Ironically, many a Christian has taken the parable of the judgmental Pharisee as a reason to judge the judgmental Pharisee.
Also, to some who were relying on their own righteousness and looking down on everyone else, he told this parable: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Parush and the other a tax-collector. The Parush stood and prayed to himself,
“O God! I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity”
greedy, dishonest, immoral, or like this tax-collector! I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on my entire income, . . . ’
But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes toward heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God! Have mercy on me, sinner that I am!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home right with God rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14 (CJB)
The question then becomes how many Christians have taken the scripture above and said in their hearts
“O God! I thank you that I am not like this judgmental Pharisee”-
A hypocrite and self-righteous Thank God I’m saved and born again!
It’s a dangerous thing to judge others while we think so highly of ourselves. We only set ourselves up to stand before God condemned by our own judgements.
Weren’t we all still sinners when the Spirit of God began to soften and condition our own hearts and cause the seeds of faith to grow in us? Why do we look at other sinners and think they don’t have that same right to the wooing of the Spirit to bring their hearts to repentance in His timing?
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:1-2
