How a New Batch of Pharisees Comes to Be

I once had more CD’s than I have now.

My lack of CD’s isn’t simply because of the digital music revolution. It’s because shortly after I came to faith in Christ I had a tremendous bonfire. I felt a bit silly, to be honest. We were told to bring things that were keeping us from Christ and to put them in the fire. Most brought a couple small items—many symbolic. I hauled in 200 CD’s. While my peers were burning cd’s on Napster I was torching mine in a bonfire. Only Christian music for me…thank you.**

I was taught early on in our little SBC church that I needed to be careful about my witness. Listening to Pac wasn’t a good witness for others. I was beginning to work with teens at this point and as a minister of the gospel I needed to listen to different music. There were certain things which were tantamount to preserving Christian witness. Discussions on alcohol use among Christians was all the rage during this period. But it was a settled issue for many, and that because of preserving our witness.

During that first year of my walk with Jesus, one of the hardest things I did was burn that cd collection and slowly replace it with only Christian music. I thought then that this would be one of the most difficult things I would ever do. I knew there would be hard times ahead but I assumed that once this idol had toppled it’d be a bit easier to knock the others down.

I was wrong.

Basking in my cd burning victory over the forces of evil didn’t last long. I spent the first couple years cleaning up the outside of the cup. Then the Lord started working on those inward sins. We’re still there. Pride and Lust doesn’t burn as easily as an Eminem cd. I found that all I was really doing in burning those cd’s was clearing away outward dross. That wasn’t nearly as painful as the deep heart work the Lord would have to do in the years sense.

This is why I tweeted what I did last week:

When I became a Christian, I was taught very early in SBC churches to be very careful to preserve your witness. That meant don’t drink, don’t listen to ungodly music, etc. Today our witness is being harmed b/c we refuse to “act justly, love mercy, and humbly walk with God”.

I thank God for that early season of clearing away dross. I’m glad for the work Christ has done in helping me with a reputation for holiness and godliness. But if that’s only a gloss and it doesn’t flow from the heart, then it’s going to eventually be exposed. I believe that for far too long in our circles we’ve given attention to the outside of the cup and not the inward. We are being called into that deeper discipleship of acting justly, truly loving mercy, and humbly walking with God. Because we have neglected these weightier matters we are being publicly scourged. Our witness is harmed.

Some 2500 years ago another religious group had a similar season. The Israelites were outwardly an upstanding bunch. They didn’t smoke, drink, curse, or chew and they certainly didn’t go with girls who do. The religious leaders had an outward reputation of being all about holiness and such. But they lacked administering actual justice. They didn’t love mercy. They weren’t actually walking with God. And so a prophet by the name of Micah called them out on it.

And that, in a roundabout way, is how the Pharisees were born…

Let that sink in for a moment.

The religious leaders were excoriated for their hypocrisy and lack of loving justice and mercy. As they were exposed the whole thing blew up. Out of the ashes came a group of righteous young bucks. The first few generations likely experienced real repentance and a hungering and thirsting after God. Their new passion for justice and mercy turned them from disgrace to people of favor. And so they filled the vacuum of leadership left by those non-justice loving former leaders.

Over the years as they remained in power a subtle shift took place. They stopped actually caring about justice and mercy and walking with God. Now they just outwardly loved justice and mercy and walking with God. They did all the right things and said all the right things in order to remain in power, but they became just as much of hypocrites as their ancestors. They were wonderfully conservative in their biblical exposition but they had forfeited the inside-out nature of what it means to follow Yahweh.

And then a prophet named Jesus came along…

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**Full disclosure. That really was an important moment for me. It was helpful for me to make a clean break from all those cd’s which had become a bit too important for me.

Photo source: here