law

The Pharisee Syndrome

by ladypbwiggins

Who are the Pharisees? The particular group that I am referring to are the religious leaders of Israel during Jesus’ time. They were the gatekeepers of Israelite Law as prescribed by the Mosaic and Levitcal Law. By this time they had taken a serious responsibility and perverted it for selfish power plays. They talked a good game but their behavior did not match. There were those who mistreated the people and used the Law to justify their actions. Sound familiar? I am not taking on all the things involved but there is a sharp comparison to the current behavior of “us Christians.” It is what I call the Pharisee Syndrome.

Have you noticed how the world lumps all Christians together under the “Right Wing, Evangelical, Tea Party Banner”? I find it a major insult. Being a believer in the Bible and a disciple of Christ has become an ugly, dirty thing. I understand why the world would think that. I thought about their expectations and decided they should expect us to be under the same banner but not that one. The banner we should be grouped under is the truth of the Word. The practice and teachings of the Christ. I have not found anywhere in the Word where He selectively hated people while justifying His hatred with Himself (The Living Word of God).

  • His continued teaching was to love people. Love is not hate-filled. His teaching said be righteous.
  • Righteousness requires us to live up to the standards in which we believe. We were not commanded to judge the world. We were told to judge ourselves and leave the judgment of the world to God.
    • 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NKJV)
      9  I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.
      10  Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
      11  But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner–not even to eat with such a person.
      12  For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?
      13  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” 
  • Just in case, I am not clear, the Apostle Paul is writing to believers in the city of Corinth and this is a more modern translation. It makes it very clear.
    • 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (MSG)
      9  I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous.
      10  I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that!
      11  But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior.
      12  I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers?
      13  God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

Those under that hateful banner are behaving just like the Pharisees. I am holy speaking but not holy behaving. When Jesus said if you lift me up, I will draw all men (mankind) to me, He wasn’t just talking about what we tell people but how we show people. If my God is a God of Righteous love and judgement then that is what they should see in my behavior.

  • People should see me trying to live up to my God’s standards daily.
  • I should conduct business by his standards even if the rest of the business world doesn’t.
  • I should respect those who have different lifestyles from me even if I disagree with them. He did!
  • I have no hell to send anyone to so I have no authority to condemn. The only people that I should expect to live up to what I believe are the ones who say they believe the same thing.
  • Agreeing with me should not be a pre-requisite for me showing you compassion, mercy and His love. I am not responsible for your opinion, just my commitment to Him.

If I, we, live what we say we believe the way He lived, doing what He did, the way He did it we would be respected even though we may be “hated and persecuted.” At least then it would be for “righteousness sake” and not because we were the initiators of the hatred.

Let’s not be like the scribes and the Pharisees. Let our righteousness exceed theirs.

Matthew 5:20 (ESV)
20  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

We were commanded to Go, tell, baptize teach, and love. The rest is God’s job. Let’s let Him do it. We might find a great weight lifted when we stop trying to do God’s job. Stress reduced!

Side Note:

Just like all Christians are not right wing, tea party hate-filled people, not all Pharisees were like this. There were some who lived the Law the way God intended.

Driven

by ladypbwiggins

I was listening to a minister the other day trying to explain to his congregation that we live under grace and not under the law. For those of you who are not Christians, he was referring to Ten Commandments and the Levitical laws listed in the Old Testament. That statement has always sent me into a “thought wilderness.” I mean my thoughts are wandering around my head seeking answers to things that don’t make sense. Here is my quandary.

The Word says God cannot lie and He doesn’t change. The Word says that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. So if He doesn’t change, how are we not under His law?

Next set of thoughts. Jesus was born into a Hebrew family who taught Him the law. He lived the law. He taught the law, Everything He taught was in agreement with the law. That makes sense, since He is the Living Word of God. He had to be consistent with Himself. So if He lived the law and said that He did not come to abolish the law but to complete it.  How then are we not under the law?

Next thought. The Apostle Paul was the one who made the statement, “….we are not under the law but under grace.” However, Paul said he was a Jew educated by Gamaliel and could boast of knowing the law more than most. Looking closely at the context I could see his teaching did not contradict the law. Putting on Christ, taking off the works of the flesh are in agreement with the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments. So what did Paul mean when he made these statement?

      Romans 6:12-17 (KJV) 

        12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
        13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves   unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
        14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

As I contemplated that question, it came to me. I believe God dropped it in my thoughts. Is it possible and even more likely that Paul was trying to explain to those who would have understood his phrasing or colloquialism as to how they should live and why. In the context Paul is explaining to the Christians in Rome that when a decision to truly follow the Christ is made our nature, our spirit changes. It becomes an internal thing. Our thinking changes, therefore, our behavior changes. He also explains that we are empowered by God to accomplish this. It comes from the inside, the very essence of our being.

We are not driven to obey God because it is the law. Instead we are motivated by His grace shown to us. His undeserved favor towards me is my motivation.

He cares for me because He loves me not because I did something to deserve it. In fact if He gave me what I deserved, I would be dead. I obey God because I appreciate Him. I reverence Him. I love Him. If I were God that would be desired so much more than someone obeying me because they were compelled to follow a law. One way facilitates intimacy and relationship. The other provokes you to respond to a legalistic check list. God did not change. He did not make His law irrelevant. We are still judged by the law but He administers justice through the filter of grace. Therefore,

I am under grace.

Driven to live His standards because of His GRACE.