Last Sunday at 12Stone^TM, the theme of the morning was The Gap. As in the store.

Yes, our creative team is REALLY creative.

As you might guess, Pastor Kevin (PK)’s message was about a gap. But not the retail chain. He examined the gap within us: the distance between who we are and who we appear to be. (Really thought-provoking. To listen, download here.)

And a GAP often equals HYPOCRISY.

“Hypocrisy” is a word that seems inseparable in many minds from the church. But it really strikes in every area of life: the overweight doctor, the cigarette manufacturers trying to teach youth not to smoke, the parent who cheats on his taxes and preaches honesty to his kids. And in us. In me. No human on earth is gap-free.

And PK made a good observation about that. So good that I wrote it down and underlined it and drew a star next to it:

TRUTH IS NOT DISCREDITED BY HYPOCRISY IN THE TEACHER.

If my doctor is overweight and unhealthy, that doesn’t necessarily make his advice any less valid. When an oil company commercial encourages a green lifestyle, the contradiction doesn’t make God’s creation any less valuable. In other words,

It’s shortsighted to reject a message simply because it’s delivered by a bad messenger. 

I know hypocrisy is frustrating. It obscures the truth, hiding it in a cloud of untruths. Since we can’t take the teacher’s word at face value, we’re forced to question everything they say. We can’t just accept it and move forward.

It’d be so much easier to trust unquestioningly. (Although that has its own drawbacks – David Koresh, anyone?)

Maybe that’s why so many of us opt out. We hear a message from a seemingly hypocritical person, and we see only two choices: blind trust or outright rejection.

We connect the person (shown to be untrustworthy) with the message (possibly true). At that point, we stop going to any doctor for a checkup. We become apathetic about pollution or recycling. And many of us walk away from God.

But the messenger’s behavior doesn’t make a message of truth any less life-giving.

If we “check out” when we find out that our leaders are fallible, we miss the opportunity to examine what they’re teaching and find out for ourselves if it’s true. Blind faith is ultimately weak faith. But a faith that has been put to the test is strong enough to stand up to any adversity.