Our Conservative prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, said an earlier prime minister, Jean Chretien, is “a bit hypocritical” since he criticized Harper for not attending the summer games in Beijing. In truth, Chretien attended only once in the 5 opportunities he had to attend Summer or Winter games.

How much hypocrisy is permissible for believers in Jesus Christ? In one sense every one is to some degree hypocritical. We do not always do what we say what we are going to do. There is a gap, large or small, between what we believe and how we live. Actually we live what we believe – we demonstrate what we believe by how we live NOT by what we claim in our creeds.

The expression “a bit hypocritical” is comparable to being “a bit drunk” or “a bit pregnant.” Either you are or you are not? Hypocrites are hypocrites even if they protest otherwise.

hupokrisis (Greek word) primarily denotes “a reply, an answer”, then “play-acting,” as the actors spoke in dialogue.   It is translated “hypocrisy” in Matt 23:28; Mark 12:15; Luke 12:1, I Tim. 4:2; the plural in 1 Peter 2:1.

Hypocrisy is not a new problem nor is it one we should take lightly.   Matthew 7 urges us to remove the “log” from our own eye before we start doing eye-surgery on others for splinters.