Pharisee or Disciple

Pharisee or Disciple? 

So it's been a long while hasn't it? Recently I have been reading a book called Jesus > Religion by Jefferson Bethke. It focuses on how we try so many things in order to be closer to God, much like the Pharisees. The Pharisees followed a set of laws and were outwardly perfect. The problem was their insides. They were so self righteous that they believed that they were perfect. The Pharisees were broken inside. They were so focused on following the laws that they forgot about anything else. The Pharisees didn't have a relationship with God, they had religion. That was the whole point of Jesus coming,to establish a relationship, but the Pharisees hearts were hard and they refused to believe. They were so focused on upholding the law and appearing perfect that they forgot to focus on their relationship with God. The same goes for the modern church and I wonder if the true Jesus would even be accepted in our church. We are so concerned with others sin and appearing perfect that we forget about the relationship and focus on the religion. Just like the Pharisees we are quick to judge and focus on sin, but when we focus on sin we forget about the inside. When we see someone sinning are we more concerned with their sin or their relationship with Jesus. The inside has to heal before the outside. We are all so broken, but I think we tend to forget that. Everyone on this earth has a Jesus shaped hole in our hearts. The point to all of this is we are all trying to fill that hole, but a large percent of our church is trying to fill that hole by being self righteous and following all the rules. The problem is that isn't how you get closer to Jesus. If anything it brings you further away because we will never be able to follow all the rules. We will mess up, it is inevitable considering that Jesus is the only one who is perfect. In Matthew it 23:25-28 it talks about how the Pharisees are perfect on the outside, but rotten on the inside.

  25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! tFor you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and 3self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! uFor you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

 We cannot be dead on the inside, otherwise how are we to follow after God and seek Him. We have to stop focusing on being self righteous and making sure the outside looks perfect. By doing so we are dividing the church and causing other broken people to stay away from the church. Instead of focusing on laws and rules let's focus on loving God and loving one another. In the end if we love the Lord with all our hearts and love our neighbors then everything else will follow. Let's choose to be disciples. To focus on following Jesus instead of focusing on all of the rules. Don't get me wrong the rules are there for a reason and we are supposed to follow them. The important thing is not to let them become your only relationship with God. Don't concern yourself with only the outside. So it's your move. Pharisee or Disciple?