Jesus condemned the Pharisees time and again throughout his ministry (see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and/or John for examples). He warns his disciples against the "yeast of the Pharisees" in Mark 8, they accuse Him of disobeying Old Testament commands in Matthew 12, and they question and arrest Him in each of the Gospels.
Nowadays, however, we don't have a singular unit known as the Pharisees to watch out for, but that doesn't mean there aren't still people who act like them. For example, the Pharisees were all about appearing as godly as they could, so they would write Bible passages down and carry them around everywhere, and they prided themselves on their knowledge of God's Word. However, living out those passages was another story. They became so obsessed with getting everything "just right" that they completely missed out on the meanings of the Bible's commands. In Mark 7, Jesus actually calls them out on this, by saying, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!" Woah, if that's not a red flag, I don't know what is. He also lists out several ways the Pharisees are at fault in Matthew 23, from only appearing godly on the outside to making up rules about sacrifices to killing people who actually follow God's commands.
But... what does this look like today?
There's a lot of Christians, or at least people who claim to be Christian, who put in place a lot of rules or traditions that aren't in the Bible. This becomes a problem when those rules and traditions become more important than following what the Bible actually says. For example, the Bible commands people not to have sex with people of the same gender (because God designed it for one man and one woman), but some Christians will take that specific passage and shove it in the faces of those who are homosexual. We're called not to live out homosexuality, but we're also called to treat others with kindness and love and to confront Christians who are living in sin lovingly (not by throwing out-of-context Scripture in their faces). Some other signs that someone might be a Pharisee could be...
-Gossiping about others and justifying it by claiming that it's so you can all pray for them.
-Prioritizing things and traditions (like how communion must be done precisely a certain way, that one Bible has to be placed in that one spot at all times, only singing hymns or only using these instruments, the sanctuary must be set up exactly this way at all times, etc.) over actually serving, loving, helping, living in community together, welcoming new people to the family of believers, and other truly godly behavior.
-Using Scripture out-of-context to make others (Christian or not) feel guilty about their sinful behavior.
-Making rules about what you can or can't do as a Christian (specifically those rules that don't make sense like how if you play card games, or dance, or don't go to church on this day of the week then you're not a Christian...).
-Pushing people away from Christ, which can happen through either shoving religion down people's throats or by being such a bad example of Christ that others don't want to be Christians.
-Discriminating against certain people, any group of certain people (you know, those Christians who are racist, homophobic, hateful towards that one denomination, etc. that discriminate so much towards certain people that they refuse show love to them).
And I'm sure the list goes on, these are just some examples I've either witnessed or heard about. Compared to what the Bible says, these attitudes, behaviors, and actions are not godly or Christ-like. Jesus showed love to everyone, even those that everybody else shunned (like the woman at the well). He said it's more important to show love to others than to focus on following a bunch of traditions, and that the greatest commands are to love God and love people (see Matt. 22). As Christians, it's important for us to confront these attitudes in fellow believers, and to watch our own behaviors to make sure we're not living like the Pharisees. We should absolutely prioritize living like Jesus and showing love to everybody over following a bunch of traditions. Now, there's nothing wrong with traditions, and in fact some of them are rather important, as long as we treat them as secondary towards loving God and people. The Pharisees would follow the traditions and neglect showing love and justice, to which Jesus says in Luke 11, "You should have practiced the latter, without leaving the former undone."
So let's do that. Let's show God's love first and foremost, and then also follow the commands that the Bible gives us like giving faithfully, praying, learning Scripture, and doing what honors God instead of what the world says is best. Don't be a Pharisee, be a loving example of Christ.
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