“2. You spend more time talking about what you are against, not what you are for.

Pharisees love to argue. They love to spend their time convincing others that they are wrong. If they had to list the actions and issues they are against, the pencil would run out of lead. But turn around and ask them to list what they are for, and the pencil would not even have to be resharpened.

Pharisees believe their job is to defend God and legislate morality. So they are against drinking, smoking, cursing, short skirts, talking back to parents, holding hands before marriage and so on. And all of these things come before the gospel. Or maybe they are the gospel. Modern-day Pharisees can’t tell the difference. 5. You make every issue black and white.

The Bible is gray on many issues. But modern-day Pharisees don’t deal in the world of gray. They must have everything in black and white. In or out. Yes or no. Up or down.

If an issue is gray, modern-day Pharisees have to do some work at the heart level. But Pharisees don’t work at the heart level. They don’t consider motives.

Here is another thing about gray: It does not allow modern-day Pharisees to keep score. Black and white issues, however, allow them to keep a tally of their righteousness. “I have never drank or smoke or gambled or cheated on my wife,” they say. “Who cares if my heart is full of lust, anger and envy?”

Making a gray issue black and white means modern-day Pharisees don’t have to deal with the motives underneath their actions.”

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