Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Heart of a Pharisee

My Bible reading highlight today was John 9.34. It is the Pharisees' response to the man who was born blind and healed by Christ. They make a tacit admission that the man was healed by Christ without even realizing it! In addition, in the Greek they emphasize the second person singular: "YOU were born in utter sin, and would YOU teach us?"

We need to be very careful that we do not have the heart of a Pharisee. The Bible Speaks Today makes this point in its commentary on this section:

The Pharisees are not an extinct breed. Whenever we find ourselves valuing the letter of God’s law above its spirit; whenever we find ourselves unable to rejoice in the saving and renewing of lives simply because the instrument used was not someone who dots all the i’s and crosses all the t’s of our theological group; whenever we lose the daily, hourly sense of joy in the grace of God by which alone we know him and live before him, then we need to beware.

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