Nobody wants to be accused of being a hypocritical self-righteous Pharisee. But in 50 years of Christian life and service I have known many people who were Pharisees. And sometimes I have been a Pharisee. Read this parable from Jesus and see who you relate to…

     He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’
     “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”
     Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.” (Luke 18:9-14 MSG)

Do you relate to the Pharisee or the sinner?

Who do you relate to? Are you sure? Just the other day a good friend told me he was shocked at something a non-believer did, but he added, “I shouldn’t expect anything better from someone in the world.” And just like that, he became an accidental Pharisee. He judged his own righteousness as a good Christian to be better than someone else.

It’s kind of ironic that we use the Pharisees as examples of self-righteous hypocrisy because they used to be looked to as the best of the best, the strongest, the most devout, the holiest Jews. This is kind of how some Christians consider themselves to be the best of the best, in the best church, with the best teaching, the best worship, the best programs.

The Bible truth of the matter is: my brain can imagine just as much wickedness as any non-believer, my heart is just as evil as any non-believer’s heart, my body is capable of committing just as reprehensible a sin as any non-believer, my old nature is just as awful as any non-believer. It’s only by constantly counting myself dead for the love of Jesus Christ that I don’t do all the bad things that flit through my head.

      What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?  Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
     But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
      Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.  (Romans 6:1-14 WEB)

      But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.  We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you.
     But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore also we speak; knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
     Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:7-18 WEB)

Don’t follow the way of the Pharisee by thinking you are better than anyone else. The only good thing in you is Jesus Christ.

For deeper study:

• The controversy of sin — The controversy of sin is not that we are sinners, it is how badly we are sinners, not that God hates sin, but what God has done about sin
• What about self-righteousness? (the damnable sin of justifying yourself) — Self-righteousness is the sin of justifying yourself through pride in your self and accomplishments or by hiding your inadequacy and failures
• Matthew 7:3 the mote in your friend’s eye — Before Christians try to judge the tiny mote of sin and failure in their friend’s eye, they must judge their own sins first
• Christlike doctrine promotes Christlike behavior — The Christlike attitude is to have a gracious attitude and a humble heart that allows the Lord Jesus Christ to work in both of you.