Wanna know how to exceed the Pharisees?

[MatthewG]

@Episkopos perhaps you have read what I stated wrongly. I do not know. Anyway thank you for sharing some of your comments and thoughts. All that has been made known to me is that Jesus is our righteousness by faith, because of him doing everything we could not. The Pharisees did not like what he was doing and envied him knowing that he was the Son of God. The Pharisees were those who would condemn and judge and kill, as the Apostle Paul had done before being converted to Christ.

Thank you for reaching out.

 

[James Macbeth]

A. Judge not.
B. Be ye not as the hypocrites.
C. Serve lovingkindness.
D. Give water, food, clothes, shelter, company, to the thirsty, hungry, naked, homeless, lonely.
E. Forgive others their flaws & faults and their sins against you.
F. Serve God not Mammon.
G. Evangelize the poor.

 

[MatthewG]

A. Judge not.
B. Be ye not as the hypocrites.
C. Sever lovingkindness.
D. Give water, food, clothes, shelter, company, to the thirsty, hungry, naked, homeless, lonely.
E. Forgive others their flaws & faults and their sins against you.
F. Sever God not Mammon.
G. Evangelize the poor.

Hello James,

Can not do any of that without abiding in Christ, or can we do all those things by our flesh? Which would profit more, allowing the Holy Spirit and the spirit of Christ to move you?

A choice on our part? Spirit vs Flesh?

 

[James Macbeth]

Hello James,

Can not do any of that without abiding in Christ, or can we do all those things by our flesh? Which would profit more, allowing the Holy Spirit and the spirit of Christ to move you?

A choice on our part? Spirit vs Flesh?

Jesus says if you love me obey my commandments.

You are quoting S. Paul, which is good.

But do we see the Gospel through S. Paul or our Lord Jesus?

S. Paul called himself a servant of Jesus Christ.

And our Lord says the servant is not above the Master.

Jesus: My sheep hear my voice.

May the Grace, love and mercy of our Lord be with you, and with thy spirit.

 

[Desire Of All Nations]

The pharisees neglected the love of God(Luke11:42) They saw themselves as people who could attain to heaven by being good enough under the law. What need had they for the great love, mercy and compassion of God. They had no real love or gratitude to the Father. The greatest commandment of all is broken. They crushed the people with strictly quoting the letter of the law to them and demanding strict obedience to it. They were not concerned how that affected anyone else, they just wanted the people to believe they were where they told others they must be. They wanted the praise of men. Though from Jesus words we know they were hypocrites who did not practice what they preached. So they broke the second greatest commandment as well. Love your neighbour as yourself. The two greatest commandments upon which all the law hung were ignored. They hit rock bottom where righteousness was concerned. So: “unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
And there is many around today with their attitude brother, even on internet debating websites!

This is not an accurate argument, because Jesus explicitly stated in passages like Mar. 7:7-9 that they elevated their traditions in the place of God's commandments, so the problem was not they were keeping the letter of the law. Jesus plainly stated that they weren't even doing that much.

They slandered Christ, they plotted to murder Him, and they taught people to disobey the 5th commandment(Mar. 7:10-13), so it cannot be said that Jesus' problem with the Pharisees is that they were keeping the law or living by a super strict adherence to the letter of the law.

One of the reasons why the Pharisees plotted to have Jesus killed is because He openly opposed their oral traditions, not the letter of God's commandments. Anyone who truly believed Moses' writings at that point in time knew they were required to live by the letter of the law.