……Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.–Luke 12:1 Many professing Christians fail to practice what they preach. They say one thing and do another. They talk one way and walk another. That grieves our Lord deeply. A.W. Tozer addressed this issue more than 50 years ago–it would do us good to think about it. He wrote:
Many Christians love foreign missions who cannot bring themselves to love foreigners. They pray tenderly for the colored man in Africa but they cannot stand him in America. They love the Chinese in Hong Kong and are willing to give generously to send someone to convert him, but they never try to convert him when he is in a laundry on Main Street. They wear a flower to honor mother on her day, but she is too much of an inconvenience to be welcome in the home, so she is shunted from place to place till she is so sick and weary that she can be sent at last to a nursing home to await the end.
I am well aware that this kind of thinking is branded as “negative” or “cynical” and that most Christians are not willing to face up to it. It was so also in the time of Christ’s earthly ministry. Israel wallowed in unreality. The lives of the priests and people did not support their words. They talked a good life and lived a bad one. Our Lord could not abide the artificial and the unreal. Pretense was offensive to Him wherever He found it and He said so plainly. The consequence of His plain talk is known to the ages.
I believe that there are a few Christians even in these degenerate days who want reality more than they want consolation and who would rather hear disturbing truth than comforting error. They want to know exactly where they stand now while they can do something about it. They are willing to believe the worst about themselves and the best about the saving power of Christ. These do not need to take refuge in fancy. They will soon find reality.
