Hypocrisy is Hypocrisy - Truth is Truth

My bio/about me in most of my socials may sound like hyperbole, but I don't believe it is:

57th-worst sinner who ever lived. Saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

I'm not so self-loathing that I don't think there are at least 56 sinners worse than me. But I also don't think the sins from which I've been cleansed were less egregious or offensive to God than almost everyone else's. I've always tried to emphasize in my limited capacity as a preacher that I'm a flawed man, given a few good words by the grace of God. To put it whimsically, the Biblical figure I most resemble is Balaam's donkey - a hairy and dumb creature miraculously given some wise words to share.

The American Founding Fathers took up the herald that "all men are created equal." Still, many of them were slaveowners. Later generations cited this declaration of equality in their fight against slavery. "All men are created equal" is a stark example of how one person can say something that exposes them as an absolute hypocrite, but the truth and sentiment of what they say remains intact.

One of the unique things about the Holy Bible is that so many of its heroes or most important figures aren't so lionized as to make them seem flawless. The two most prominent examples lie in two of Israel's greatest kings, David and his son Solomon. David was a mighty warrior who was famously described as being "after God's own heart." But among the times he was disobedient to God was the particularly Machiavellian plot of coercing Bathsheba, a married woman, into having sex with him, then conspiring to ensure her husband Uriah would be killed in battle. Even so, King David wrote many of the Psalms, some of the most key pieces of Scripture - including a psalm in which he expressed his contrition and anguish in repentance of these sins (Psalm 51). The Psalms are pivotal in Christian theology, many of them pointing to the coming Savior, Jesus.

David's son Solomon was hailed as the wisest man in the world, and wrote most of the book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and possibly the book of Ecclesiastes. Yet toward the end of his life and reign as king, as 1 Kings chapter 11 tells us, his heart was turned away from Yahweh as a result of his lust for the flesh and his disregard for an instruction in the Torah that forbids kings from having many wives (Deuteronomy 17:17). 

And yet with these marks on these men's records, their words are invaluable treasures in our holy texts. Their praise of God, their enthusiasm in pointing their readers to Him, is not made dim or erased by their glaring flaws. This is a stunning example of God's grace - He allows us sinners to speak truths that reveal Him. Even Judas Iscariot, who was a thief and later betrayed the Lord, performed miracles with the Twelve. It's important to note that Scripture is Divinely inspired, a word meaning "God-breathed." The words these men shared flowed from the Holy Spirit and not their own personal whims.

I've used this blog for many things, among them sharing the Gospel. This includes spiritual truths recorded by very flawed men, by Divine inspiration, truths from the holy Scriptures we've come to call the Bible. If my own many, many mistakes and misdees are ever scrutinized or magnified, I hope it's understood that our sins don't negate the edifying things we speak about Christ. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and as unfaithful Solomon (possibly) wrote before his own downfall: "there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

A person steeped in unrepentant sin has no moral place to preach God's word. And yet it happens all the time - it's almost a trope that pastors and vocal Christians are caught committing some terrible indiscretion. But in your heartbreak and grief over that person's example being daashed to pieces by their hypocrisy, remember this one thing: a hypocrite is a hypocrite, but truth remains truth.

Think of it this way: if someone says Earth is round, but is caught at a Flat Earther convention, it doesn't change the truth that the planet is indeed round.

It's immensely difficult sometimes to focus on Christ being spoken through people. It's easy to see only the person speaking about Him, to put them on pedastals for their eloquence or character. This is why it's important to latch onto the truth of Jesus in their words, and only Jesus, even if we think the speaker's character is unimpeachable. When we find that it's not - as we always will - we'll have grasped the truth of the Gospel from what they've said, and not an unhealthy reverence for the person relaying it. Anyone proclaiming Jesus will let you down - they're sinners like you and me. Even if those disappointments come not from sin or malice but some minor slight or disagreement, we'll always find some reason to be disenchanted, even if only slightly or briefly, by human beings. That disenchantment of course feels much heavier when the person who lets you down is a person from whom you've gathered some beautiful piece of truth.

But remember: a hypocrite is a hypocrite, but truth remains truth. That's one of the great things about God - He is unchanging and unchangeable; the truth He reveals to us never disappoints, even if the person sharing it will.