The Pharisee Christian

Are we Pharisee Christians?

There are different categories of Christians in the church.

There is the Sermon-proof Christian (Matthew 13:15); the Mixed Multitude Christian (Exodus 12:38) (Numbers 11:1-4); the Compromising Christian (Exodus 8:25, 27 & 10:7); the True Worshiper (John 4:24) (Romans 8:16); the Pharisee Christian (Matthew 5:20) (Matthew Ch.23) and other categories.

The Pharisees were a religious class and were Jesus Christ’s bitterest enemies in his day. They were a hypocrite and self-righteous group. A hypocrite professes to be what he is not and a self-righteous person prides in himself while despising and looking down on others he is not better than.

The Pharisee is a whitewashed person looking beautiful on the outside while his interior is evil and rotten like a repainted grave that looks outwardly beautiful but inwardly rotten (Matthew 23:27-28). He practices outward religion and outward holiness while his inner man, his heart and spirit are corrupted, polluted and evil.

Jesus inflicted the most scathing remarks in history on the Pharisees in Matthew Chapter 23. He condemned them in Matthew 23:27-28 as hypocrites for their pride in outward show and display while being inwardly rotten at heart.

God is much more interested in our inward holiness because from the heart of man proceed the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). True worship, true service and true and holy principles come from the heart just as the evil issues of life also proceed from it (Mark 7:19-21), depending on whom your heart is submitted to –God or the Devil.

God is interested in a pure heart (Matthew 5:8); a perfect heart (2 Chronicles 16:9); a circumcised heart (Deuteronomy 30:6) that will open up to the Gospel and will love Him wholly and put Him first in life and conduct (Matthew 22:34-40).

God is also interested in a heart that will fear Him and obey all His commandments (Deuteronomy 5:29). He is looking for someone that will love Him with the whole heart, soul and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5).

God is not interested in our outward forms of worship and outward show of holiness without an inner change at heart. He does not want mere religious reformation without inner heart purity. What pleases Him more is a person’s godly living by His own standards.

The outward forms of religion are not sins in themselves but alone on their own are vain and powerless to save the soul (Isaiah 1:13-14) (Isaiah 58:1-5).

The Word in Isaiah 1:13-14 and 58:1-5 tells us that outward forms of worship are sacrifices that cannot be substituted for personal holiness and morality. King Saul sought to please God with sacrifices of animals while failing in total obedience to His instructions regarding Amalek and God rejected his kingship for this disobedience.

As far as God and His Word go, obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

In John 4:21-24, the Samaritan woman asked Jesus a question about the right place to worship God whether in Jerusalem or on a mountain. Jesus replies that the time has come when the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and truth.

His answer is telling us that the true worshippers that God is looking for are those who will follow Him with their whole souls, minds, feelings, emotions and desires; and are in harmony with the full and attested truth and not in fallacies and controversies, ceremonies, rituals and offerings.

Many run about from church to church, from mountain to mountain looking for a ‘’better place’’ to worship or pray to God. Jesus answer in John 4:24 tell that true worship is that of the heart where one is and not by a particular special place.

Many are like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10, who trust themselves, trust their religion, which take pride in their denomination and despise all others who do not share the same faith with them or do not belong to their denomination. Their attitude illustrates pride and self-righteousness which are sins in themselves.

One woman said that because she visits Israel every year on Holy Pilgrimage, she is sure of heaven. Going for Holy Pilgrimage in Israel yearly without the right changes in the heart, and without fully trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour is an empty religion and a vanity powerless to save the soul.

Rather than simply obey God’s Word, many prefer to disobey by choosing their own paths independently of him and when things go wrong, they begin to seek for Him to remove the road blocks through long and endless sacrifices of fasting and prayers to appease the God whose Word they rejected.
Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

The sacrifices that are acceptable to God are a broken spirit, and a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).

God has promised us that He will give us a new heart and renew a right spirit within us and has also promised to remove our stony hearts and to replace with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19) (Ezekiel 36:26).
But we have a role to play in our salvation by asking. It is when we ask that we shall receive (Matthew 7:7).

o Ask God for a clean heart and a right spirit (Psalm 51:10)
o Ask God for a circumcised heart (Deuteronomy 30:6)
o Ask Him for the grace and power to follow Him with a whole heart (Numbers 32:12)
o Ask for a heart that will fear Him and be obedient to Him (Deuteronomy 5:29).
o We need to ask God to break us down and re mould us to conform to His taste because He is the Potter and we are clay in His hands.

Ayodele Adegbulugbe.