July 10, 2014
Avoiding Hypocrites
Recently I attended a toxic governmental
meeting and the air was filled with truths, half-truths and lies. Sadly, some of those making false accusations
are professed Christians and it gives me pause to see how easily they flip a
hypocrisy switch and go from witness to false witness. Experiencing such a
display of poor behavior leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth and I struggle with how to respond to these folks when we again cross paths. David,
a man after God’s own heart, shares his solution in a prayer, “I do not sit
with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites” (Psalm 26:4 NIV).
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Gail;
-----I have a friend with whom I enjoy many good debates. He fills up his arguments with many accusations and half-truths, but I don’t know if he uses any lies. The differentiation between a lie and an error is intention. I presume many of his arguments are errors rather than lies, because whenever I lay out a reasoned argument with all its points explained, his response is KISS: keep it simple, stupid. I don’t believe it is just a diversion, because he has explained to me several times about how his success in life was built upon knowing what he needed to know for handling his situations and not wasting time learning anything else.
-----It is a practical philosophy, and most people use it. But it falls short when a person has failed to fully or correctly identify their situations. We get to choose many of our situations. Thank you, God. So do other people. And people interact, which effects each other’s situations. Maybe the effect is generally small and ignorable. Sometimes it isn’t. So situations can get complicated, and much about them are by neither our choice nor of our knowledge. So also, the knowledge others have about their situations which leads to reasons they do things can have many aspects far different than what we figured in handling a seemingly similar situation of our own.
-----When making accusations, do we really, fully know their situation? Sometimes we may think we do. Sometimes we do have knowledge, and the accusation is true. Most of the time their situation is more complicated than “simple” can make you smart, so our accusation really will flow from stupid.
-----This is the problem with “KISS’. It is addressed to “stupid”. We need to deal with smart. But when we truly do not know enough about the situation which leads someone to the statements he makes, do we really know their false accusations and half truths have been intentional? Do we really know their “lies” are lies and not mistakes? When we don’t we need to admit stupidity to ourselves and simply not accuse them of deliberate falsehood, because truly, we don’t know.
-----I think David’s thing in Psalms was stated about known liars, deliberate liars, who pick the course of lying. I guess in a way everyone can be considered that. Deep inside, at some level of developing thoughts and feelings, improper ideas and sentiments get selected for participation in a mental state merely because they are favored over other ideas or sentiments, a form of lying. At what level of thinking does one become that liar David addresses? Confession faces one towards the grace which washes clean, not denial.
-----So whether someone has accused, half-truthed, or lied by error or by intention, the first of the loving responses is Paul’s. “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” (Gal 6:1) James rather agreed, “My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20) If a man continues proving himself to be of denial rather than confession, then maybe David’s advice will begin to apply.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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