The pharisee in all of us

​​    An all-too-common thread runs within all of us in fundamentalism today. It is tied to our carnal, selfish natures, which when left unpurged by our personal yielding to both the Word of God and Spirit of God, can manifest itself in some wicked ways. The thread I’m identifying here is the pharisaical spirit. The “pharisee in all of us” often leads to self-justification and condemnation of others. Like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-14, we have the tendency to think too highly of ourselves and too little of others, thus worshiping in vain the God we say we believe in. In the following paragraphs, let me suggest three areas in which this pharisaical spirit is often manifested.

    First, it is often manifested in our approach to outsiders. By outsiders, I’m speaking of those either known or unknown to us who in their search for God attempt to enter into our local church assemblies or circles of Christian fellowship. It is our tendency to examine them outwardly and to cast a suspicious look on their motives. We seem to withdraw from the outsider until such time as they demonstrate conformity to our perceived notion of worship and practice. This was the case in Matthew 9:9-13 when the Pharisees said unto the disciples at the calling of Matthew by Jesus, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” Jesus responded to the Pharisees by saying in part that, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” And Jesus concluded in this passage by saying to the Pharisees, “for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” It behooves us all when this pharisaical monster rises up within us to yield to the Apostle Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:16, wherein he exhorts the Roman believers to, “Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.”

    Additionally, this pharisaical spirit within us surfaces in our attitude toward others. In Luke 7:36, one of the Pharisees desires that Jesus would eat with him, and Jesus complies by entering into the Pharisee’s house. Shortly thereafter, a woman in the city, who was a sinner, enters in the Pharisee’s house with an alabaster box of ointment. She begins to minister to Jesus with weeping and washes His feet with her tears, anointing them with the ointment. In verse 39, the Pharisee responds to the woman’s actions by saying within his heart, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.” Both Jesus and the woman were held in contempt by the Pharisee, because of self-righteousness dominating his heart. Likewise, this is often the case with us. May we be reminded that the Apostle Paul in that great love chapter of I Corinthians 13 was fully aware that all of his accomplishments for the Lord would profit him nothing and be judged as nothing.”…if he had not charity.”

    Finally, the Pharisee in all of us gains momentum through our appraisal of ourselves. In Luke 18:11, the Pharisee asserts his high view of himself with these words, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican.” Let us be sure when putting down this scoundrel within us to give heed to Romans 12:3 which states, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” 

​    I’m at war with this Pharisee in my own life constantly. Would you join me? We can begin now by entreating God as David did in Psalm 139:23-24 when he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”