Lord Don't Let Me Become A Pharisee

"Speak unity and you discover how great the division is, speak truth discover how much error there is, speak love and find out how cold love has become." (Anonymous).

My greatest fear as Protestant is becoming a Pharisee. Knowing the Bible as perfect as the Pharisees knew their Law, and yet they missed Jesus. The Pharisees missed Jesus because missed the heart and point of Law, just as often miss the heart of Scriptures. Jesus told us a time would come when, "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold:" (Matthew 24:12): "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness,:" (Matthew 23:37-38), "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness;" (Matthew 7:21-23), "Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, ² not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. ³ Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,^{[c] 4} who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. ⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶ And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, ¹⁰ and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹ Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, ¹² in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:1-10). This lawlessness is dangerous, no matter how pious you may seem or how learned you are. For to follow the Law is to do as Jesus said, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40). The lawlessness is to not love God and to stop loving our neighbor or our brother in Christ, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35). Jesus rebukes a Church in Revelation for refusing to love as they first did, ""But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first!Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches." (Revelation 2:4-5 NLT).

The lawlessness is already at work (2 Thessalonians 2:7) and it was already at work in the Pharisees that crucified Jesus (John 19). But love is different, notice Jesus said, "Lawlessness increases, and love grows cold," (Matthew 24:12) because Lawfulnesss is to love God with all you are and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). A Catholic is your neighbor, a Methodist is your neighbor, even an Athiest and fallen away person is your neighbor. You are told to love them, and love is patient not overbearing, "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^{[a] 6} it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Hence why Paul who was Pharisee of Pharisees (see Acts 23:6, Philippians 3:5, the Pharisees are the lawless ones Jesus rebuked, religious but not loving), said this, "1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Paul rejected his old Phariseeism, and instead promoted the Love of Christ (Matthew 22:36-40) and he wrote, "love is patient, love is kind.." (1 Corinthians 13:4). We need to be patient with other believers and be kind to our many different brothers in Christ, Catholics, Charismatics, and the like. To quote a Roman Catholic, "The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ. What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone." (Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, Chapter One).

I am not saying to abandon reading the Holy Bible and New Testament. On the contrary I am saying we should heed the words therein, that we memorize Scripture and put it into practice; that we learn the heart of what Jesus and His Apostles wrote and said. I believe Holy Bible is breathed by God (2 Timothy 3:16) and is best way to check all theology, doxology, and more. But we must beware of only become scholars of God's word, and not actually doing what it says, and letting love of God show through us. I pray that no one become Pharisee, for they missed the Prince of Peace and had been purged of God's love. Lord don't let me become a Pharisee. Help me to know you Jesus and not just about you, help me to practice your Scriptures and commands not just recite them. Help me to show your love always. Amen.