The Worst Sin
Copyright 2004 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved
Judging by Christ’s attitude towards the Pharisees religious hypocrisy is perhaps the worst kind of sin. Jesus kept company with drunkards, tax collectors and prostitutes and they felt at ease around Him. It was because He did not come across as being condemnatory. This distinguished the Son of Man from other people who claimed to know God and who held nothing but contempt for those living an obviously sinful life. Matthew, Mary Magdalene, the woman caught in adultery, et al had never known anything but hatred from those who officially represented the God of Israel.
Self-righteousness under the guise of true religion was and is a hateful thing to the Lord. This is because His very character comes into disrepute among men when those who sin this way identify themselves with Him. Jesus accused the Pharisees of traveling across land and sea to make converts who were "twice the sons of Hell" as they already were. He was disgusted that the loving will of His Father was being directly contravened by the very people who claimed to be His mouthpiece to the world. This is why He reserved the harshest criticism for the scribes and teachers, the leaders of the religious establishment in Jerusalem. They were arrogantly turning the lost away from the very God who would save them and they were doing it in His name!
The sad truth is that this is still happening today in many buildings with crosses on their walls and a name ending in "church". The Pharisees of old have not gone away. They are among us still and proudly bear the name "Christian". In fact, the sad truth of the matter is that they often are us.
Most Christians originally came to God because they had a strong sense of personal sin and shame. Often this awareness only manifested itself when their lives were on the verge of destruction or self-destruction. True converts generally start out with a humility borne of desperation. They come to know Christ because, at some moment, all of their pride has been drained out of them by some great affliction. We all begin naked, in a sense, before God.
Unfortunately the lowliness of the new convert often does not remain as they continue in the Christian life. Repentance is an ongoing thing because even the children of God fall to temptation in any numbers of areas. One area that we are particularly prone to descend into is self-righteousness and the judgmental spirit that accompanies it. When this happens we begin to live the life of a Pharisee with a cross around our neck. We become contemptuous of other believers who we decide are not "walking the talk" as well as we think we are. We begin to hate our brothers and sisters rather than love them in the spirit of humility our Father expects us to have. We judge others and then, directly or indirectly, we begin to harm them.
If a non-believer shows up at churches where self-righteousness has taken hold, either among leaders, laity or both, they feel the same arrogant spirit that motivated the Pharisees two millennia ago. They feel none of the unconditional acceptance of Christ among the people who bear His name. Sometimes they leave in disgust or hopelessness. Other times they fall for the lie of legalism and try to become like the "righteous saints" they meet. These are the ones in danger of becoming twice the sons of Hell as those they model themselves after.
It is only the grace and mercy of God that can reverse the damage caused by self-righteousness in churches and individuals, and this only when it is confronted in spirit and in truth. Those who do the confronting must be careful themselves because most, if not all, of us have been guilty of spiritual pride at one time or another. We are all capable of falling into the sin that Jesus Christ most criticized. But false humility can be a trap too, allowing us to excuse ourselves from confronting this cancer in the Body of Christ.
It is a difficult thing to combat a self-serving legalistic spirit, but combat it we must if we want to avoid disgracing the name of our Lord and destroying the very souls He came to save.