The Hypocrisy Gap

Do you ever feel like a fraud? For example: “If anyone knew the thoughts I was having right now they would realize what a hypocrite I am.” Or when we are all excited about loving our neighbor after a good worship on Sunday morning, until some “neighbor” cuts us off in traffic on the way home and we respond with something other than giving thanks in all circumstances!

If you have ever felt like that, you are not alone. When our thoughts and actions do not line up with what we believe is true or what we believe SHOULD be true for us, we call that our “hypocrisy gap.” The hypocrisy gap is the difference between what I know I should think and do and what I actually think and do. All of us have some hypocrisy gap in our lives, and we often respond to someone else pointing it out by responding in a dismissive manner. “Well I am not perfect!” “You were not there and do not know what it was like.”

James 1:22 tells us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” How do we close our hypocrisy gap? We need to go to the only One who has never suffered from the hypocrisy gap and let His Word become the guide for our thoughts and actions. And James tells us that means a lot more than just reading the Bible, it means letting the Words of God sink in and then do them. Put them into practice.

Did you know that every time we receive some sort of stimulus to respond to, there is a space before we respond where we can choose how we respond. In sports they call this reaction time, and often the goal is to shorten the reaction time through repeated practice so that responses seem almost automatic as the brain, nerves and muscles all respond along well-trained pathways.

As we follow Jesus, our goal is the opposite; we need to increase the reaction time from a stimulus that would cause us to react out of our hypocrisy gap so that we might interject a response that is more pleasing to Jesus and more beneficial to our own lives. In doing this it is extremely helpful to have God’s Word deeply ingrained within our hearts and minds. I have remarked often that memorizing James 1:20 (the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God) helped me turn a hot temper into a much cooler head.

Closing our hypocrisy gap is not only good for our souls (because all of us enjoy deeper internal peace when we live consistently) it is good for our witness. So while we can all agree we have one, we can also all agree that God has supplied the means to close it, so that we can live more consistently for Jesus’s sake, for our sake, and for the sake of the world.