Christians are sinners and the world is quick to view them as hypocrites. Some Christians even embrace the idea of being a hypocrite but the real question is; are Christians hypocrites? More importantly when people put their faith in Jesus Christ as lord and savior, does God see them as hypocrites? Lets first look at Jesus' attitude toward those who followed him and those who claimed to love God but did not follow him.
Matthew 23 is the perfect place to begin (also see Luke 11:37-54). We see Jesus publically and openly insult the religiousness of the Pharisees. He bluntly calls them hypocrites a number of times. How many times does he call the apostles hypocrites? none. Clearly Jesus distinguishes the sinners that follow him and the religious hypocrites. Matthew 23:28 he says "on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.". Jesus even sees through their intentions and sees their hypocrisy in their reasoning (Mark 12:15). Jesus even turns to his apostles and warns them of the Pharisees hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).
So what we see here is Jesus calling out the hypocrites for the apostles and the crowds to see. We see that hypocrites "seem righteous" and can be very religious. But the defining difference between a sinner following their savior and them is: they try and justify their sins by acting more righteous and religious for everyone to see. They prop themselves up as right to receive glory to cover their sins. They worship their self made system of righteousness and love themselves for it. Hypocrites are all about themselves and love themselves. They are good because of all the good they do in public. These people, are hypocrites to God and the other side of Jesus comes out. God hates hypocrisy (Romans 12:9). But, Jesus is softer, more compassionate, and patient to sinners who genuinely seek God for salvation because of their sins.
Sinners can become infected by hypocrites when they start to worry more about what people think of them than what God thinks of them. Barnabas fell into their hypocritical influence until Paul corrected him in public like Jesus did to the Pharisees (Gal 2:12-14). Sinners are told to rid themselves of hypocrisy (2 Peter 2:1-3).
Being a hypocrite is justifying sin or find ways around God's commands to do things that no longer seem like a sin.
Examples of Modern Hypocrisy:
A modern example is a facebook selfies of women purposeful making cleavage visible in the picture by wearing a low cut shirt purposefully put in frame with a caption like "I love being a child of God". They use God's name to justify trying to lustfully draw attention to their 'sexiness' for others to see on their facebook (Matt 23:25).
Other people are more open about their sins. They will have sex before marriage and justify the sin by saying "well we are going to get married later anyway". It is still sexual immorality because it is outside of marriage.
Even others will buy 400 thousand dollar house, drive 60 thousand dollar cars, make 80 thousand dollars a year, but only donate 20$ a month to their church they attend once a month. Their justification is "money is tight" (mark 12:41-44).
They will attend church on Sundays, and they will let everyone know where they are at and what they are doing (via social media). But outside of church; they do not serve the Lord. They go to church to make themselves look religious and righteous but that's were their religious actions stop (Matt 23:23).
They will try and get their friends and family to support their religiosity and follow the system they created to justify themselves and everyone else they get to agree to it (Matt 23:15).
There are all kinds of modern real life examples of hypocrisy but it all boils down to this: Hypocrisy is justifying sin and selfishness. Hypocrites look Christian, act Christian, and talk Christian but their hearts are dirty, unchanged, and unrepentant (Matt 23:27). Their worship of God is actually in vain and worthless to God (Matthew 15:8-9). Sinners who are not hypocrites are like this:
Christians that are not Hypocrites:
They agree with God's law calling out their sins. They embrace the convictions of the Holy Spirit. They are admitting sinners and seek God to try and fight their sins. They hate their sin and look forward to the day when God removes them from it. The seek God's will imperfectly. When they fail, they repent, and seek restoration from The Lord. They recognize the sin in them and they seek God's grace more because of it. They are selfless and self sacrificing in love for everyone else, including those who do wrong to them. When they do wrong, they ask for forgiveness and desire restitution. They desire holiness before the Lord over their happiness.
Are Christians hypocrites?
Genuine Christians are not hypocrites, they are sinners following their savior as their Lord God who has promised to save them from their sins and has already began the process in them that will last until God calls them out of the world. They are not hypocrites because they have been justified by Jesus Christ.