In Sunday morning’s sermon, Jamie Riley (my fellow minister at Sunshine Church) listed a number of warning signs for Pharisaic attitudes that permeate throughout churches. As he was speaking, my ADHD mind began chasing thoughts, such as, “how did/does the Pharisaic mind rise to prominence?” An over simplified answer might be that anytime a high view of Scripture is embraced, a Pharisaic expression of legalism soon follows. People who are passionate about following God’s Word will eventually create their own rules to protect God’s Word from being broken. When they find themselves in positions of power and authority, they’ll impose their interpretation and rules on the people, believing they’re holding true to God’s Word. Ultimately, what started as good intentions ends with protecting the status quo, their authority and position.
The second thing that went through my mind was the connection to all the redneck jokes, and how easy it could be to connect Jamie’s list to Jeff Foxworthy’s one-liners. So with apologies to Mr. Foxworthy, here is an expanded list of Pharisee tendencies provided by Jamie from Sunday morning.
You Just Might Be A PHARISEE If . . .
you experience years of spiritual unrest, because you’re never quite secure in Jesus’ promise of forgiveness . . .
you’re a surveillance expert, looking and monitoring people to see if (or hope?) they fall in their walk with God . . .
you feel like you can thank God that you are not like (insert label here [see Luke 18:9-14]) . . .
you hold an unhealthy relationship with authority, i.e. taking great pride in holding a place of authority and abusing that authority to gain control over people . . .
you practice un-merciful exactness so that God’s mercy is limited to only people who follow every minute command in Scripture . . .
you believe that simply showing up for worship every Sunday makes you right with God . . .
you spend more time talking about what you are “against,” and not what you are “for;” certainly, you rarely ever act on what you are “for” because the position on the topic is more important than actually ministering to the people impacted by the position . . .
you believe
God actually needs you, and that the church cannot survive without
you . . .
your salvation is based on works, not on Jesus; you actually think that your good works will get you into heaven . . .
you make every issue either “black and white” or that every issue holds “heaven and hell” ramifications . . .
you read the Bible to substantiate your convictions, not to be shaped into God’s image . . .
someone tries to confront you, and you get angry or offended . . .
a creative and charismatic leader is a threat to your place and position in the church . . . and
you pick and choose which parts of Scripture you’re going to follow and obey.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e. only God is glorified!)
(Clarification: Jamie did not invent his list but gleaned them from numerous sources. I have expanded and fleshed out his list with more examples for the purposes of the article).