Hypocrisy On The Wall!
Matthew 23:27-28 (Amplified Bible)
27Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you are like tombs that have been whitewashed, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything impure.
28Just so, you also outwardly seem to people to be just and upright but inside you are full of pretense and lawlessness and iniquity.
Facebook, is one of the most interesting places on the internet. I have learned that it is a useful tool, to share and to keep up with friends and family. It has also become a place to reconnect with people and to get a message out, advertise your business or cause. BUT I have also noticed that Facebook, has become a place of humiliation and shame, a place where people tell the business of others and they tell on themselves as well. They criticize, fight, threaten, demean, disrespect and initiate drama. But I have noticed some of the greatest pretenders on Facebook. People that in one moment will give God glory and then curse someone out or tell people to mind their business, or discuss someone else’s behavior and business and place them on blast, whew. It is like watching a soap opera most days or reading a novel that has a lot of drama. But the part that worries me most, is I have seen, people that I know well, and ones that I am acquainted with saying many things, that are founded in biblical truths, that they no more live than my two dogs do. How can you preach the word and not live it. Or in this case how can we post things on our wall that implies we stand for something and are living something we are not! That is hypocrisy.
I am sure God would rather we own up to who we really are and say, I am telling you this but I am not living this. I am sure that God would rather we take off the mask of religiosity and be who we are until we get to a place that we allow Him to have full control of our lives and we come to Him in our entirety. You see we are not advancing the kingdom if we are telling people one thing and then they see our lifestyle is contrary to what we write or say. We are confusing people and giving Christianity and Salvation a bad name. We cannot serve two masters for one we will love and the other we will hate, it says a double minded man is unstable in ALL his (or her) ways (James 1:8). We have to make up our mind who we are going to be. Trying to be a double agent is dangerous and costly, not just for us, but for those who encounter us. For one day people may encounter Jesus and the next they may encounter our true selves, which in turn will mess up our witness and destroy the lives of those looking at us and trusting our walk. It is true that people should not follow us, but the Bible even says follow me as I follow Christ, this is an indicator that we should be the example, but if we are showing forth two conflicting examples, what are others to think, and what do you think God is also thinking?
The next time we post something on our wall, or begin to witness, ask yourself this one question, am I living what I am teaching with my words? Am I modeling what I am telling others to do, or is it that I am just posting something because it sounds good or it looks good on paper or to others? We need to be aware that people are watching us, and just because we pretend to be something or say that we are something that does not necessarily mean we are, and we need to allow God to work on us from the inside out. The greatest witnesses we can give are not the words we speak or the things we write, but how we live, and the attitude and character of Christ that we carry.
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