In Luke18:10-14 Jesus told the story or (parable) of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee(religious hypocrite) and the other a tax collector (hated among the Jews,considered vile sinners) The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth (tithe) of all I get. Wow, can you hear the self-righteous, sanctimonious, self centerdness of this so called prayer? Now, listen to the tax collector....But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his chest and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." then Jesus said to the crowd to whom the story was being related and said this: "I tell you that this man, (sinner) rather than the other, (religious hypocrite) went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted." Now, this story right here should give you a pretty good indication of what Jesus thought about religious hypocrites.
When you are steeped in religion, its practices, and rituals and rules and regulations and you begin to think that your righteousness is based upon what you do, what you wear, what you eat or don't eat for that matter, then you have allowed yourself to become a religious hypocrite. When you spend your time looking down on others like a bird on a high wire, perched looking down on others ready to pounce on them for any little thing that they say or do, you have become a religious hypocrite. When you begin to compare your sins to the sins of others as if God is overlooking all of your hypocrisy, hatred, bigotry, racism, gossip, lying, back biting, etc and you think that well at least I am not a murderer or a thief. But, really aren't you? The word tells us that if we hate our brother, that we are guilty of murder. When we go around back biting people aren't we really sticking a knife in their back which kills their spirit?
We need to stop comparing sins and realize that God is in charge of this whole deal, and we are not and He is the judge, the ruler of all things. He has sent us out as salt and light in this world to draw people to Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus said if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me, He did that on the cross and when we lift Him up now and shine the light on His cross and His finished work, then people will be drawn to Him. Jesus is the lover of our souls, He has been called the bishop of our souls, the shepherd, why? Because He loves us and looks after us. He is always seeking those that are lost. He is not looking to beat people up and to put bondages on them. He said in the Matthew 11:28-29 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest, take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and You will find rest for your souls. When Jesus is talking about a yoke here, He isn't talking about making you a slave to religion, He is talking about being partnered up with Him, yoked together to do the work of the kingdom. He is not a hard taskmaster like religion makes Him out to be. He is a loving shepherd that loves His sheep and wants to save, protect, heal, deliver, and provide for.
When the sinner went up to the temple to pray, which in and of itself is a miracle. Considering the man already knew that there would be people there to scoff, ridicule and make fun of his every word. He went anyway and prayed to God in deep humility. Didn't matter how he was dressed or where he came from, Jesus said that he was justified when he left that place that day. What does justified mean? It means that when he left that day after repenting of his sins to God, that it was just as if he had never sinned. He was in right standing with the Father. This is what we need to do, examine our own selves. Confess our sins to the Father, repent of them in humility. Not concern ourselves with what sister so in so or brother so in so is doing or saying and work out our own salvation with God.
Jesus said that we are to be like a city on a hill, why? Because a city on a hill, is bright and it draws the eye upward. He was trying to say that we should be drawing peoples eyes upward to God. Upward to the cross of Jesus Christ. He also said that when we do good works that people will notice and will give glory to our Father which is in heaven. Let's stop comparing sins. Let's stop putting people under religious yokes of bondage and do what Jesus said and be salt and light. Being kind, showing love to all those around us. Remembering that we were once sinners. We can't forget where we came from. He has brought us all a mighty long way and we are no better than anyone else. We are just forgiven. We have found a better way to live. An exciting life flow from God and we should be sharing it with everyone around us.
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