Pharisees

Matthew 23:4   For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers

Instead of explaining the Law to the people, its meaning, using it to free people from sin bondage and give the means to live closer to God, the Pharisees used the law to enslave the people, and make God unaccessible.

They thought there were doing God's will.

This is the religious spirit, present in every religion everywhere on earth.

The clergy thinks he knows God, and sees himself as superior to the people

Feeling superior and far away from sin, the clergy thinks he must enforce laws over individuals to force them not to sin.

Pride is the root of religious spirit, hypocrisy its fruit.

We all sit at the same level:

Exodus 20:26   Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.

The knowledge of God is a responsibility, and when we open our mouth in the name of the Lord we must be sure to have cleansed our temple, our heart.

James 1:26   If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain

Pride produces hypocrisy, the two nurishing each other.

Pharisees, like other people inhabited by a religious spirit, judge others by outward appearance.

So they come to Jesus speaking against his disciples because they don't wash their hands.

Jesus says of course they should wash their hands, but the sin is what goes out of your mouth, not what enters the mouth or the dirty hands that touched the food.

Matthew 23:

23   Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law: justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 

24   You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25   Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 

26   Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27   Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 

28   In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29   Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 

30   And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 

31   So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 

32   Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

33   You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

God ask that we clean the inside, then the outside of the cup.

John 7:

22   Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 

23   Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 

24   Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge righteously.”

Pharisees judge according to the appearance, but we are to discern between good and evil with the Holy Spirit.

Sabbath is symbolic of the Millenium, there is no sin in doing good to others on that day.

Circumcision will be complete on the Millenium because God's chosen people will live with Him in uncorriptible bodies.

Of cours women should be dressed modestly, they should cover their head while praying, but in what epoch do you think you live ?

We pray before we eat, and right after it stones come out of our mouth to slander our neighbor.

How good is the best of us right now in the last days ?

Micah 7:

1   What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave.

2   The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets.

3   Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire: they all conspire together.

4   The best of them is like a bramble, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.

Of course sinners will like what I wrote.

A sinner who understands that knows the will of God, his responsibility is identical and unless he repents, he is a worse hypocrite than the Pharisees.

When you are born again, you will grow pride. Don't become a Pharisee.

The Spirit of God is a two edged sword.