The Heart of a Pharisee...

Hi, my name is Becca and I'm a recovering Pharisee.

Pharisees were keepers of the law of Moses.  But more than that, they had their own laws, rules and traditions they held themselves and others to.  These were not Biblical rules, laws and traditions--they were man made.  Pharisee's were self-proclaimed spiritual elites.  They loved to feel superior over everyone around them.  They loved to be critical of people who weren't living up to the standard they seemingly lived up to.  They imposed their standard of living on everyone around them.  And if you failed to measure up, well, God help you.  

So while I wasn't literally a Pharisee, my heart and mind were given over to rules.  My rules.  My standards.  You don't do things the way I do things?  How dare you.  Your family doesn't do what our family does?  Pathetic.  You don't have the same spiritual gifts I have? Poor thing.  You see, if your life looks different than a modern day Pharisee, you've insulted them. Their pride has been assaulted and that's their greatest treasure.

The Pharisaical heart says that my own rules make me great.  I'm the standard.  Pharisees have a deep need to appear better than everyone around them.  Not one ounce of this is out of a love for Jesus.  It's out of a love for their image.  They need others to see them the way they see themselves--more spiritually mature.

Let me give you some examples of things that had manifest in my own life and see if any of them might speak to you as well...

- Do you compare your own spiritual maturity to others and deem yourself as more mature?  Keep in mind that this is never anything you would verbally express to others..it's what you think to yourself.

- Do you have conversations with your spouse or those close to you that are incredibly critical of other people?  How they have it wrong but you have it right?

- Do you have a hard time having compassion for a certain type of person?

- Do you hold others to a standard of spiritual disciplines {praying, serving, giving, reading the Bible...} but secretly do not do these things on your own when it's just you and Jesus?

- Do you seek out opportunities in conversation to tell others about how much you give, pray, read, serve, etc...? 

- Do you find it hard to encourage others and be genuinely happy for them in their spiritual growth and successes in life?

- Do you become jealous of someone "less spiritual" when they're recognized?

- Do you feel the need to constantly explain yourself just to make sure people see how spiritual you are?

If you said yes to any of these things like I did when Jesus started to reveal this sin in my life, there's hope, and his name is Jesus.  So what does he want from us now that we've acknowledged these things in our hearts? Repentance.  Brokenness.  Humility.  David said to God, after he had sinned with Bathsheba and Nathan called him on it, that the best sacrifice he could offer God was his broken spirit, and his broken and contrite heart.  {Psalm 51: 17}

God is after our hearts.  So if there's anything in there that doesn't look like Jesus, He's kind enough to expose it, clean it, and heal it.  David had the same problem we have today--he was quick to assume that someone else had offended God with their sin while being blind to his own first . We can be so blind to our own pride and self-righteousness.  Psalm 139: 23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if their be any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" If we ask God, he will show us.  Ask him.

The heart of a Pharisee damages the church.  The heart of a Pharisee hurts people.  Why?  Because when we have the heart of a Pharisee we're more concerned with making much of ourselves and there is very little room to make much of Jesus.   It's telling people, "look at me", "be like me", "I'm the standard", instead of pointing them to Jesus.  As a friend said yesterday, the jig is up.  We're all broken and in desperate need of the grace and love only Jesus can offer us.  When we're keenly aware of our own need for Jesus, we're quick to point others to the source of healing.  Point others to Jesus. Be like Jesus.  

Your Recovering Pharisee, 

Becca