A Pharisee Attitude
By Russ Kujawski
June 20,2018
Question : Do you have a pharisaical attitude?
pharisaical: practicing
or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or
conduct without regard to the spirit; self-righteous; hypocritical.
Matt 23: 1 Then Jesus
said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 "The scribes and the Pharisees
sit on Moses' seat, 3 so practice and observe whatever they tell you--but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's
shoulders, but they themselves are not
willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For
they make their **phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at
feasts and the best seats in the synagogues
**phylacteries Likely refers to small boxes containing
Scripture passages that Jews wore on their foreheads or arms. The scribes and
Pharisees apparently enlarged these boxes to make them more visible (see Exod
13:9; Deut 6:8; 11:18)
Several times in Chap Matt chap 23 it says “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites!” From verse 13-29
Lets take a look at the woe verses.
First Woe
Digging Deeper:
1. Mat
23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s
faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to
go in.[fn]
{fn}Some manuscripts add here (or after verse 12) verse 14:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses
and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the
greater condemnation
To get the understanding of this woe and following woes we
need to look back to verses 3-7
This woe and the following woes
are an interjection of grief in other
words if I may say there is grief to come for these scribes and Pharisees. Why
do I say that? Because they preach but do not practice, they are hypocrites a
pretender, an actor. They do not do what
they say. Have you ever heard the statement ”do as I say not as I do” There can
be consequences for such a statement and that’s a “woe”. They shut the kingdom
of heaven to the people and don’t enter themselves. Being a hypocrite I think
is why the scribes and Pharisees wont enter but why don’t they allow the people
to enter? Just a thought here maybe its
because of the burdens and false teachings laid on them verse 4.yet they don’t
do any of the things the people have to do. Sounds like congress.
Do you have this kind of attitude?
You say if you’re a Christian then you must do this or that but yet you
yourself don’t do what you tell others to do. Are you placing unrealistic
burdens on others? What did Jesus say in Matt 11” 28 “Come to me(Jesus the Christ), all you
who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Fortunately its not you or me that
the people are to follow its Christ. What’s Christ tell us? His yoke is easy and burden is light.
2.
Next Woe
Digging Deeper:
15 “Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea
to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them as you are twice
as much a child of hell.
Why are they twice as much a child
of hell? Because of the teachers of the law and pharisees legalistic teaching of the law. This kind of
teaching is destructive. There are groups out there that teach in this kind of
way very legalistic, you cant dance of any kind, you don’t play cards, you
don’t go out to eat on a Sunday because you cause someone to work, you don’t do
this ,you don’t do that. Rules, rules , rules.
I grew up is such an organization. Is there a problem with rules? No as
long as those rule help you develop a relationship with Christ and not a rules
based or works based faith. Following rules won’t get you into heaven following
Christ will. As a Christian do we continue to sin? NO *before you comment on
this answer continue reading*
Romans 6:
1 What shall
we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that
grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
This is a legalistic example for
Christians: Your just one sin away from hell this was told to me once. So in
other words if you have any failures in your walk with Christ, you let a curse
word slip. You would be in danger of going to hell. Really! There isn’t any of
God’s grace or mercy in such a statement. What does Romans 6:1 say? Look at the
verbiage.
go on sinning: If you continue to sin then has anything even
changed, when we come to repentance then you turn away from the old way of
thinking, turn away from the old way of behavior. I will expand on this in a
little bit.
have died to sin: When we come to
Christ our old self our old nature is crucified so that sin does not have a
strong hold on you, we are no longer slave to sin. (see Romans 6:6)
live in it any longer:
This
is speaking about a lifestyle of sin. Coming to Christ we can no longer LIVE
A LIFE STYLE OF SIN.
As it states in Romans 6 :1 it
mentions GRACE if we have a moment of
failure(sin) in our walk there is God’s
grace. Be warned if you are intentionally, willfully, sinning because of God’s
grace he may just let you go onto that road of destruction, and if it be
possible you can be putting your salvation into jeopardy.
Do you have this Pharisee attitude
that you place such burdens on believers that they are bound to fail and maybe
even turn away from God?
3.
Next Woe
Digging Deeper:
16 "Woe to you,
blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but
if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or
the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, 'If anyone swears by
the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the
altar, he is bound by his oath.' 19 You blind men!
For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20
So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And
whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And
whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon
it.
Woe to you, blind guides: blind fools: blind men!
I once attended a church and in
order to become a member you had to sign a piece of paper saying you will do
this or that basically taking an oath. Never did sign the paper because of some
of the verbiage in it. Not signing it didn’t prevent me from attending it just kept
me from having any say in the governing of the church. I currently and probably
will until my dying day will attend a church that I was accepted as a member
voted in by the congregation if I remember right. Growing up the church I
attended was legalistic in some things and in others not so much . Being a
member only meant you professed Christ as your Lord and Savior
and attended regularly. What were these blind guides doing making the people swear by the things on the
alter or in the temple. They were overlooking
the higher principles of the law.
In Matt 5:33-37 say’s :verse 33 not to swear falsely, verse 34 do not
take an oath at all, verse 37 yes or no anything more than that comes from
evil. Here is what James has to say about oaths: Jas 5:12 But above all, my
brothers, do not swear *(or take and oath), either by heaven or by earth
or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that
you may not fall under condemnation.
(*) I added for clarification
4.
Next Woe
Digging Deeper:
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint
and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:
justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without
neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing
a camel!
