Hypocrite?
Heather Ann dropped a great big ol' bomb of a comment responding to this earlier entry. (My original entry is LONG, but her comment is very short. The third comment entered if you are looking for it.)
It brought to mind a question I've looked at before, but I thought I'd pose it here:
Can one be living honestly if their actions are in contradiction to their convictions?
It brought to mind a question I've looked at before, but I thought I'd pose it here:
Can one be living honestly if their actions are in contradiction to their convictions?
posted by Miroslav at 9:08 PM
9 Comments:
My answer to the question is YES.
HOW? Well... One could be verbally honest about his actual convictions while ACTING quite differently. Or would this just make him an honest hypocrit? Or maybe a hypcorit to himself? hehe... oh man, the semantics game will start, I can just see it!
OK. Googled the words:
Honest: 1.Marked by or displaying integrity; upright 2. Not deceptive or fraudulent; genuine.
Integrity: 1. Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code. 2. The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.
Hypocrit: 1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness. 2. An act or instance of such falseness.
As I analyze this question, and the advice of Mr.Pastor, I wonder if his suggestion wouldn't turn me in to what 2Timothy:3 warns against. Wouldn't it? "A form of godliness, but denying its power"?? Maybe not.
Weren't the Pharisee's following the law with no true heart's understanding for its greater purposes?
Obeying God when it doesn't feel good or you don't like it is one thing. Obeying when you aren't sure that He exists in the first place seem to be quite another.
Ok, I'm changing my answer. I think I'm going with the ol' "I don't know" line again.
It would be different if the commands in question were just things like the 10 Commandments: don't murder, don't steal, etc. But the command is to love with your heart, soul, mind.
My heart ain't feelin' it. My mind mitigates against it. My soul... well, I've never been sure on what part of me that's supposed to be, so let's leave that one alone.
That said, you are living honestly so far as I can see. You are saying, look, I have all these questions and I would love for it to turn out that all of this is true, but I'm really struggling with it right now. That's honest. It's not easy, but it's true.
Feeling impish, here.
Would this be Miroslav's verse?
"For we are unsaved by ungrace through unfaith, and that of yourselves; it is
the curse of God so that all men might boast."
;)
~Dave
LOL. I can appreciate the humor...
:D
ok, now wishing I would have posted my ORIGINAL reply to D. Porta's comment with my own rewrite. Here it is:
"For most fail to be saved because a lack of grace which prevents redeeming faith, and this is God's doing; this is the way that God has chosen to create a bride of thankful and grateful followers, by making them few and undeserving of the salvation that is given to them."
yuck, quite a synical view of things.
By judgement are ye lost through unbelief; and that of yourselves: it is the justice of God. Man may lament.
The question is, "Can one be living honestly if their actions are in contradiction to their convictions?" M's answer is "yes" and "maybe."
My answer is, "No."
"One could be verbally honest...: Too narrow an aplication of the word honest. The phrasing is "living honestly," not "utterning frank characterizations about living..."
You can be honest about being a crappy person -- doesn't make you good. Such a clear-eyed view may be admirable, but, alas, it runs toward the cold, rather than the hot that Jesus prefers.
Satan believes in God. Does that make him honest?
It has to do with what integrity is. By M's quoted definition, the operative idea is "adherance." That's an action, whether of intellect or behavior. I use the etymological root as a guiding principle: the alternative to having integrity is to be disintegrated.
"Obeying when you aren't sure that He exists in the first place seem to be quite another." Oh, well. If you're not SURE... that's entirely different. All agnostics go to heaven -- we know how much God admires the lukewarm.
Here's the thing. After all the whining and excuses are done, where do you stand? Hipocracy is a very good thing, because it makes crappy people do good things, for whatever their crappy reasons. I don't care about their hearts. I'm not a heart inspector. God is, and He cares about hearts. God is the hypocracy police, not me. So they get their reward here? Good for the world -- something good has been done in it. They don't get their reward in heaven? Boohoo for them.
And now that we're done judging the hypocrites, how about you? -- and me? The proper study of mankind, is man, and the proper study of me, is my obediance to my "principles," read, "God."
J
Where do I stand?
"I DON'T KNOW". Right there. Smack dab.
I like the part about us not being the hypocricy police.
The original question is really being directed at ME, after the suggestion of Mr. Pastor that I stick to the principles found in the Bible despite the fact that I don't BELIEVE it to be true.
A better question would be, "does being a hypocrite mean that you cannot be in right standing with God?"
To simply ask if Miroslav is a hypocrite tends towards semantics and is quite subjective. Plus, only Miroslav and God can truly answer that question. And, after having answered it, what will we have gained? In my opinion, Mirslav is not a hypocrite by nature. Yet all of us are hypocrites at times.
It is important to remember that we do not earn our salvation any more than we maintian it. Both the initial salvation and the ongoing salvation are free gifts from God held secure by the Holy Spirit who seals us until the day of redemption. Not only are we incapable of gaining our salvation, we are incapable of losing it. It is a gift, that once received God will never receive back.
Is Miroslav right with God? Only he and God can know for sure, but based on what I've seen and on his own testimony, I'd say it's a very good bet that he is right with God and no matter how hard he tries, he can never take that position back. Like the prodical son, you can run, hide, lie, cheat, steal and make a mockery of your heavenly father, but you will still be his son, and he will still be your father. It's not fair, but then where does the bible say God is fair?
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