Christ. If they talk-the-talk, but don't walk-the-walk, then there's a pretty good chance they're either lying, or fooling themselves (1 John 1:6). Then there are those who do walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk. They aren't perfect, but you can really tell there is something different about them.

There was one of these last type of Christians that intrigued me. I believed in God, and I believed that I wasn't a hypocrite, because I had accepted that I was going to hell (James 2:19). This Christian challenged me to read the book Romans. It seemed fairly safe, as I mentioned before I had gone to church/Christian school six days a week, I'm sure I must have read Romans at some point. Well as I read it (this time in a modern translation) I learned something. While there are some hypocrites in the church, I was a bigger hypocrite for using them as an excuse to not own up to my debt to God.

Anyway, let me pass on that challenge. If you're sure that you want nothing to do with Christians and Christianity, because we are all a bunch of hypocrites, I challenge you to read the book of Romans and see if your charge stands. Do it, the worst that will happen is that you will be unchanged. On the other hand, you might just find some answers that you didn't even realize you were looking for.