11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Luke 18:11-12, The Bible
Poem: The Pharisee
The Pharisee is not like other men; Not like extortioners who give God stress; He fasts and prays and tithes more than the rest; He doesn't have to ask 'cause he knows best.
I watched a YouTube video today that made me think of the real nature of the Pharisees in the Bible and how I'm sort of similar.
As highlighted in the above scripture, the Pharisee separates himself by thinking of himself to be better than other men, which brings me to my first observation:
The Pharisee tends to measure himself against the standards of other men as opposed to the standard of God:
- Churchgoers compare themselves to non-churchgoer.
- The chaste compare themselves to the sexually immoral.
- The sober compares himself to the drug addict.
- The React JS user compares himself to the user of Angular/Vue user.
This sort of thinking makes us self-righteous, because we believe we just need to be better than other people. But that is not the standard God wants for us:
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
Deuteronomy 18:13, The Bible
Or in the words of Jesus:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 5:48, The Bible
If we were looking at God's standard, we wouldn't be so judgmental of others; we would more judgmental of ourselves and more focused on what God's word says about anything we deal with.
Therefore:
- The churchgoer should ask, should I go to church and how many times does God want me to go to church?
- The chaste should ask, should I be chaste and how many people does God want me to sleep with?
- The sober should ask, should I be sober and how long does God want me to be sober for?
- The React JS user should ask himself, should I be a React user (No 😑) and what does the web standards require of me?
However, even knowing God's standard doesn't fully help. We are incapable of keeping God's word:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23, The Bible
The solution? Jesus Christ!
He fulfilled the law so that we don't have to. If you believe in Him today, he will save you from the repercussion of sin, which is death:
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23, The Bible
Bottom line
We should be more self-aware than self-righteous. Self-righteousness leads to holier-than-thou behavior and thinking of our fellow humans as less.
If we meditate on God's standard, we would be more aware of our flaws and we could use that to become better people and to work on the parts of ourselves that fall short. It also makes us aware of our need for grace from God and man.