You Might be a Pharisee if…

I’m sure you remember the iconic phrase made famous by Jeff Foxworthy some years back “You might be a redneck if…

• You ever cut your grass and found a car.
• You've ever used a weed eater indoors.
• You come home from the garbage dump with more than you went with.
• You fish in your above-ground pool, especially if you catch something!

These were just some to name a few. Recently, that phrase came to my mind while I was sitting in a revival waiting to speak. However, the word “redneck” was exchanged for “Pharisee.” Within in minutes I was writing on a sheet of paper the following statements.

You might be a Pharisee if…

• Love your religion more than Christ.
• You don’t practice what you preach
• You judge everyone by outward appearance
• You elevate man-made traditions to equality with God’s Word

However, this religious sect who were comprised by the most self-righteous religious leaders of the day were

• Religious but lost.
• They were good at converting people to religion but not to Christ.
• Good at making monuments and museums of the past but not life in the present.
• They couldn’t recognize Christ or an ordained move of God.

Pharisees were long on talk and short on practice. Jesus said: "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not after their works: for they say, and do not" (Matt. 23:3).

Pharisees majored on minors. Jesus said that they "left undone the weightier matters" and "strained out the gnat, and swallowed the camel" (Matt. 23:23-25). Brings new life to the old saying “making mountains out of mole hills.”

I could go on and on about the Pharisee but the bottom line is that they were the epitome of hypocrisy. If they simply would have been sincere worshipers of the true and living God then all the infectious spiritual disease they were propagating would have been averted. However, their pride crushed any opportunity for humility to gain a foothold and they continued injecting their poison of man-made religion into the masses. People were turned off by their pompous rituals without life, and their attitude of arrogance sickened and repulsed those who otherwise may have come to the true God of Israel.

I began thinking of today, and wonder why more people are not wanting or receiving this wonderful free gift of salvation. It doesn’t take long to realize that the spirit (attitude – disposition) of the Pharisee is alive and well today. Is it possible these attitudes and characteristics that are listed above are still resident among God’s people? How many times do we judge the outward appearance and it hinders our response to that individual? How often has sinners said about the church “they talk one thing but they don’t live it.”

I am thoroughly convinced that we hold the keys to opening the love of God to the masses of unsaved people in our communities. When we speak the Word in Love – what does that actually mean?

It means we:

• speak the truth without compromise
• realize our human weaknesses and it translates into such compassion towards them
• see them as more precious and valuable than anything else in the world
• guard our own life and practice what we preach

If we DO these things, the faucet of Phariseeism will be turned off and the true love of God will flow like a river. It will sweep the sinners into its flow of love and a true lasting revival will ensue.