Dewey admitted to being a Pharisee. How does he describe that in himself? He writes in his blog titled Restored.
He “… loved playing church. Those members would read the minutes from the assembly meetings, they were faithful in their attendance at Bible studies and the weekly worship services, and they read many books. … I … played the game very well. … Playing church was the way to advancement.”
He also writes that “Pharisees may desire the recognition of applause, public acknowledgement, appreciation via social media, assured results, honor for their example, or most subtle of all, development of a reputation as holy, sacrificial, or exceptionally spiritual. That was me … a pompous Pharisee.“
Pharisees are self-made
Spurgeon says we are born legalists. Legalists turn themselves into Pharisees by feeding their pride. They are confident in their well-kept spiritual appearances and practices, and advance themselves through comparison with others. Their pride is exhibited in their prayer, “I thank Thee Lord that I am not as other men.” They gloss over their own sin, usually with a fresh coat of justification; knowing that doctrine forward and backward.
Pharisees are informed legalists. They add to their legalism knowledge, tradition, religiosity, and moral superiority. Pharisees educate themselves in perfecting minutia. They comb through sermons or synodical reports, seeking faulty verbal missteps of others, keeping track of who said what. According to Dewey, they also “read many books”.
Pharisees are not amazed by grace, because they’re worth it.
Dewey summed himself up well! Life, and church, is a game! It takes a lot of pride to think that life is just a script you write for yourself and then you merely play it out.
Informed legalist?
What turns a legalist into a Pharisee is the pride, greed, and fear underneath their works-based confidence. They develop ways of appearing to be extra godly. They define the ‘gold-standard‘, and exhibit extra zeal. But what they know about God and his word remains disconnected from how they feel about God. They boast of knowing their justification, but do not experience sanctification on a personal level. They are hypocrites. ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’, Mark 7:6.
Yet, it is not knowledge itself that makes a person into a Pharisee. Being well learned will not make one a Pharisee. Rather, it is heartless, graceless knowledge driving one’s pride that makes a Pharisee. What a person learns has no power to make him proud. It is what his pride does with what he learns that makes him a Pharisee. It is the “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”, Mark 7:7.
Phariseeism does not come from ‘teachings’
Calvinism does not create a Pharisee, even though Clark Whitten disagrees. What you are in your heart does not come from outside of yourself.
In Mark 7:15, “There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.”
And verse 18-23, “And he saith unto them, … Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly [or the brain], … And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man”.
So, it is the legal frame of a heart that turns one into a Pharisee where everything that comes out of him is evil and prideful. It is not the knowledge that created the pride, but the heart. Pride distorts the knowledge, and leads Pharisees to use knowledge for their own ends.
In the New Testament, the Pharisees appeared to love Truth and desired the Lord to come the most. But they did not prefer and prioritize God in their hearts.
Symptoms of Pharasee-istic behavior.
Pharisees know what to say. But they do not do what they say. Jesus said, “They preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger”, Matt. 23:3-4. Dewey admits he viewed the “vaunted position of elder” as just a prize in the game he played.
Pharisees practice their faith to be seen by others. Jesus points this out in Matt. 23:4-7, Matt. 6:1, 2, &5. They desire the recognition and esteem from others. Dewey affirms that he too desired ‘applause, public acknowledgement, recognition, and appreciation of others’.
Pharisees keep people from Jesus and his grace. They disconnect their heart from their head, and subtly put confidence in their flesh; thus, leading others away from Jesus. By admission Dewey knew he played church. Dewey also affirmed, “play your game correctly”. How many others did he encourage to play too?
Pharisees add their convictions and traditions to the word of God. We learned this in a previous post about man-made ‘fences’. They create exhausting and unfruitful structures to avoid what God really calls them to do. That is how Dewey viewed people in positions of leadership, including himself while in the PRC.
Symptoms of Pharasee-istic gracelessness
Pharisees lack love for people in need. Jesus exposed them in Matt. 23:23-24. The Pharisees did not rejoice when people were healed or when sinners were forgiven. They refused to welcome everyone that Christ welcomed. Dewey repeatedly upbraids and scolds others. He does not rejoice in repentance of others.
Pharisees excuse and cover-up sin instead of personally owning the responsibility of sin, confessing and repenting. Dewey excuses his Phariseeism when he finishes his admission (of Phariseeism) by launching into his big, long story about a stranger in a new city.
If Dewey understood his legalism for what it truly was – a sinful dethroning of God; he wouldn’t blame the church, or what he thought he was taught, or everyone around him, or the ‘institution’. Instead, he would own the legal frame of his own heart and the Phariseeistic life he led. He would confess it as sin against God and his neighbor instead of merely saying, ‘I was wrong and I see it now’. It seems he would say something about Christ, about grace, about repentance and redemption.
A word about knowledge
The Pharisee’s informed-ness comes by knowledge. According to 1 Cor. 8:1, knowledge puffs people up. Does that mean we should reject knowledge? Should we remain simple-minded and keep to the milk of the Word?
But Hebrews 5:12-14 says to advance beyond spiritual milk. And, 2 Pet. 1:5-8 goes even further, teaching us how knowledge contributes to spiritual fruitfulness.
It is legalism within the heart that grows into Phariseeism; until it is rooted out by a personal relationship with Christ. True knowledge is more than knowing doctrine.
“The knowledge is vital, (Rom. 10:2) but it is not the key to reviving our hearts. God is. Knowledge doesn’t open eyes and ears. God does. God must drag whatever each of us knows about Him into our hearts and light it, by his Spirit, with faith and love and joy.” ~ Marshall Segal
Those who receive greater knowledge should remember that it is a gift from God and should not lord it over others. Whoever is given greater knowledge, also receives greater vulnerability with it, and greater responsibility for how they use it.
We owe much of this content to Marshall Segal from his post at Desiring God; written on May 10, 2017; found here.
