PHARISAISM IN THE CHURCH Of CHRIST
DAVID R. REAGAN

Two thousand years ago when Jesus the Messiah walked upon this earth there existed in the Land of Palestine, amidst the nation of Israel, a peculiar group of religious zealots. The men who composed this group were Jews who had dedicated their lives to the study, exposition and practice of the Law of Moses; and being convinced of their superior righteousness, they had come to set themselves apart into a sect known as the Pharisees, or the “separated ones.” Now this was not at all unusual. Many such sects were scattered throughout the land. Some, such as the Essenes, lived in isolated enclaves while others, the Sadducees for instance, were fairly widespread. But of all these groups, the Pharisees seemed to have enjoyed a particularly impressive prestige and influence among the Jewish masses.

The reason for this position of preeminence is now obscure. However, an educated guess can be made based upon the references to the Pharisees contained in both the New Testament and the writings of contemporary historians. It seems that a combination of factors was responsible for the exalted position which the Pharisees enjoyed. For one thing, they had derived some doctrines from the Old Law which appealed to the spiritual hopes of the masses. Of particular importance here were their concepts of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead. The apostle Paul, who was a Pharisee before his conversion to Christianity, implies in the Philippian Letter that the Pharisees were the strictest of the Jewish sects, and thus they were probably admired in the same way as we admire those today who set high personal standards of morality for them selves. In like manner, the common Jew was no doubt impressed by their zealousness, a trait which was manifested in their proselyting spirit and in their willingness to stand in behalf of their beliefs. But perhaps most important of all was the way in which these men seemed to incorporate the Law into their own lives. In other words, they appeared to practice what they preached, and they were accordingly praised.

Yet, in the eyes of God the religious fervor of the Pharisees was far outweighed by their overwhelming shortcomings. Their sins are well known to anyone who has read the New Testament. Thousands of sermons, beginning with the Lord Himself, have been preached concerning the spiritual shallowness of the Pharisees—their ostentatiousness, their conceit, and especially their hypocrisy. For these men were intent upon religion not for the purpose of pleasing God but to gain the praise of the world, which they received and which Christ promised would be their only reward.

But the all too familiar Pharisaical sins that have been condemned through the ages were really nothing more than manifestations of a much more basic spiritual error, an error that we of the Church of Christ have too long overlooked. I am referring to the Pharisaical attitude of Legalism. What do I mean? I mean the tendency of the Pharisees to approach the scriptures with a hair-splitting, nit-picking attitude attuned to the purpose of gleaning points for polemical debate over the infinite details concerning the externals of the Law while ignoring what must be the true vitality of any religion—its spirit. For you see, religion to the Pharisees was external; it was a religion of superficialities. The condition of the heart was ignored. Motivations and attitudes were of no significance. The joy of religion lay in the intellectual stimulus generated by debate over the infinite nuances, implications, and inferences of the scriptures. Accordingly, contemporary historians asserted that the Pharisees often based their religious practices upon the turn of a sentence or the placement of a single comma.

The New Testament abounds with examples of Pharisaical legalism. Time and time again the Pharisees challenged the Lord concerning His activities on the Sabbath. The humaneness of His acts did not concern them. Instead, it was always the letter of the Law which reigned supreme in their warped perspective. Or again, consider the way in which the Pharisees constantly attempted to embroil Jesus in controversies over the fine points of the Law. Their questions were incessant and devious. They were also masterpieces of legalistic construction, each being designed to put the Lord on the horns of a dilemma. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? What is the greatest commandment? May divorce be for any cause? On and on the questions were posed in a never ending stream of utter contempt and deceit. At times the Lord toyed at them with counter questions which left the Pharisees baffled. Occasionally He met them head-on with a challenge that left his audience reeling as in the case of the woman caught in adultery. But on at least one occasion, He vented His fury and pronounced upon the Pharisees an absolutely unparalleled rebuke (Matthew 23). Calling them hypocrites and “play actors,” He denounced and ridiculed their legalism: (Phillips translation)

Alas for you, you blind leaders! You say ‘If anyone swears by the Temple it amounts to nothing, but if he swears by the gold of the Temple he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools, which is more important, the gold or the Temple which sanctifies the gold? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar it doesn’t matter, but if he swears by the gift placed on the altar he is bound by his oath.’ Have you no eyes—which is more important, the gift or the altar which sanctifies the gift? Any man who swears by the altar is swearing by the altar and whatever is offered upon it; and anyone who swears by the temple is swearing by the temple and by him who dwells in it; and anyone who swears by Heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the one who sits upon that throne.

