Lacy Evans<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew 23:23 (King James Version)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pharisees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 23Woe\n unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint \nand anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,\n judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to \nleave the other undone<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is semantically \nclumsy to refer to Pharisees as legalists. Usually it is ineffective in\n conveying your real meaning. A \u201clegalist\u201d is narrowly defined as one \nwho, in varying degrees holds that the Old Testament\/Mosiac law must be \nfollowed, in order for a person to be saved. So holding the doctrine \nthat a person must be circumcised, or keep the Sabbath, or follow the \nLevitical diet, etc. in order to become a Christian, in order to be a \n\u201cgood\u201d Christian, or \u201cshow fruit that he is a Christian.\u201d That would be\n \u201clegalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What the Pharisees did was like taking \nlegalism and feeding it steroids in a lab. Pharisees took the Tanakh \n(What we call the Old Testament), and added volumes of extra stuff, \ncommentary, rules, more rules governing those rules, etc. This extra \nstuff, the Mishnah, became binding in their religion. As binding as \nscripture. After all, God gave us teachers, priests, etc. Shouldn\u2019t we\n follow them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Modern Pharisees do similar things with the \nChristian Scriptures. They take good Biblical precepts, but build upon \nthem elaborate (often beautiful) Christian \u201cMishnahs.\u201d They add volumes \nof extra-biblical rules in which to govern our lives. Christianity \nceases to be about liberty of soul and becomes a bulky burdensome yoke \nof rules, regulations, and restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So a Pharisee will take a\n 55 MPH speed limit and make that a prohibition against driving. After \nall if you don\u2019t drive at all, you\u2019ll be sure and never go over 55. Or \nhe take a command to dress modestly and make it into a micro-managed \nover the top code of dress, which is strictly enforced by severe peer \npressure, condescending looks, and impromptu \u201ccounseling\u201d sessions. A \ncommand to not be \u201cworldly\u201d becomes a plethora of rules that govern art,\n music, diet, education, employment, entertainment, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\n binding of a yoke was for one purpose, to control the ox. A rabbi\u2019s \nparticular teaching was known as his \u201cyoke\u201d. To identify with a \nteacher or rabbi was to accept his yoke. Jesus said \u201cMy yoke is \nlight\u201d. He gives us the freedom to rebel, to mess up, to stumble. He \ndoes warn us of the consequences. He, very gently, very patiently, shows\n us his \u201cyoke\u201d and expects us to accept it, but he never coerces, never \nharangues, never manipulates. But strictly enforced adherence to the \nlist becomes the mark of holiness. In some extremes it becomes the \nwhole of holiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Christ looks at he heart. Do you \nthink the little boy who is \u201csitting on the outside but still standing \non the inside\u201d, or the woman who \u201ccan\u2019t work because she has constant \nand severe chronic pain, but would go back to work in a second if it \nwere physically possible\u201d are holy because they have been \u201cforced\u201d to \nconform to a code of behavioral standards? No more holy than a chained \nup dog who rots away in the back yard dreaming of running away and \nfinding himself a boy so he can finally be a \u201creal\u201d dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\n \u201creal\u201d dog wants to please his master. He learns tricks and his only \nsource of joy is the praise and adoring love that master, that boy. A \ndog needs a boy to be a real dog. A chain will keep him in the yard, \nbut a boy will make him want to be home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rod is for \nchildren. If you never move past it your children will either never \ngrow at all, or they will grow in spite of you and bolt (and rightfully \nso) from you at first chance, to get away from being treated like a \nchild. I have adult children and absolutely the most dreadful thing I \ncould think of is for them to conform to my \u201cwill for them\u201d out of fear \nor coercion, for them to still try to perform for me to gain my \nacceptance by playing my game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I want them to have \ncharacter. I have to let them go, to let them grow, to let them fail, \nto let their world come crashing down. BUT they must know too that no \nmatter what, I love them. I will help them if they ask. I will never \nleave them or forsake them, whatever they may do to screw things up for \nthemselves. The prodigal son wan not berated, manipulated, not warned \nthat if he left the (Fill in the blank) Fundamental Blah Blah local \nchurch, that his wife would leave him, he would backslide, and that his \nlife would go to hell in a hand basket. (And that is not a rhetoric \nlaced exaggeration, it\u2019s almost word for word commentary from folks I \nhave counseled.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n No he was treated like an adult. Allowed\n to try. Allowed to fail. And allowed to repent. Then they threw a \nparty! The older brother was a Pharisee. He just got mad, because \nthough he \u201ckept the code\u201d and never \u201cbroke ranks\u201d, the returning son got\n a party. Think about that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Part 2, I will give the twelve signs that you might be a Pharisee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lacy Evans Matthew 23:23 (King James Version) Pharisees 23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone It is semantically clumsy to … Continue reading “Pharisees Part One. 10 Signs You Might Be a Pharisee: Confessions of a Reforming Pharisee”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28,25,27],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doctrine","tag-hypocrite","tag-pharisee","tag-prodigal-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}