It's Good to Be a Hypocrite

Halloween is approaching, and that means it will soon be time for us to put on our masks.  At Halloween, we pretend to be someone that we aren’t: anyone from an astronauts or nurse to a vampire or witch.  It’s all in fun, of course.  When the trick-or-treaters show up at the door, we all know that Jason isn’t really a cowboy.  At the office or school party, everyone understands that Irene hasn’t actually become a werewolf.

As we think about Halloween masks, let’s also consider a different kind of mask that we wear the other 364 days of the year.  We have masks that we wear to pretend that we’re someone or something that we aren’t, and we hope the people around us will believe that the mask is the real us.  We have a name for people who try to convince others they’re something that they’re not: hypocrites.

Church-goers are often accused of being hypocrites.  In particular, we face the charge that we’re pretending to be better than other people.  Far too often, it’s true.  Christians have earned a reputation for being hypocrites when we point out the faults of others, while failing to notice our own shortcomings.  In another sense, however, going to church and professing to be a Christian can be the most honest statement you ever make about yourself.  As the late Christian songwriter Rich Mullins put it, “I never knew why going to church made you a hypocrite, because nobody goes to church because they're perfect. If you've got it all together, you don't need to go. You can go jogging with all the other perfect people on Sunday morning.  Every time you go to church, you're confessing again that you don't have it all together. And that you need their support. You need their direction. You need some accountability, you need some help.”

Believe it or not, however, we should all aspire to be hypocrites.  We can do something valuable when we pretend to be someone different.  When we slip on the mask – and know what we are doing when we do so – over time, we start to become more like the person we are pretending to be.  As the common phrase puts it, “Fake it ‘til you make it.”

For example, are you struggling to love your spouse?  Ask yourself, “If I did love him/her, what would I do?”  Once you answer the question, start doing those things.  In other words, put on the mask of being a loving husband or wife.  Over time, the mask will reshape you into exactly that

The most important hypocrite of all is the person who tries to be like Jesus.  Paul wanted the Christians in Rome to be hypocrites when he told them to “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (13:14): he wanted them to put on a Jesus-mask.  (He goes into a bit more detail in Colossians 3:12-14, as he describes the virtues that make up the Jesus-costume.)  If you want to become more like Jesus, put on his mask.  Ask yourself, “What would a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit do?”  Then do it.  Over time, that mask will become more and more of a reality, as you grow in the holiness that Christ embodies and wants for us all.