Hypocrites in the church?

I was sitting here thinking about a friend of mine that I had growing up.  He told me one time that his uncle was a hypocrite and that is why he didn't want to serve God.  Looking back, if I knew then what I know now, I would tell him that no one is perfect and that if you are serving God based on everyone else, then you are not truly serving God.  You are serving yourself. 

The Bible says in Ephesians 4

17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.
28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

If I could go back to my friend 30 some years ago, I would ask him a couple of questions:

1.  What exactly are did your uncle do that would cause you to think he is a hypocrite?

I never asked this because I just thought my friend was close enough to his uncle to know things I wouldn't know. However, I have watched his uncle over the years and see nothing that would even come close to being hypocritical. In fact he was a man I looked up to and honor to this day.

2.  How are your actions becoming of a Christian? 

I have lost touch with my friend over the years, but the last I heard he was not living for God and yet would talk about Godly things as though he were a scholar on how to be a Christian.   I am not judging him, but he does need to realize that how you judge others is how others will judge you.

3.  Will God in the end feel sorry for you because you were looking at someone else in order to live like Jesus? 

God is not going to judge you based on someone else's walk with God.  He is going to only judge you based on your walk with God. 

I have determined in my life that I will not let someone else keep me out of heaven.  I want to live for God because He has been good to me, not because how someone else has treated me.  Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 18:

6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

So, the next time someone says or does something to you that you just don't like or feel it is Christ like, remember, give it to Jesus because He will take care of them.  He will reward you for not giving up on Him by causing that person to feel His wrath.

Thank you Lord for helping me to see that serving you is the best life there is.  Thank you for getting my eyes off others and set on you.  Help me not to offend anyone today. Help me not to be offended by anyone today.  Help me to keep my eyes on you and not others.  You are my savior.