Candy Coated

I don’t know if you are old enough to remember what life was like before Skittles, but I am. I also remember before they removed the red M&Ms because of fears about a certain red food coloring. Anyway, I am not a fan of Skittles; they are okay and my family loves them, but I am more of a chocolate man. I remember the first time I ate a Skittle, when they first came on the market – it wasn’t at all what I expected; actually, it kind of weirded me out. I expected candy covered chocolate that would melt in my mouth, not my hand, instead I got this sugary sweet and sour fruit burst.

I have been thinking about hypocrisy: What does a hypocrite look like? How can I know when I am being hypocritical? The word, hypocrite comes from the greek word for actor, but we would not call actors hypocrites just because of their occupation. I suppose we could think of a hypocrite as superficial, putting up a front that doesn’t really reflect what is deep inside.

Why would someone want to act like a disciple of God superficially, and withhold what is deep within from him? Does that make sense to you? It seems to me that there is very little benefit to looking like a Christian when you are not really (unless you are running for office.) I have noticed that the idea of hypocrisy in the New Testament is almost exclusively aimed at Jews. Now, I don’t believe that Jesus was picking on them in particular – he did spend most of his time with them – but they had the greatest incentive to be hypocrites about their true devotion to God. The other cultures that are represented in the Acts and the epistles were not saturated with believers so that there could be any benefit in acting like a follower. Instead the opposite is true, the believers had every worldly incentive to hide their faith and act like the world around them.

So hypocrisy might be something like a candy shell that covers the inconsistencies on the inside.

But in our culture, we have become so accustomed to corruption, immorality, self-promotion – there hardly seems to be any purpose for hiding it anymore. Why would someone go to the additional trouble to trying to look like a Christian when the inside simply is not devoted to that faith and lifestyle?

I wonder if you have any ideas about hypocrisy that can help us to be aware of its allure.