There Is No Hypocrite...

Of course there are hypocrites in the church. Churches are full of them.

A hypocrite is just someone who says one thing and does another. We've all done that.....many times.

The apostle Paul said that. In Romans 7(?), he said that he wants to do good things and sometimes he doesn't and that he wants to stay away from the bad things and sometimes he does them anyway.

I don't think you can be a genuine christian without being an occasional hypocrite. A genuine christian is a saved soul that lives in a fleshly body. Sometimes the flesh still prevails in our lives.

Let's take myself. I know and believe with all of my heart that stirring discord among fellow believers is a sin. I can't stand it when others do that.

Yesterday......I did it. I said something negative about someone in our church to my folks and it escalated into a 5-minute tirade. It made my mother not like this person and she doesn't really know her. When my mother agreed with me and made a negative comment herself, I realized I had opened my mouth in sin.

I felt really bad. I repented of it and ask God to forgive me and help me to love this person the way that He does.

But it doesn't negate the fact that I, as someone who despises spreading discord, was "shoveling it out" yesterday. :tear:

That's a hypocrite.

I'm one....you're one....everybody on the BB is one.....and the church is bursting at her seams with them.

 

Well, that's interesting. I have heard a pastor say the same thing once, myself.

I would have to say that shocking them by telling them what you said behind their back and then apologizing for it in the same breath is going to do more harm than good. In my mind, if they were not aware of the meanness that you spoke about them, you would have to apologize.....and then apologize for apologizing!

There is a fine art to an apology. And hurting someone's feelings and possibly making them angry by offering an apology is no way to apologize.

I had a friend once who used to be not quite so friendly. Once, when were laughing and having a good time, she said, "I used to say some really awful things about you a long time ago and just want to know that I have been sorry for it for a long time and need to apologize to you."

I was totally fine with that because I KNEW she used to talk about me. But we had developed a fine friendship and I accepted her apology.

I have done this before. More that once. I have gone to a person that I said it to and said something like, "You know, I said something to you the other day about so-and-so and I was waaay out of line by "telling tales". Please forgive me for putting bad thoughts about that person in your mind and forgive me for blabbing my mouth off."

To me, that's the better plan, especially if the person you bad-mouthed never knows that you said it, repented of it, rectified it by apologizing to the person it was told to and moved on.

 

I would think that one would just have to use his own discernment and assess how much damage he did when he shot his mouth off. Sometimes you know it gets around and other times, thank goodness, it doesn't.