Fundamentalist Pharisees
Mark 8:15 “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.”
As I read the Gospel records of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am often struck by the way our Lord responded to the questions and teachings of the Pharisees. I find them one of the most striking groups in the time of Christ’s ministry. I sometimes wonder how we would see them if they existed in our day under a more respectable moniker.
It fascinates me that the people in that day who had a reputation for knowing and revering the Scriptures above anyone else were the ones whom Jesus most virulently condemned. These were the people who had the highest standard of behaviour among God’s people, Israel. They would be viewed as the ultra-conservative. Fundamentalist Jews, if you will. They were passionate about standards of behaviour, dress, and cleanliness. They expended great efforts in proselytizing even if it was only to have one convert who would join them. And having accomplished that, they would succeed also in reshaping his life into the same respectable standard that they espoused. What great energy exerted in fashioning their lives into a nearly flawless image!
Yet Christ warned His disciples not to be like them. Imagine a Christian who looked like they never did anything wrong, dressed right, acted right, and went to great lengths to bring people to church. We’d be shocked if Christ showed up and said, “Watch out for that guy! Do not be like him.” Yet there is a huge danger in conformity instead of conversion. The adorning of our outwardness is not as vital as the hidden man of the heart. Many of the things the Pharisees were doing were outwardly good, but inwardly vile because of a wrong heart. Don’t think you’re so special just because everybody else does! Let us come to God and say “search… and see if there be any wicked way in me.” O Lord, when you look deep inside may my inner man not show Pharisee, but a disciple!
Pastor Paul Gibbesh
About the Author: I preach the Word, pastor a church, and attempt to provoke others to righteousness.
This is bang on. I agree wholeheartedly. However, let this not be taken as an endorsement of the Emergent Church ideology. The Pharisees were legalists (Matt 23), the EC movement is reveling in God’s mercy (1Cor 5:2).
Well done Bro. Gibbesh.
Excellent article. I was raised a Fundamental Baptist(although I’m now a Southern Baptist), and for much of my life as such I took great care to have a highly polished exterior. I did not get saved until I was eighteen, but you wouldn’t have known it. Even after I got saved, I wasn’t able to get the hang of letting Christ live through me. I continued to keep my exterior highly polished. I did and said all the right things, and looked like a great Christian, but inside I was struggling all the time, constantly under conviction and unable to discern why I wasn’t able to live up to my expectations and everybody else’s expectations of what a Christian should be. Honestly, it’s only been in the past couple of years that I’ve really learned that Christ living through me is the only way to live. I can’t do it on my own. I’ve seen so many men fall in ministry, including my father, who had all the right standards, and looked like great men of God. But inside, there’s something not right. Inside, there may be nothing but death.
I think that what you point out is a symptom of a much deeper issue. When I went off to Bible college at 18, I was never taught about Christ living through me and working His power in me. I only was told to do more, and work harder, and be better. And that’s the problem. We try to do what we can’t do, and what only Christ can.
A good thing to remember is that the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were just like the Pharisees of our day: the last thing they were interested in was submitting to the word of God as it had been delivered by God through inspiration.
They had perverted it profusely, especially during the Babylonian captivity, and then tried to live by their own rules and regulations– not God’s. Instead of placing their faith in God’s plan for their justification and redemption in the face of their utter lack of ability in keeping his law, they invented their own laws, rules, and regulations. That is the mark of a Pharisee in any age.
It has never been true that he Pharisees were ones who knew and revered the Scriptures, once given by God.
On the other hand, Godliness is exemplified by those who, regardless of the actions of man-made institutions, simply seek to submit themselves to God through obedience to His word in order to bring Glory to the Father and lift the Son high so others will come to glorify their Father who is in Heaven.