Another song addressed to the haters, stone throwers and Pharisees. Another tweet about how the Pharisees will surely not be happy with what’s to come.
“They just don’t understand. So legalistic.”
That’s usually how the preemptive attack goes. Sometimes it’s necessary and accurate. More often than not, though, it’s unloving and hurtful. It may be trendy to call someone a Pharisee because he stands to our right, but the charge is often unwarranted and even sinful.
Have you thought about what it means to call someone a Pharisee? Do you understand why Jesus had such serious beef with the Pharisees? Have you considered some of the things Jesus actually said to and about them?
Here are just a few examples:
“Hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee. First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside may also be clean. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanliness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to other, but within you are all full of hypocrisy.”
Matthew 23:25-28
“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”
Matthew 23:33
“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:20
Do you understand the depth of Jesus’ judgment toward the Pharisees in those verses?
“How are you going to escape hell?” Or, to hit y’all with “The Message” version: Unless you people are more righteous than these Pharisees, you’re not going to heaven. And by inference, you’re going to hell.
He calls them serpents, think Genesis 3, vipers and hypocrites. This is not a joke. It’s a judgment of damnation.
So when we say, “That guy is a Pharisee,” and we mean what Christ meant in His condemnation of the Pharisees, we are making an incredibly serious accusation. In so many words, we’re saying, “That guy is going to hell.”
With that in mind, I want to encourage all of my brothers in the faith to be very, very slow to call another Christian a Pharisee.
Why?
Reason 1: You’re Making a Serious Judgment
We’ve already covered the first reason. Calling a brother in Christ a Pharisee can amount to speaking a damnable judgment over his head.
At that point, we might as well call him an unbeliever.
Reason 2: He May Just Be a Weaker Brother
Maybe you’re fine with alcohol and tobacco. Your idea of a lovely evening might include two fingers of scotch and a Romeo y Julieta stogie.
You, like Paul, are convinced that there’s nothing inherently unclean about that. That’s great (Romans 14:14).
But maybe your brother hasn’t arrived at those conclusions yet. Perhaps he attends a fundamentalist church where the only sin worse than dancing is dating girls who do. Or maybe he’s simply the product of poor discipleship.
Alcohol may also be inextricably linked, in his mind, to his past life of sin and rebellion. Maybe he’s still not in a good place with stuff like that.
Or perhaps he’s a product of our culture. For some reason, our culture has no problem with non-Christians drinking but sometimes considers a Christian hypocritical for doing the same.
What if he simply has an honest desire to set a good example to the world? Maybe he believes abstaining from drink is the best way to do that.
OK, you’ve read Romans 14. You know that, technically, you’re right and he’s wrong. His theology is off on this stuff. Paul makes clear that the weaker brother is missing a piece of the puzzle.
But do you really understand Romans 14?
That same chapter calls us to love, patience and understanding when dealing with a brother who hasn’t quite hammered out all the details yet (Romans 14:20).
Don’t be quick to call a weaker brother a Pharisee. Instead, be quick to bear with him in love and patience.
Reason 3: Maybe He’s Right About You
Another reason we shouldn’t be quick to call a brother a Pharisee is that we are all sinful. Even with our new hearts and Holy Spirit-driven bodies, we remain quick to deflect blame when someone confronts us.
When we do that, we act more like Adam than Christ (Genesis 3:12).
I’ve seen it before, and I’ve done it myself.
Someone calls me on something. I’ve crossed the line. Maybe I’ve abused my Christian liberty and stepped two paces over into sin and worldliness.
My reaction?
“Lighten up, bruh.”
I call that fellow brother uptight. He needs to get a life. He needs to stop taking himself so seriously. Chill with all the legalism.
He needs to stop being such a … Pharisee.
Hindsight is usually 20/20, though. As time passes and the Holy Spirit does His convicting work on my heart, I often realize that I had crossed a line.
Maybe I told an off-color joke, for example (Ephesians 5:4). Looking back, I realize that I not only compromised my own holiness but also accused my brother of something as serious as Pharisaism.
It’s not easy for everyone to point out sin in another Christian’s life. Sure, some people seem to thrive on it. For a great many of us, however, it’s a hard thing to do.
It gets even harder when the immediate reaction is accusation and defensiveness.
If our brother seems to have a genuine passion for holiness, love for our soul and Christlike humility, we should be quick to hear and slow to speak when he confronts us.
But here’s the tricky thing: Even if we can’t be sure about any of those motives, we should still be quick to hear and slow to speak.
God can speak through asses. Just because you can’t be sure about the motives of the person confronting you doesn’t mean you should ignore what he says.
Think of how many times God has used you despite what I’m sure were less-than-pure motives.
Consider the message, not merely the messenger.
So be slow to call someone a Pharisee when that brother is confronting you over an issue of holiness.
Remember, it wasn’t one isolated thing the Pharisees did that upset Jesus. Their lives and ministries revealed a larger pattern.
Therefore, consider the pattern of your brother’s life or ministry, not merely one action, comment or incident.
Reason 4: You Might Become the Pharisee
Finally, be slow to call another brother a Pharisee because, in doing so, you may become the Pharisee yourself.
Luke 18:9-14 gives us the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It’s a powerful story. The point is that God desires a humble heart, not an enumerated list of good deeds, avoided sins and everything you do better than that guy over there.
We read that passage and say, “Yeah, screw that Pharisee. Thank God I’m not like him.”
And in doing so, we become him.
Do you see that?
You stand before the throne of Christ with your haughty little chin raised, talking about how you don’t judge people like that guy does.
You’re humble, unlike that Pharisee over there.
As I’ve browsed my Twitter feed over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of that: “Stupid Pharisees. They need to get humble ASAP, like us.”
So, my brothers, let’s be slow to call another brother a Pharisee. Usually, when we throw the word around carelessly, we’re cultivating a proud heart and a Pharisaism of our own.
It’s kind of like that whole “false humility is just pride in disguise” thing.
Is it not?