“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2 Cor. 2:14)
When I was in seminary, I worked summers for a moving company in Dallas. Texas. It was hot and you got sweaty and grimy through a day of carrying furniture and boxes from houses to moving vans. But we had one guy, nicknamed “Cowboy,” who only showered on the weekend, whether he needed it or not. Instead, he would douse himself each morning with Brut aftershave. Toward the end of a week, it was lethal to ride in a truck cab with Cowboy as the Brut would mix with his filthy body odor to gag anyone close. Cowboy, though, thought he was fooling people with his cover-up.
Sadly, cover-ups occur in churches too. We cover over many unhealthy relational dynamics which can erode, corrode, or shatter trust in churches. Hidden immorality, theft, or abuse of power does the same. Other issues we gloss over are subtle, and the damage they cause takes a while to manifest itself in true “frog-in-the-kettle” fashion. Perhaps the most subtle kind of cover-up is hypocrisy. It starts quietly, subtly, but in short order it covers the sweet aroma of Christ and becomes like Brut on a stinky, unwashed body.
Hypocrisy, plainly stated, is activity geared to look better than we are and to hide reality where we fall short. It goes all the way back to the fig leaves in the Garden, as if they could really cover their shame. It is such a powerful human desire to be admired, respected, praised and applauded that we will misrepresent ourselves, hiding the truth, to gain these things. We live in a day of building/enhancing one’s brand, and that occurs in churches too, but it is often Brut on an unwashed body.
The misrepresentations that take place on modern dating websites is well-documented, but that is not much different from the way churches represent themselves to prospective candidates. They often apply a lot of make-up to hide the blemishes and warts that the “bride of Christ” may be carrying in order to look as good and attractive as possible. The pastor accepts the call, then wakes the next morning with the strong smell of Brut in his nostrils and not the sweet aroma of Christ.
What is often not realized is how hypocrisy manifests an erosion to faith/trust. Faith and trust are the coin of the realm in the Kingdom of God, the basis for all growth and positive spiritual transactions, and, most importantly, to intimacy. If we don’t trust someone, we will not let our guard down to get truly close to them. It is not hard to understand then why Jesus came out so strongly against hypocrisy.
Churches, and the Christians within them, need the fresh wind of the empowering, living Spirit blowing within and through them all the time, keeping them truly, deeply clean. They need to recognize and resist the subtle forces that prompt them to try and look (or smell) better than they are. Then they will become truly spiritually attractive, an aroma of Christ to a watching world.
Dr. Kenneth Quick serves with Blessing Point Ministries and is the author of Healing the Heart of Your Church. Learn more at blessingpoint.org.