Sometimes we emulate the Pharisees more than we imitate Christ.
Yet the order of the acts is planned And the end of the way inescapable. I am alone; all drowns in the Pharisees' hypocrisy.
To avoid the trap of the Pharisees, we've got to guard the interconnection between our thoughts and our attitudes.
Whenever faith seems an entitlement, or a measuring rod, we cast our lots with the Pharisees and grace softly slips away.
A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.
A Pharisee is someone who is virtuous out of obedience to the Great Beast.
If God cared only about religious activities, then the Pharisees would have been heroes of the faith.
Self-righteousness is unavoidable. You can either be a self-righteous Pharisee where you think you are better than everyone else or you can be a self-righteous pagan who thinks you are better than the Pharisee. If you are a self-righteous person, I could become very self-righteous thinking that you're self-righteous and you think you're so good but I know you're bad. I know I'm bad so that makes me better than you.
I'm a committed Christian. I worship in my own way. That's my business. That's not the business of the pharisees who are going to preach to me about what I do and then do something else.
Joseph is the wearisomest and self-righteous Pharisee who ever ransacked the Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses on his neighbor.