Christian Flashcards: Can You Find the Pharisee?

People these days seem to imagine that Jesus would be laid back and cool.

We appropriate a twisted version of grace that says Jesus came to say “It’s okay, man. You’re fine. I love you. Follow me and don’t change a thing about you.” Because of this, we’re drawn to the preacher with skinny jeans, mussed hair, excellent graphics, and sermons that make us laugh but we shun the uptight church lady who’s always harping about obedience and knowing the Bible.

If we had a deck of Christian flashcards and their photos were placed in front of us asking, “point to the Pharisee,” most of us would pick the uptight church lady and we would not necessarily be right. On the other side, God will reveal the Pharisaical robes of some of those cool preachers and He’ll reveal the heart of love exuding from some of those uptight church ladies.

Read a gospel. In these times when there are powers working overtime to distort His image, I find it necessary to be reading a gospel all the time in addition to my other Bible reading as a kind of antidote to deception.

Jesus said really hard things. Yes, He drew crowds but they scattered just as quickly and it didn’t take much to incite them to call for His crucifixion. You don’t kill people for being too nice. Leaders don’t see danger in someone who’s laid back and willing to go along to get along. Even the writers of Godspell in the ‘70’s knew the gospel story was one of a world-upsetting revolutionary.

Jesus called the Pharisees out for hypocrisy and for building “hedges” around the law. Jesus believed in the law. He didn’t come to destroy it but to fulfill its requirements on our behalf. The Pharisees, however, thought they were so wise, so superior to others, they often broke the law themselves. That’s bad enough but when teaching the law, they added to it in order to keep everyday people far from breaking them. They lived in fear of not being hard enough on others, about allowing their people to break the laws so sought to protect themselves by stiffening them. They weren’t obeying from hearts of love but of fear.

The laws are hard enough, right? No need to make them harder. And teachers should lead by example not using the guise of righteousness as a cover for their own bad choices.

Now, think about this. Some modern believers are so afraid of appearing like Pharisees, of appearing unloving, of creating any discomfort or sense of guilt, they’ve built a hedge around their own ministries by not ever teaching Biblical truth about currently touchy subjects. Secretly, they believe those truths. Secretly, they even obey those commands but they withhold the truth of them from others for fear of appearing to be Pharisees. This creates, in fact, a modern version of Pharisaism that too often goes unaddressed.

There is a time to remain silent about some of the more divisive commands but not to completely leave those truths out of the work of preaching and teaching.

On the other hand, not every uptight church lady (or man) is acting out of self-righteousness or a sense of superiority. Granted, some are, but many are coming from a place of love and concern for God’s flock. Knowing the Bible and reminding people that God’s commands are to be obeyed isn’t being a Pharisee. If you add to those commands or refuse to obey them yourself, well, now you’re talking, but accurately teaching biblical commands (which abound in the New Testament) and expecting believers to live up them is being like Jesus. I’ve personally been annoyed by some of the uptight church ladies and gents I’ve known through the years but usually found myself grateful to them for their unyielding commitment to truth and to God’s Word. I admire how many of them walk, unafraid, into other people’s ridicule or scorn for the sake of Jesus and for the sake of their listeners. We’ve allowed the world to hold up a fun house mirror to love and then we reject true love when it tries to help us avoid walking over a cliff.

It can be very lonely to be an uptight church lady standing firm on truth as the world (and other believers) keep pressuring her to sit down and be silent. To keep on speaking is a self-sacrificing act of love. The too-cool, compromising preachers are often surrounded by supporters but how will it feel to face that same crowd on the day the truth is clear to all?

I have never regretted getting to know believers I started out fearing because they seemed legalistic or Pharisaical. Sometimes, it turns out, they’re just that but I exercised love and that’s always worthwhile. Other times I discovered they were great reservoirs of love, courage, and biblical understanding and in my life, that has made all the difference.

None of us knows, as our generation becomes the “old folk” in the congregation, what truths will come under assault and how we’ll be perceived when we stand against the compromise. We all need to check constantly that what we’re proclaiming is biblical and not just cultural but our enemy engages in a constant assault of the truth we must guard against together. Even more reason to spend less time stereo-tying and judging and more time listening, loving, and getting to know those uptight ladies and gents along with the cool preacher in jeans.

They may not be as different as they appear and the Body of Christ may do well to listen to them both.

Praying for hearts of love even for the hard to love, listening to fellow believers but measuring everything against God’s Word, and interceding for (and speaking correction to) those who have given their hearts over to Pharisaism – this is a way to live. This is a way to follow Jesus.

If there were flashcards, these days would be easy but these are not easy times. Providentially, we have One who walks through them with us and guides us into the most excellent way.

Christian Flashcards: Can You Find the Pharisee? https://t.co/s0pUzn88lB how to spot a legalistic hypocrite #topplinggiants #Pharisees #love

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) October 4, 2016

Remember, I LOVE to hear from you, even when we disagree. Be sure to comment. Has anyone ever accused you of being uptight? legalistic? a Pharisee? Dismissed you as irrelevant without trying to understand you? How did you handle it?