2005 Term 3 Week 4 - Hypocrisy

This week no one had prepared anything so we looked at hypocrisy. How can we tell others to step into the chaos when we ourselves do not (or do rarely)?
Ultimately, we decided that hypocrisy was a sinful thing that we do. And that it should not stop us from encouraging others to do good. Rather, our hypocrisy indicates that we know it is hard thing to do, and even something that we don't always believe in. Our desire to be more than we are, and for others to be more glorious, is in conflict with our desire to protect ourselves. I think the problem with it is when I try to make out that stepping into the chaos is easy. That is when I move from hypocrisy to outright lying. The hypocrisy of saying one thing and not living up to it, is a recognition that I am not what I wish to be. I am not saying hypocrisy is a good thing (because it is a sinful thing), I am saying that my current state is not good and I know the good I could do and until my behaviour catches up with my desire to be more glorious I will be a hypocrite. And being a hypocrite is a bad thing. The only way I can see to stop being a hypocrite is to lower my goals to match my behaviour, which is effectively thinking that I am perfect. So hypocrite is a necessary label for the work of salvation. Until I am made perfect I will be a hypocrite. So I can't use my inability to live up to being godly as an excuse for not blessing others, eg "When I reach this level of godliness then I can tell others that they should want it too". The qualifier is that I must not misrepresent myself as someone who does these things more than I actually do.