Nor did the Lord stop here. Condemning the Pharisees further as “serpents” and “miserable frauds,” Jesus compared them to whitewashed tombs “which look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all kinds of rottenness.” “How,” He asked, “do you think you are going to avoid being condemned to the rubbish heap?” Again, striking directly at their legalism, He pointed out that although they were diligent in paying their tithes, they had neglected “the things which carry far more weight in the Law-justice, mercy, and good faith.” In short, the Pharisees had killed the life of the Law by suffocating its spirit.

And, in like manner, we of the Church of Christ have killed the spirit of New Testament Christianity! Yes, the sin of Pharisaism is upon our hearts. Consequently, the rebuke of Jesus should leave us faint and trembling, for we have been obsessed for over a century with a legalistic restoration of New Testament Christianity, that is, we have been engulfed in a narrow concern for the restoration of outward forms and external appearances. We have devoted our energies to superficialities, and in doing so, we have been more guilty of Pharisaism than were the original Pharisees themselves. At least they were dealing with a legalistic document literally brimming with hundreds of specific rules concerning the conduct of worship and daily life. We, on the other hand, have only four gospels, a vague book of history, and some epistles—all of which are pre-eminently concerned with grace and love. We have endlessly stressed the passing of the Old Law, but what we have failed to realize is that it was not simply replaced with a New Law. Instead, there was a qualitative change in which a radically new theology emerged-a theology whose vitality is found in its spirit rather than its letter. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

The evidence of legalism within the Church of Christ is abundant. All one needs to do is flip through the brotherhood journals and survey such irrelevant trivia as the scripruraliry of stained glass windows, crosses on the communion trays, and pitch pipes for song leaders. How many times has our brotherhood been shaken to its roots by profound dialogues on the nature of Jesus, grace, or love? Instead we have expended our energies upon such “substantive” issues as orphan’s homes, Christian colleges, missionary societies, instrumental music, pre-millenialism, and versions of the Bible. I recently heard of one congregation in Texas that almost split over a sewing machine! It seems that some of the ladies had been mending clothes for the needy on Thursday afternoons. One lady decided to contribute an old sewing machine to the church so that this work might be done more efficiently. The machine was placed in one of the Sunday School rooms, and immediately one of the brethren branded the action as unscriptural—he couldn’t find a sewing machine in the New Testament. If that story sounds utterly ridiculous, I might remind you that it was only a very few years ago when the scripruraliry of kitchens in the church building was the hottest item of debate in our brotherhood.

Nor is all this childish clamor anything new. Historians claim that the church was split in the second century -only about 150 years after our Lord’s death-over the issue of naked baptism. In other words, some brethren began to argue that baptism was valid only if the candidate was completely naked when immersed. A similar, but apocryphal story has been making the rounds lately. It seems that a small rural congregation decided to build a modern new building. Immediately the congregation split into factions. One group wanted a baptistry while the other wanted to continue baptizing in a stream which they had been using for years. Characteristically, the latter group argued that their position was the only “scriptural” one since it was “obvious” that all baptisms in the New Testament had taken place in running water. The unity of the group was finally saved by a wise gentleman who came up with the perfect compromise: the baptistry was built, but every time someone was baptized, they turned on the water and pulled the plug.

Humorous? Yes, but in a sickening sort of way, for this silly story is characteristic of a neanderthal attitude which dominates our brotherhood.

What has happened is that we have elevated our opinions to sacred dogma. We have taken mere preferences and have applied to them tortuous interpretations of scripture in an attempt to prove that there is only one way to do something-our way. In short, we have been playing God.

We have appended our opinions and preferences to the “plan of salvation” and have thus demanded that prospective converts hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized and accept the Herald of Truth, Sunday Schools, Bible Colleges, and located ministers while rejecting musical instruments, inter-denominational fellowship, missionary societies, and the operation of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. To put it bluntly, we have been converting people to a creed instead of Christ. What makes all this so absolutely astounding is that we have simultaneously proclaimed with unmitigated pride that we have no creed book but the Bible! Furthermore, we have done all this in the name of New Testament Christianity despite the fact that the New Testament admonishes us “to avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law for they are unprofitable and futile.” (Titus 3:9, RSV)

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that the external form of religion is irrelevant. Form is important, for at some point baptism ceases to be baptism, communion ceases to be communion, and the worship ceases to be worship. But, the New Testament is not crystal clear as to the exact form of all the infinite details of church structure and worship procedure. There is no strait-jacket, detailed pattern such as the one found in the Old Testament where the construction of the Temple and the procedure for sacrifice are spelled out in agonizing detail—even to the number of buttons on Aaron’s robe. Yes, there is a general pattern in the New Testament, but it establishes only three basic points:1) the essentiality of a faith in Jesus which leads one to an act of obedience, namely baptism, 2) the essentiality of worshipping God, and 3) the essentiality of a life of love. We need to face up to this fundamental reality and stop drawing lines of fellowship where none should exist.

