Am I a Pharisee?

When we walk with the Lord we often need to check whether we are in tune with the Lord when it comes to our attitude, behavior, motives, our interaction and communication with the people. Sometimes we can be so carried away by our spiritual highs that we tend to become self- righteous without our knowledge. We tend to talk and behave as if we are absolutely right all the time. This is an attitude of a self -righteous Pharisee and not of Christ.

We all know the parable of the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-13 (NIV)
(v.10) Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (v.11) The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men- robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. (v.12) I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get'. (v.13) But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner'.

Today which of the two attitude do we have? Let us examine ourselves. If we are sure that we are having the attitude of the tax-collector in the parable, then we will not compare us with others like the Pharisee did. The tax-collector spoke about his sin alone to the Lord, the Pharisee spoke about himself in comparison to others. If we are truly having the attitude of the tax-collector we will only look deep into our self rather than speak about the wrong of others.

Let us re-examine ourselves and quickly make right our attitude. Amen.