Five Signs You Might Be A Pharisee

I used to love that old Jeff Foxworthy bit - You might be a redneck if...

If you have any church background whatsoever, you know what it means to be called a Pharisee.  The Pharisees were a group of religious leaders that flourished during Jesus’ time.  They were known for their knowledge and adherence to the law, which is a good thing.  But they were also known for their self-righteousness and hypocrisy, which is a really bad thing.  They put man-made rules on a level equal or greater to God’s own commandments.  Their hypocrisy was so bad, in fact, that Jesus – who said he came to save the world not to condemn it – spoke a good deal about the condemnation of the unrepentant Pharisees.

While we don’t have a religious group called The Pharisees in the church today, we unfortunately still have the spirit of the Pharisee alive and well.   Sadly, all of us tend to be somewhat Pharisaical at times.  That is just human nature.  Some, however, have become full blown Pharisees deep in their heart.  They have become the modern equivalent of everything that the Pharisees of Jesus’ day represented.  The following are five signs that you might be a Pharisee – how many hit home for you?

So in the spirit of the old Jeff Foxworthy routine... You might be a Pharisee if:

1.       You tend to defend ritual over relationship.

There is nothing at all wrong with religious ritual, so long as the heart is in the right place.  Some people find great beauty and worship in the elegance of high church orthodoxy.  Others find worship to be more genuine in a less structured environment.  However, anything can become a ritual (even the lack of “ritual”) and any ritual can become more important than it was ever intended.  For Jesus followers, religious rites should be about connecting with Jesus Christ, God the Father, and even the Holy Spirit on a personal level.  These rituals help us establish, maintain, and grow our relationship with God.  However, when the ritual itself becomes more important than maintaining and growing our relationship with God, then we venture into legalism.  When we go even further and start defending that ritual as somehow having intrinsic merit, we behave more like the Pharisees.  To the Pharisee, nothing is more important than their own, favorite ritual.  Statements such as “We’ve always done it that way” and “We can’t stop doing that” are key indicators that this might be a problem.  

If you tend defend ritual over relationship, you might be a Pharisee.

2.       You generally believe you are doing OK.

Pharisees are by nature self-righteous – in others words, they are very proud of how “good” they have become.  Therefore, they believe they are doing well.  Pharisees not only always know the “Sunday School” answer, they are the shining example of the Sunday School answer and don’t mind telling you about it.  An honest assessment of one’s own righteousness comes in recognizing that the true standard of righteousness is a God who is Holy, Holy, Holy.  When we faithfully examine our own lives in light of His holiness, then we know that no matter how well we might think we are doing, we are still far from where we ought to be. We might be better than we were a few years ago, but we will never measure up to God’s standard of righteous. We never stop striving to obtain holiness, but we acknowledge we will never achieve it.  The only true righteousness we have is that which has been granted to us through the blood of Jesus – and that is His righteousness, not our own.  A Pharisee is proud of the progress they have made and enjoy basking in the glory of it.  

If you think you are doing OK, you might be a Pharisee.

3.       You always compare yourself to others.

Since evaluating ourselves against God’s standard will always result in knowing that we have fallen short, the only way for the Pharisee to justify his/her self-righteousness is to compare themselves against others.  Pharisees will do this in one of two ways.  The first is to openly judge or at the very least point out (a.k.a. gossip) the flaws in others – not for the purpose of calling the other to repentance, but for the purpose of self-justification.  A pastor/teacher may speak of certain sins and call for repentance because he knows those sins are present in his flock, but will not generally call out individuals.  A Pharisee will often be very specific and direct.  The second way is less direct, but equally judgmental.  The Pharisee may not outwardly gossip or condemn the other person, but does so inwardly, dwelling on the others’ shortcomings and ultimately having a condescending attitude towards them.  Either way, the purpose of the comparison and condemnation is to ensure himself/herself that they are doing better than everyone else.  By the way, when a true Pharisee meets a true genuine and mature follower of Christ, the Pharisee tends to really dislike that person.  They cannot successfully compare themselves to a truly mature believer so they can’t feed their own desire for self-justification.  As such, they will tell themselves that the person is fake or non-genuine.  They will watch the mature believer closely so that they can pounce on them at the slightest sign of weakness or failure. In the extreme, they will simply avoid the mature believer altogether so as not to be reminded that they are not quite as good as they claim.  

If you tend to compare yourself to others, you might be a Pharisee.

4.       You are reluctant to admit your own weaknesses.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  To be poor in spirit is to recognize one’s own weaknesses and therefore put your trust wholly in God.  When we openly acknowledge our weaknesses, we can turn those weaknesses over to God to allow his strength and the power of the Holy Spirit to control us and overcome those weaknesses.  Paul said “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). The self-righteous Pharisee cannot afford to admit any weaknesses.  To admit weakness would be to deny one’s own righteousness.  The Pharisee, therefore, will have difficulty being discipled and will never really grow spiritually, because they will never personally identify with the point of the discipleship lesson, Bible study theme, or sermon objective.  They will say things like “That’s not me” or “I don’t do that” or “I don’t have any major struggles.”  Pharisees love everyone, forgive everyone, and judge no one.  They never worry and they fully trust God all the time.  At least, that is what they will tell you.  

If you are reluctant to admit your own weaknesses, you might be a Pharisee.

5.       You are resistant to repentance.

Martin Luther once said something to the effect that the entirety of the Christian walk is one of repentance.  He said this because he understood that the more we learn about God, the more we see our own sinfulness.  The very first word of the very first sermon Jesus ever preached was “repent.”  None of us will ever be sinless until we receive our glorified bodies.  We may sin less as we grow, but we will never be sinless.  As a result, every step of spiritual growth we take requires repentance.  The most righteous man to live (other than Jesus himself), was Job.  At the end of his trials, he repented.  Had he done anything wrong, per se?  Not really.  But he saw God new and afresh and God’s holiness was so great that had no recourse but repent of his own sinfulness.   A Pharisee cannot repent because that would deny his own self-righteousness.  This was one of Jesus’ greatest criticisms of the Pharisees.  You will never see a Pharisee at the altar praying after the sermon on Sunday morning.  What would other people think?  You will never see a Pharisee on their face before God at all.  It would be too undignified and would be an admission of failure.  A true believer is regularly humbled – even crying – before God because of his own sinfulness.  Not because he cannot accept forgiveness, but precisely because he has accepted forgiveness.  The fact that Jesus has forgiven us and because of what he did to make that forgiveness possible should drive us to abhor anything sinful within us.  The Pharisee will subsequently bury that sinfulness and deny its existence.  The true believer will cry out in anguish and repentance, desiring it to be removed – not just forgiven, removed from his life completely.  

If you are resistant to repentance, you might be a Pharisee.

So how did you do?

The irony of this post is that I seriously doubt anyone will read it and suddenly say “Oh my, I had no idea I was a Pharisee!”  In fact, the real Pharisee will read this post and say “Not Me!”  That is just the nature of the Pharisee – he can’t see the log in his own eye.  So maybe there really is a sixth sign that you may be a Pharisee – “You deny that you have difficulty with any of the other five signs.” He may also turn this post back around and say the post itself is Pharisaical.  Again, that is his nature – to shift blame, which itself is a form of comparison.

The goal of this post is not to get a full-blown Pharisee to admit their condition– only the Holy Spirit can open their eyes to that.  Rather, the intent is to help the rest of us protect against becoming Pharisaical themselves.  As I mentioned above, we all have a tendency to be somewhat Pharisaical at times.  Seeing it, acknowledging it, and repenting of it is what keeps us growing spiritually.