One of the attacks that is often made on Christians is that they are all hypocrites – Christians like to say what is right and wrong and yet they don’t always do what they say we should.
There is a sense in which this is true, of course. Christians are not perfect followers of Jesus Christ, in truth they are no more perfect than anyone else, in that every last one of them (us) will make mistakes. I would want to claim, though, that those who try hard to be good disciples of Jesus probably do actually do a reasonable job; but even they will fail and sometimes the failure will be big.
The question though should not be are Christians hypocrites – you might as well ask if they are people – but does Christianity work? This is the real question.
It may be possible to avoid hypocrisy by not saying anything. In fact this seems to be the way most people think we deal with it. Don’t admit that you fail but instead don’t say anything about what is right or wrong and in that way you avoid being a hypocrite. Is it just me or is this nonsense? What is the use in not seeking after truth and not trying to follow a good way if we do it just avoid being a hypocrite? What we would ever achieve if we only ever did the things we knew we could do?
Do we say that computers are useless and do not work because so many people who use one make mistakes? Of course not!
Because we all fail does not mean it is pointless to try. The real measure of the Christian faith should be does it work most of the time and the answer would need to be a resounding yes.