Don't be a pharisee...

You're probably thinking "I'm not a pharisee... what are you talking about??!!"... and I guess there's a high probability that you're right, you're probably not a pharisee. But here's where you are like a pharisee, when you look at Christ through the eyes of the law...

It's so easy for us to fall into this trap, we often don't even realise it.  Check this story out:

“On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit of eighteen years.  She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.  When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from you infirmity.”  Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised GOD.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people.  “There are six days for work.  So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites!  Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?  Then should not his woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

[Luke 13:10-17]

I don’t know about you, but I think that if anyone were to believe in Christ, a miracle would do it?  Here we read of the temple leaders, face to face with a beautiful, life changing act of GOD, and they don’t believe!  Why don’t they believe?

It’s important for us to take a look at this because there are times, whether intentional or not, that we find ourselves in the same camp of as these people that Jesus called hypocrites!  Scary, maybe, but true.  We try hard not to, but there are some traps that these non-believer fell into that I know, for myself and I’m sure for you, I’ve found myself in.

I think, initially, the biggest issue facing these temple leaders was this:   They looked at Christ through the eyes of the law/religion.  Join me over the next few articles as we journey through the eyes of a non-believer...