Judging The Scriptures Series

What Jesus was addressing here was the lifestyle of the Pharisees in which their actions consistently did not line up with their teaching. And certainly if I were to consistently live a lifestyle that was inconsistent with what I’m teaching then you should not do what I do and it’s also time to look for a new pastor.

If you expect others to live in a way that you are not willing to live yourself, you might be a “modern day Pharisee”.

3. I make being a disciple of Jesus a burden

As we saw in our study of the book of Romans, the purpose of the Law is to help us understand our need for the gospel where we find grace and find strength to live a life of obedience. Without that understanding the Law becomes an unbearable yoke and a heavy burden. The Pharisees had made the Law a burden with their lack of grace and they had added to that burden with all the additional man made rules that they had piled on top of the Law. Instead of seeking to help their fellow Jews live in a way that was pleasing to God, they actually made that much more difficult.

Living as a disciple of Jesus is not always easy. But it should never be a burden. I’m reminded here of the words of Jesus:

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:30 ESV)

One of the most common ways that we make the gospel a burden to people is by expecting them to act like disciples of Jesus before they become His disciples. As we’ve talked about frequently, Jesus does not require us to “clean up” our lives before we put our faith and trust in Him. I know I am thankful for that every day because I know how incapable I was of cleaning up my life on my own before I committed my life to Jesus. And I’m pretty sure that all of you feel the same way. So why we would ever want to make the gospel a burden for others by expecting them to live righteous lives before they become disciples of Jesus?

If you make being a disciple of Jesus a burden, you might be a “modern day Pharisee”.

So now that we’ve identified some traits that might indicate that we are “modern day Pharisees”, let’s close by talking about what we can do to prevent us from becoming one in the first place or to get ourselves out of that rut if we are already there.

THE REMEDY

1. Don’t make my own rules

If I were to ask you if you make your own rules when it comes to what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus, I’m pretty sure most of you would immediately answer “no”. And I doubt that any of you have done like the Pharisees and established your own set of written rules that are intended to further explain what the Bible teaches.

But it’s also likely that in your mind, you have established some unwritten rules that you use to evaluate how good of a Christian someone else is. It might be some of the rules we talked about earlier about how people dress or where they send their kids to school, or it might be something else that you think you do pretty well that you think others should also do if they want to be a “good Christian”.

When you find yourself dong that, please stop. While you might be doing that with the very best intentions, you are guilty of judging the Scriptures rather than being judged by them.