As I see it, the challenge to the Church of Christ today is the same as always—the restoration of New Testament Christianity. But the time is long overdue for a concentration upon more than just the restoration of external forms. Instead, we must begin to focus upon the far more challenging and important task of restoring the spirit of New Testament Christianity ... the essence of which is caring for our fellow man. “To love someone more dearly everyday” is what Christianity is all about, and until we come to this realization, we are going to continue to flail around in the darkness intent on nothing more than the construction and defense of a “whitened sepulcher filled with dead men’s bones.”

We need to realize too that this spirit which we must restore is much more than a simple periphery participation in impersonal expressions of love—such as contributions to the United Fund, the Red Cross, or even the Church. An institution cannot love for us. The love of Jesus requires a personal involvement, a personal commitment, a personal stand. It is the quality of caring as an individual for other individuals.

Thus, when Jesus was asked to identify the greatest commandment, He responded that we were to love God, but then He added without hesitation that the second was like unto the first: “To love our neighbor as ourself.” Here we have two key concepts love and neighbor—and the Lord did not leave the definition of either to the imagination.

He defined the concept of neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Powerfully, this simple story teaches the universality of neighborhood. There is no escaping the point that our neighbor is not simply the man who lives next door or who thinks, acts, talks, and looks like us. No, our neighbor is every human being with whom we come in contact.

Likewise, the Lord defined the concept of love in a moving description of the Day of Judgment (Matthew 25) . Pointing out that the sheep would be divided from the goats, He asserted that the saved would be those who had fed Him when hungry, welcomed Him when lonely, clothed Him when naked, and visited Him when in prison. And the righteous will then ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or lonely or naked or in prison?” And the Lord will reply, “I assure you that whatever you did for the humblest of my brothers you did for me.”

Why? Because each and every human being on the face of this earth is endowed with an eternal spirit breathed into him by his creator, Almighty God. Inevitably, therefore, when we are petty to each other we are petty to God’s creation-to those whom God loves. Or again, when we fail to care for our neighbors, we fail to care for those whom our blessed Lord loved enough to give His life. There is no way around it. The truth that we all must face is that we cannot love Jesus if we cannot love and serve our fellow man.

And thus, I ask, how long has it been since we cared for anyone other than our own sweet selves? How long?

We drive hours daily through the worst of slums with eyes riveted to the road ahead, completely oblivious to the world around us. And when we get home to the newspaper, we rush quickly—ever so quickly—past the glaring headlines proclaiming man’s inhumanity to man and settle instead upon the illusory world of spans, Dear Abby, and Little Orphan Annie.

We spend billions of dollars on a limitless variety of “necessities” ranging from electric toothbrushes to remote controlled color television sets while millions go to bed hungry every night—many of them in our own country.

How long has it been since we cared?

How long since we complimented friend on a job well done? Since we shed a tear of compassion for a neighbor? Since we lent a hand to a stranger in need? In short, how long has it been since we performed one act of human kindness for the pure joy of doing it rather than for praise or for the unmitigated pleasure of charging it off on our income tax?

Yes, the time is long overdue for the restoration of the spirit to New Testament Christianity. As the apostle Paul put it in his simple but powerful way: (Galatians 3:1-4, Phillips)

Oh you dear idiots of Galatia, who saw Jesus Christ the crucified so plainly, who has been casting a spell over you? I shall ask you one simple question: Did you receive the Spirit by trying to keep the Law or by believing the message of the gospel? Surely you can’t be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances? Has all your painful experience brought you nowhere? I simply cannot believe it of you! Does God, who gives you his Spirit and works miracles among you, do these things because you have obeyed the Law or because you have believed the gospel? Ask yourselves that. (Emphasis added)

“Ask yourselves that.” Here is a question that we cannot escape. Each and everyone of us must look into our souls as only we can, and we must ask whether or not the love of God which passes all understanding lives and breathes in our lives or whether, instead, the Pharisaical legalism of scriptural hair splitting over external forms has caused us to crucify the Son of God afresh.

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David Reagan (Ph.D., fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Harvard) is Assistant Professor of Government at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. Presently he is serving as Fulbright Lecturer at the University of the Philippines in Manila. Write him at the American Embassy, U. S. Educational Foundation, Manila. His background is Church of Christ non-instrument. This is the first of several articles we hope to publish from this astute thinker.