I think Micah 6:8 speaks to verse 23
“Mic 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require
of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,[fn]
and to walk humbly with your God?”
[fn] Or
steadfast love
They the
scribes and Pharisees were doing the little things but neglecting the more
important things, like justice, steadfast love and walking humbly with God. It
would appear at this point that they did things with the wrong motivation with
a look at me see how religious I am, instead of truly directing the people to
God. They were religious not relational. Do you have an attitude like the
Pharisees of being religious and not relational?
5.
Next Woe
Digging Deeper:
25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the
plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You
blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the
outside also may be clean.
NASB 25b: but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.
KJV 25b: but within they are full of extortion and excess.
NKJ 25b: but inside they are full
of extortion and self-indulgence.[fn]
{fn} M-Text reads unrighteousness
Once again the pharisee’s are
called hypocrites. Why? They look good
on the outside but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. I looked
up the Greek for greedy.
Greek for greedy: harpagē means: extortion, robbery. I think the meaning of the word is
better represented in the translations noted above than how the ESV puts it. I
use the ESV for my primary translation to study with but the use of “greedy” is
weak compared to “extortion or robbery”
The pharisee’s were
manipulating the people for their own self-indulgence. To benefit them and not
the people whom they were supposed to be teaching, guiding, encouraging. They
didn’t have clean hearts Matthew 15:18-19 puts it this way” 18 But what comes out of the mouth
proceeds from the heart, and this
defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart
come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false
witness, slander.”
The pharisee’s and
scribes have a heart issue there desires aren’t of God they are for themselves
not for the people’s needs but their own self-indulgences. The scribes and
Pharisee’s have become corrupt like many people in the United State Congress
and House.
Do you have a
Pharisee type attitude? Do you do things because they make you look good or
manipulate others so you look good? Yet on the inside you’re a broken man.
6.
Next Woe
Digging Deeper:
27 “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 uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others,
but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
In the construction world when
you have a wall that needs repair from dings, dents, and scratches and you
don’t want to remove the sheet rock, then you skim coat it. That method covers
the damage, it hides the damage, yet the damage is still there. That’s
basically the same as whitewashing. In this case it’s a term applied to a hypocrite
who conceals his malice under an outward assumption of piety
The outside looks good but the
inside is like dead mans bones or the ESV puts it dead people’s bones what does
that mean ?
Metaph: spiritually dead
·
destitute of a life that recognizes and is
devoted to God, because given up to trespasses and sins
·
inactive as respects doing right
Verse 28 tells us what verse
27 means
you appear in a wide sense,
upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands of God but in
reality with in you have a mask on
(hypocrite) your full of
contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness (Lawlessness)
This woe # 6 and
woe #5 are very similar. Do you have this pharisee attitude you look
righteous on the outside but on the inside you are spiritually dead?
7.
Next Woe
Digging Deeper:
29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the
tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30saying,
‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with
them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31Thus you witness against
yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up,
then, the measure of your fathers. 33You serpents, you
brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34Therefore
I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and
crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to
town, 35so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the
blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, [f]
whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36Truly, I say to you,
all these things will come upon this generation.
[f] 35 Some manuscripts omit the son of Barachiah
Offspring of vipers
This phrase could be a generic insult; it also might allude to the Jewish
leaders’ cunning. Condemnation to hell
Based on their current actions, the scribes (teachers of the law) and the
Pharisees are on their way to experiencing God’s judgment and wrath. Jesus’
rhetorical language warns the Pharisees of the inevitability of their judgment
unless they change course.
Do you have this type
of attitude were your current actions may lead you to condemnation?
Final
thoughts:
As I’m do this study
this section of scripture it’s redundant saying pretty much the same thing over
and over. Why? Because it’s important the results of having a pharisee attitude
can have a negative results, an eternal results
verse 33 make that clear “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how
are you to escape being sentenced to
hell?” Two words keep coming to
mind here, “Hypocrite and Legalism”
·
Hypocrite:
The pharisee attitude is this do as I say, look at me ,see me see how Holy I
am. While inside of you are a broken down man or woman. Inside you are broken,
in distress, you know not the peace or rest that comes with knowing Christ. You
are being religious not relational.
·
Legalism:
The pharisee attitude is you have to do this or that to be a Christian. If you
play cards you sin hell bound you go, If you dance you sin hell bound you go,
you must pray everyday at noon if you don’t you sin hell bound you go. The list
of rules are endless. If mankind could follow rules then Christ would not of
had to come and save mankind from his own destruction. With all that said ,yes
there are certain behaviors expected from a Christian. As we are continually
being sanctified(set apart) for Christ
and grow in the knowledge of Christ those behaviors of one walking in Biblical
Christianity will become more life style and less forced. {Just a little side
thought may also become harder do to Satan’s intensity of attacks upon you.} As
we walk in Christ and we have a slip(sin) Gods grace is great.{I’m speaking of
a monetary failure not going back to a lifestyle of sin} yes there are biblical
behaviors for the Christian that we are to follow. When we have a momentary
failure I truly don’t believe God would say” Sorry dude you just swore and said
“##*&*%$#” As that car hit you and
killed you ,Hell bound you go” There is no Grace
in that way of thinking. I know
that’s an extreme example but the point is there. Don’t live in fear Gods Grace
is sufficient. Live this day in God’s glory, peace, and rest. Don’t haver a
Pharisee like attitude have a Christ like attitude
Colo 3:9-10 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander,
and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you
have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
