are you a pharisee

Derick Dickens posts a pretty decent short list of questions to identify if you are a Pharisee. For me, the answer was far too often yes.

Through the years I have been called both a Pharisee and Libertine (how can I be both?). Some have condemned me for being too conservative and others too liberal. So, in an attempt to learn to be more Biblical, I have developed some tests to keep from being a pharisee. Do you think you can add more?

Here is my list:

1) What is my heart attitude towards those who disagree with me? The heart is deceitful and often I have an attitude that I am better because of some issue or knowledge. Yet, my goal should be first and foremost love but still never compromising on the truth.
2) Am I seeking to rebuke or reason? I have never successfully rebuked anyone, only the Lord has accomplished that task through His Holy Spirit. I, though, have laid out God’s Word clearly so that the Spirit could use that Word to rebuke. Yet, my job is to reason from Scripture and the Spirit’s job is to rebuke. Keep it in that order.
3) Would my attitude be taken by a 5 year old as soft and gentle? Being a father, I have said things in a manner to my children which wounded their heart. I have learned that when talking to my children I needed to lovingly convey my disagreement in a soft and gentle manner. If a child would take my words as wounding, I would believe an adult could too.
4) Is my attitude one of superiority or am I rightly reflecting the idea that I am a recipient of God’s grace? The truth I hold is not one I discovered because I am brilliant but this truth is what God chose to open my eyes to see even though I was blind. Even in the secular world, there are greater minds than my own. The difference is God’s Grace.
5) Am I more condemning of others in their lifestyle, actions, and doctrine or more condemning of myself? When I see others’ sins as more grievous than my own then I have faltered somewhere. My first response to God’s Word should be “Woe is me” not “Woe is them.”
6) Truth is Truth and I cannot waiver from it, but how certain am I that this is God’s Truth? Is this, historically, an issue in the Christian realm places a priority? Is this an issue in the Bible with such priorities?
7) During major issues, do I weep for their soul or do I resort in mere condemnation? A semi-famous Pastor found out another friend left Christianity for a heresy. My friend’s reaction? He wept over the soul, responded in a passionately loving display, and a pleading for the rejection of this heresy.
8) Is my spiritual exercises mostly private or mostly public? Religion is both public and private, but we should first focus on the private which will make the public more beautiful.

So, how do you know if you are a Pharisee? I am a guilty pharisee as my heart has failed in many ways. You, too, are probably a pharisee as I believe most of us are Pharisaical in some manner. May the Lord rid us of this Pharisaical attitude and may the Lord continue to sanctify us from this atrocity.