I was sitting in a waiting room this morning that had one of the machines that makes almost instant hot coffee. You take a small container and insert it in the top, close the lid, press a button and almost instantly coffee flows out. A very tall old guy came over to use it and my wife said to him, “Pretty amazing machine.” To which he responded, “They are wasteful. They are not good for the environment and contribute to the destruction of our world. That is one expensive cup of coffee.” He then made himself a free cup of hazelnut flavored coffee. If I had been up for a confrontation I would have, should have, called him a hypocrite.
We shouldn’t be allowed to have it both ways. If we want to complain about something we should live accordingly. Jesus certainly had words for such people. Matthew 23 is full of Jesus’ indignation over such. Here’s a sample. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are liken unto whitewashed sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
One of Shakespeare’s most quoted lines comes from Hamlet. “The lady doth protest too much.” In psychology we call it a reaction formation. It is defined as when a person is guilty of something and yet strongly crusades against his or her problem. Preachers need to be careful about denouncing something over and over because it soon becomes apparent they have a related problem. While we should not fear to call out sinful behavior that is harming someone, we also need to understand ourselves and why we are saying what we are saying.
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 20, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org