The New Pharisee-ism

"Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and 'Reverend.' "Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. (The Message- Matthew 23:4-8a)

I'm using the Message to start this off for two reasons. First, so that my friend Mike Kerr will get off my back about a comment I made about the Message 3 years ago (I used it. I'm not all that smart. You happy now bro!) Second, because Peterson captures the essence of the passage so well, that I think it fits today's subject matter.

For those of you who grew up not going to church, or who still don't go, the Pharisees are the ultra-religious, judgmental, fundamentalist, pains in the can who are (they think anyhow) instrumental in getting Jesus crucified. (For the record, His death was not an accident, it was the plan since Genesis 3. It was God's response graceful to our sin. No one person or select group of people are responsible for the death of Jesus. So anti-Semites head to another blog, please.) Back on track, they are probably like the caricatures of Christians, that most of you do not like.

I'm talking about a New Pharisee-ism today, not because I think it's new, in fact the term was coined long before my time, but because of some issues I have read about recently that remind me that this problem is alive and well.

This New Pharisee-ism (NP from now on) is the practice of adding new laws, rules, and standards to Scripture. In short, it questions the sufficiency of Scripture to be our guide as wel follow Jesus. Amazingly, the people most guilty of this NP are most often people who extol their beliefs in the sufficiency of Scripture. Sound crazy? Read on...

Example #1:
Christian school to teen: Skip prom
The Associated Press

FINDLAY, Ohio - A student at a fundamentalist Baptist school that forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing will be suspended if he takes his girlfriend to her public high school prom, his principal said.

Example #2:

True Lips Wait? Sexual Abstinence, Romantic Longing, and Monogamous Lips

www.almohler.com

"In a culture where casual sex is the norm, some Tennesseans have taken the purity pledge to a whole new level, through a practice that some teens refer to as the 'Virgin Lips Movement.'"

There is no explicit biblical ban on premarital kissing, but any honest person knows that there are kisses that can only be considered sexual, naturally leading to the sex act itself. These young Christians are not afraid of their bodies, they are afraid of sinning against God and losing something precious to themselves as well.

In a world that has made monogamy an embarrassment, these young Christians want to offer their future spouse the gift of monogamous lips. In an age of instant sexual gratification, these young believers believe that true lips wait. This is what a counter-revolution looks like.

End examples...on to opinion...and hopefully the Bible...

This type of nonsense really bugs me. Here's why. In the city, state, and part of America where I pastor the Bible never seems to be enough with the religious establishment. So many religious leaders feel the need, the almost compulsion, to add to Scripture. For example, Scripture explicitly says not to be drunk. On example, Romans 13:13- "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy." That's pretty clear. Being drunk. Not an option. Having a drink in American and being under 21- not an option. We are to obey governmental authorities. (1 Peter 2:13). But to some people, being over 21 and choosing to have a drink is sin. This is not an area of personal freedom. That my friends is NP. Adding to Scripture.

The two examples above only serve to further highlight my concern. So many of us are afraid of the freedom we have in Jesus. We run from it. So scared to make a mistake. My friends, that is not what grace is about. Far from it! Grace is freedom to fail, freedom to make a mistake, so that we no longer live in fear. 1 John 4:13-18 makes it clear that those who are "in Christ" (saved, following Jesus, Christians, whatever label you like for a Redeemed person) are on longer walking around afraid. If this is so, why are we so busy making extra rules to keep us away from sin? Even adding to the Bible- which is sufficient to guide us- because it does not go far enough.

The answer, I think, is that we are scared of what will happen in a relationship with God. We are a lot more deeply invested in a relationship than we are in a rule. That's why it is easier to follow a rule than to live in a relationship. We can blame the rule- "I can't kiss you because it will make me sin against God." Rather than have to explain our relationship- which is messy, especially if not everyone is doing it. So, "I do not drink alcohol because God has not given me that freedom" becomes "It is a sin to drink." How confusing it all becomes, especially when we have to try to explain those made up rules to new believers or those who do not know our Jesus.

So I leave you with this passage from Romans 14. Think about it.

¹As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ² One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵ One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; ¹¹for it is written,

"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God."

¹²So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Next blog will be about the Messiness of Following Jesus.