Hypocrisy

I don’t know any hypocrites.  Oh, I’m sure there are hypocrites out there; I just don’t know who they are.  According to the Bible dictionary the use of the word hypocrite “generally denotes one who pretends to be religious when he is not.” [link]

I have heard several people describe anybody who is not perfect in their integrity, anyone whose actions fall short of what they say they believe is right, as a hypocrite.  In October 2013 General Conference, President Uchtdorf stated, “If you define hypocrite as someone who fails to live up perfectly to what he or she believes, then we are all hypocrites.”   [link]

So how do we determine if a person is a hypocrite with the first definition, or the second?  The second definition makes us all hypocrites because, “all fall short of the glory of God”(Romans 3:23), but that doesn’t seem to be how the term was first used.  Christ clearly did not label everyone He came in contact with as a hypocrite.  In fact, Christ is the only one I know who has any authority to label anyone has a hypocrite because He is the only one who can see into a person’s heart and know their intent. 

If you are like me then at some point in your life, you have been judged and judged wrongfully.  Someone has decided what you meant about something you did or said, and their conclusion wasn’t even close to what you had intended.  I don’t like to be judged like that; sometimes it is very hard for me to put into words how I feel about something.  I want to be judged according to my heart and not according to my fallible nature, which most of the time seems to overwhelm how I desire to be.  Since I want to be judged according to my heart and Christ is the only one who can see into my heart, then I conclude that Christ is the only one who can judge either me or you. 

It is easy to label or judge someone else as displaying hypocrisy if they attend church, proclaim the gospel, and worship in the temple, and then you see them do something or say something that is not in line with what you (and you think they) believe is right.  A conclusion can then be made that they must be a hypocrite because they say one thing about what they believe and then do something else entirely.  I have been like that, but not because I didn’t believe what I said I believed, or because I was not trying.  I make mistakes because I am still learning how to be a Saint.  Becoming a Saint is difficult when my nature is to give in to the natural man.

As I have tried to overcome personality flaws I usually have good intentions and then fail to live up to those intentions when a situation presents itself.  Pride, shame, or other feelings take over so quickly that I begin doing that which I do not want to do.  When I realize I’ve messed up – again – I try to acknowledge my fault and then recommit to my hoped for change.  I have prayed for a reminder from the Spirit to not do what I don’t want to do.  And the Lord, eventually, blesses me with that reminder.  And then sometimes I listen.  And then sometimes I do not. 

I think this is the challenge of our life: to let go of our pride and bring our desires in line with the Lord’s.  Eventually, if we continue to try and don’t give up, we conquer whatever we are working on.  Sometimes it takes years and years.  I guess this is why we have this life as a probationary state, so we can work on all those things.

Pres. Uchtdorf said, “None of us is quite as Christlike as we know we should be. But we earnestly desire to overcome our faults and the tendency to sin. With our heart and soul we yearn to become better with the help of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” [link]

It seems strange that most of us who do not want to be judged ourselves will freely judge others.  It is sometimes hard to remember to give people the benefit of a doubt.  Sometimes I remember to do that, sometimes I don’t, and sometimes my children remind me that I should.