Being a Pharisee

  This morning I was reading in Luke chapter 7, about Simon the Pharisee and the “sinful woman” and it hit me.  I have been struggling with pride my whole life, most of us do, I guess, but the last year or so it has been more and more obvious to me.  Have you ever noticed how much more we see our sin as we get to know the Father better?  Anyway, it hit me that I am, in many ways, a Pharisee.  I often think that my idea of how things should be is actually the way things should be.  As I was answering the questions in my study book, it became clear.  Simon was looking at the outside of a person, only her past actions, her clothes, her situation, etc.  How many times do I do that?  I was raised in a Christian home, but it was also clear that being a “successful, upper middle class American” was equally important and people were definitely judged by that standard.  I have worked in a private Christian school where students were made to feel that their grades, test scores, ability to sit still and quiet for long hours, clothes, economic level, etc. was what made them a “good Christian.”  These influences are with me and have shaped how I look at the world.  These are things that I need to counter with God’s truth so that I can be shaped by Him rather than middle class American culture.  

How often do we look at people and judge them to be something without really knowing anything about them?  It may not be malicious.  It may lead to nothing more than a thought in our head.  But that doesn’t make it okay.  How often do we assume things because of how someone looks or is acting in that moment?  Even in my own family I am guilty of this.  I filter everything through how I think it should look and when it doesn’t measure up, I judge that person or thing to be inadequate.  How horrible of me.  This morning as I thought about this, I couldn’t help but cry to my Father in repentance and sorrow.  I know He has forgiven me and continues to, but letting Him work on me and change me is more of a long-haul challenge than I would like.  

For me, the hardest question about all of this continues to be, “how do I teach my children proper behavior, proper decision making and planning, etc. without being a legalistic Pharisee?”  This is a constant challenge to me, one I fail at a lot.  I don’t want the people around me to think they have to be “good enough” to come to Jesus.  I want them to love Him and accept His grace.  I want them to be willing to repent of sin, but not feel that their sin will prevent God from answering them in His grace.  I love that God’s Word is living and active and helps me to see my sin as sin and, even more, helps me to see the abundance of God’s grace.  Grace that I don’t deserve at all.  But yet He pours out His grace on me anyway, because I am His child.  I have taken to reminding my family that we need to remember how much grace we have been given so that we will be willing to give grace to others as well.  I need to plaster that to the back of my hand so that I can see it often and really remember that fact.  Yes, we need to be discerning and wise about who we choose to be our friends and associates.  But we don’t need to be critical about people just because they don’t “measure up” to our own ideas of what should be.  We need to prayerfully get to know people and love them no matter what is happening, because all people are made in the image of God and therefore valuable.