Nobody's Perfect

I was speaking to a friend recently who said her main problem with Christianity and the church was that so many people were hypocritical. They'd do and say one thing outside of church and then pretend to be someone else inside.

This is definitely a difficult topic. Here are three things we need to think about;

1. Nobody is perfect - No matter how hard we try, we can't get everything right. Unfortunately, our almost perfect is not 100per cent perfect, and therefore we fall short of God's standard all the time. This is why God sent His son, who was 100per cent perfect, so that we could switch; He took all our sin and got the correct punishment for it (Romans 6.23), and we got His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5.21).
2. The fact that we have God's righteousness doesn't mean that we won't sin ever. Sanctification is the act of being made holy; becoming more and more like Jesus as time goes on, and it is an ongoing process, so each and everyday we should be becoming more like Jesus, and have less worldly, pagan behaviour (Romans 12.2) both inside and outside of church, alone and with friends, because God sees all (Proverbs 15.11).
3. God is not a fan of hypocrisy (Matthew 15.7-8). Hypocrisy is pretty much a culmination of what God hates, it's proud (Proverbs 3.34), it's judgemental and condemning (Luke 6.37) when God really wants us to be self-examining (Matthew 7.2-5), and it's a lie, when God wants us to confess and turn away from our sins (Psalm 32.5).

I am far from perfect, but as time goes on I am sure that God will continue to mould me into His image as was originally intended (Philippians 1.6, Genesis 1.26). My job, and that of every Christian, with regards to this is simply to do my best to live in a way that pleases God always, and not just on occasion to keep up appearances (Luke 6.46).