During my readings the past couple weeks, and a couple experiences in my everyday life. I have had this thought running around in my head – did Jesus love the Pharisees? And if so, how did he show it? I am familiar with the phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner.” I think it was totally necessary for him to contradict them, because the Pharisees held beliefs that were not Biblical. I used to read the Bible and shake my, scoffing at how blind and ignorant the Pharisees were. I thought I was soo much smarter than them. Then I realized that if Jesus were to talk to me about what I do every day in my life, I’m sure he would have to do a lot of rebuking. It really made me think about how much I (and probably most Christians) try to build ourselves up by looking down on people who are “worse” than us. “Worse” is really a matter of perspective. From God’s perspective we are all bad (i.e. sinners worthy of death). But God still loves us all anyway! But I digress. The point of me writing this was to get some feedback from you… How do you balance the need to love everyone without condemning and abandoning people? I think part of the problem is cultural differences. The more commentaries and history I read, the more I find that in the Jewish culture it was very common to argue very heatedly about the scriptures and law; without taking it personally. I wish we were more like that today. Then our pastors wouldn’t be so afraid to preach the truth. I find so many pastors sermons to be watered down. They use the excuse of being seeker sensitive, but I hope and pray that I am never afraid to “bring the heat.” I notice that despite Jesus obvious opposition to the Pharisees they still invited him over to meals, and he spent a lot of time with them. I want to be able to do that. I try to do my best to let people know where I stand, but know that I don’t judge them nor do I feel like I’m better than them. As long as I’m ranting… another thing that troubles me is that so many people are comfortable in their churches with their set community; and don’t even have any friends outside of this bubble. If you don’t have any friends who aren’t saved, how do you plan to share the gospel with this world? In conclusion, yes I believe Jesus loved the pharisees, and yes I believe they knew it. That’s part of what made them so angry.
I’m sorry my thoughts are very unorganized, so I hope this made sense. But I’m tired and don’t feel like editing it. So there.