Positive Attitude for Life: Pharisaism

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven – Mt 5:20.

Pharisaism is the attitude of self-righteousness. It is a projection of self as better than others. It is an attitude which says, “I am always right and others are wrong”; “I am good and others are not as good as I am”.

Pharisaism displays a questioning attitude. The attitude of questioning is good provided it is meant to clarify doubts and to grow in knowledge and wisdom. The pharisaic questions aim at finding fault with others or to expose ignorance and littleness. But they fail to realize that people tend to find fault with others mainly due to their own insecurity, low self-image, prejudice and jealousy.

The pharisees speaks of love, but will not be charitable; they stress the means rather than the end. They speak of faith but demonstrates lack of faith. They project doctrines but are yet unconvinced.

Jesus often opposed and rebuked the pharisees. They observed the rules and regulations to the minutest details. They found faults and multiply laws. In observing the externals, they forgot the most important commandment – love of God and neighbour.

Jesus teaches that we are created in love and to love. Fulness of life can be achieved only through a life of love. The pharisees failedthe ultimat test of love – love of God and neighbour. They served God only with their lips while their hearts were far from Him. They thought that they would be saved by merely observing the law. Hence, law became a substitute for God in their lives.

The pharisees made the life of others miserable and difficult. They critized others, but failed to realise that critical judgement should start with oneself, and it should be guided by love, forgiveness and understanding.

Culled from Devasia Puthiaparambil

are you a pharisee?

Follow on twitter @amoscp

Answer Like Jesus

Have you ever been in a situation where an outright answer to a question would land you or someone in trouble? Sometimes we are faced with a yes-no situation, a true-false scenario. Our wisdom in answering such questions and situations makes us stand taller than the questioner or scenario.

At the politics session of the leadership programme held at the Daystar center, Lagos, I had an encounter with a true politician: Jimi Agbaje. He was the guest speaker for the session. Jimi is a pharmacist and a Christian in the Nigerian political circles, a contestant in the governorship election in Lagos 2007.

Jimi emphasized the consequences of outright answers for those trying their reins in politics. But I would use this medium to advice everyone to be wise and political in answering tricky questions

Reading through the scriptures of Matthew from my Good News Bible, I fell in love in the way Jesus Christ answered the chief priests and elders of the temple in Matthew 21:23-27

Jesus came back to the Temple; and as he taught, the chief priests and the elders came to him and asked, “What right have you to do these things? Who gave you this right?” Jesus answered them, “I will ask you just one question, and if you give me an answer, I will tell you what right I have to do these things. Where did John’s right to baptize come from: was it from God or from human beings?”

They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we answer, ‘From God’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ we are afraid of what the people might do, because they are all convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.

The chief priests knew they were cornered. They had asked the question with a false mind. They sought for a fault but got eggs on their faces.

Jesus, being omnipotent, understood the questions of the Pharisees, Sadducees et al. He knew their motives and answered them superbly. Most times he used parables

• The Pharisee and Sadducees demanded for a miracle (Mt 16:1-4, Mk 8:11-13)
• The Pharisee accused Jesus of using the power of Beelzebub (Mt 11:22-32, Mk 3:20-30, Lk 11:14-23)
• The Pharisee and Herodians questioned about paying taxes (Mk 12:13-17, Mt 22:15-22)
• The Sadducees questioned about rising from death (Mk 12:18-27)
• A Lawyer asked who his neighbor is. (Lk 10:29)

A time came that they dared not ask Jesus any more questions (Mk 12:34, Lk 20:40), after he answered about the greatest commandment (Mk 12:28-34)

Even Jesus’ replies to the devil’s temptation in Matthew 4 were off-balancing for the devil. He didn’t say “I won’t bow”, “I won’t worship”, “I won’t jump”, “I won’t turn stone to bread”. He gave the devil sucker punches with scriptural answers.

How much of the scriptures do you know? The scripture is our weapon against temptation and trials. Learn to read and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and understanding. He would help.

follow on twitter @amoscp