A Religious Spirit (Part I)

Jesus had much compassion for the poor and the needy, and He was always available to heal the sick and cast demons out of people. However, He had a different attitude towards the religious crowd. They had a form of spirituality but had no desire to be right with God. Over time the Pharisees had placed themselves on the throne that only belonged to God. Their opinion of people’s spirituality took precedence over God’s view of their spirituality.

A religious spirit tries to sneak into the hearts and minds of God’s people, and we can all fall into it. Walking with God for years, can cause us to lose sensitivity to those who struggle with sin. We can quickly prescribe a method for being delivered rather than pointing them to the Man who can restore and deliver them. 

When we are needy, it easier to be humble before the Lord and have greater compassion for those who are suffering. However, as soon as the intensity of our problems subsides, pride rises up! We begin thinking of all of our successes with God and secretly look down upon those who are struggling. We can have solutions for people’s problems and claim that we are motivated by our leadership role and maturity to help others. We think that the world and the people around us cannot function apart from our wisdom, so we share it liberally whether it is solicited or not.

And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.  Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Luke 11:37-42

Jesus was invited to a Pharisee’s house, but He was not shy about talking to the man about his true condition. The Pharisee was concerned about the fact that Jesus did not wash before sitting down to dinner, but Jesus cared more about the cleanliness of the Pharisee’s heart.

In our American way of life, many of us have the resources to look perfect on the outside and appear as if we have all together, but this could be the furthest from the truth. Sometimes, we act so well, that we believe our own report and try to neglect the fact that our heart condition isn’t right. Issues such as selfishness, envy, competition, bitterness, deceit, and hurt still need to deal with.

The problem is that if we are used to people looking up to us, we have a hard time showing vulnerability because we fear people will think less of us. If we want to remain authentic and genuine before God, we have to be more concerned our internal condition before our Savior than how we appear before people. 

Jesus knew everything, and He was not impressed with most of the Pharisees. Have you noticed he never commended them for what they did, but He always focused on their motives and their heart condition? What if many people are impressed with us? Does this mean that God is pleased with us? Do we know how God feels about our internal world?