There’s nothing to take the edge off the Good News of Jesus like the hypocrisy of someone who says they believe in Him. Put another way, a hypocrite hasn’t a hope in hell of leading another to salvation in Christ.

Christmas is such a special time, as we celebrate the mind-blowingly amazing truth that God sent His Son, Jesus, to this earth to save sinners like you and me from an eternity separated from Him.

Yet so many so-called Christians, frankly, are living lives of hypocrisy. They say that they believe in Jesus, yet their actions express such a breathtaking hypocrisy that any credibility they might have had to share Christ’s love with someone else is completely destroyed. Why do they do that? I recently saw it put like this:

The greatest deception in the church today is that you can pray a quick prayer of salvation and continue to live in complete wickedness, yet still go to heaven.

True. Live a life of wickedness and you won’t spend eternity with Christ. Nor will you convince anyone else to follow Him.

James 1:26,27 You might think you are a very religious person. But if your tongue is out of control, you are fooling yourself. Your careless talk makes your offerings to God worthless. The worship that God wants is this: caring for orphans or widows who need help and keeping yourself free from the world’s evil influence. This is the kind of worship that God accepts as pure and good.

A hypocrite has no power whatsoever to lead another to Christ. But the very least of His disciples who humbly live out their faith serving Him have more power than they’ll ever need. Don’t be a hypocrite.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.