Our third consideration examines the meaning of personal failure among adherents. Specifically, should one view a violation of belief as proof that a person’s faith is insincere?
When religious adherents are confronted with the lesser version of themselves, they commonly ask this exact question. In my experience working with people and alongside other pastors the answer to is only very rarely a “yes.” I have counseled individuals who have committed egregious sins that destroyed their home or business, a friendship or even a church. Others faced less dramatic lapses that still pierced their conscience. In these settings I have sadly concluded that some were insincere, or in Jesus’ words, hypocrites. However, that number is very small.
On the other hand, I regularly minister to believers who acted hypocritically in a moment or even for a season. In fact, the entire community of faith has done that at some time or another, including its shepherds. And although my experience is among Christians, I am confident that this is true of every religious tradition as well as every non-religious person. Consequently, I am very reluctant to ascribe insincerity to a person simply on the basis of their violation of a conviction. If the simple fact of violating our convictions means we are insincere, than it must be the case that no one in history has sincerely held a belief.
The world religions, generally understood, all acknowledge that humanity is somehow less than it was created to be, or at least less than it will be. It is probably fair to say that most secular people would admit the same. Whether that deficiency is sin or ignorance, or destructive social forces is the subject of many books. But its fact is probably not worth much debate
In my tradition, that brokenness is sometimes expressed as a sickness, a wound, foolishness or weakness, but its most comprehensive name is sin, which Christianity teaches is a universal human problem. In fact, it is so deeply embedded in our condition that our entire relationship with God is predicated on his willingness, eagerness even, to forgive us of it freely. A famous verse from the New Testament puts it this way, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3.23.24). This affidavit is not a gospel tract, but these questions cannot be understood without some understanding of fundament principles. Chief among them in the broad Christian tradition, and common among religions around the world, is that we are somehow spiritually and morally broken.
Along with that truth comes a second that directly impacts the question of sincerity. Namely, this brokenness is not immediately repaired by faith or religious exercises. It continues to abide in us for our entire life. Of course, we expect disciples to strive and grow. When Jesus said, “Follow me” he meant to lead us into greater faith and obedience. But that following comes in fits and starts. It often becomes more noticeable over time, but ministers are rarely shocked by failures because we never expect authentic believers to become perfect.
In fact, we are commanded to be patient with one another by stories like this,
Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Those words cannot mean that people who struggle with sin are hypocrites or insincere. They seem to teach us that God understands that we are weak and calls us to treat the failures of others with charity.
Obviously, this is not to say that there is no such thing as a hypocrite. In fact, Jesus saved some of his harshest words for them. When calling out the strictest religious leaders of his day, he let these words fly,
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Matthew 23:25–26
A few Pharisees actually became followers, but these harsh words were spoken to a set of severe, judgmental men whose vision of morality was merely outward. They had not considered the condition of their own hearts allowing that self-knowledge to lead them to humility before God and charity toward others. Instead, they harshly judged the spiritual masses whose faults they eagerly pointed out.
Yet, Jesus never called the sinners he spent time with hypocrites even though they were clearly broken people. He could call his own disciples foolish or slow to understand. He rebuked Peter once by actually calling him “Satan” and in the Sermon on the Mount he told his people that we all have evil in our hearts. Still, he never wrote them off by calling them insincere. They were just imperfect, perhaps deeply so. Although it became one of his most endearing names, the moniker “Friend of Sinners” started as a criticism from Pharisees who were bothered that he took meals with those of ill repute. Ironically then, for Christ the insincere hypocrite is not the one who stumbles, but the one who doesn’t own up to his or her failings and judges others. Evidently Jesus was comfortable around the imperfect. It was the perfect he struggled with.
Pastoral care for the fallen begins with the spiritual reality of our conflicted and broken souls and takes it leads from Christ’s patience with sinners. This is not to say that the confessing member faces no consequences. As we will see, even forgiven sin brings its own judgment in relationships, health, or emotional pain. And the community of faith, through its shepherds may also take definitive actions by admonishing the member and insisting that they make amends when possible. Officers or other leaders in the church can lose their position of influence or even their ordination. In more positive terms, we may provide counseling or education about their particular struggles.
Sadly, a few do not respond to the overtures of grace and prove to be insincere. However, that conclusion is reserved for those who are recalcitrant in their disobedience for prolonged seasons or insist on categorically refusing the oversight of the church. In these cases, the issue is not simply that they violated a code of behavior. Their ongoing unwillingness to own the reality or seriousness the sin reveals the insincerity of their faith.
These principles guild the care of people who stumble. Their failings are not minimized, but they are not evidence their hypocrisy either. In the vast majority of the cases, their fall simply means that they did truly need forgiveness all along and that won’t ever change.
