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Are you a Pharisee? Characteristic #8 - Pharisees are suspicious and assume the worst

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Pharisees are suspicious and assume the worst about other people

“The Pharisees said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.” (Matt.12:24).

When Jesus cast out a demon, the crowds said, “This must be the Son of David (the promised Messiah)”(Mt.12:23). But the Pharisees were disturbed by the fact that Jesus did something they themselves could not do. And so they assumed the worst.

Even when someone does something good that blesses others, Pharisees will attribute an evil motive for that deed. If, however their own children had done the same thing, they would have boasted about it and attributed the best of motives – because Pharisees are partial towards their own family members, but very critical of others.Pharisees are very suspicious of others and cannot believe that anyone would do anything with a selfless motive –because they themselves are so selfish. If you are a Pharisee, you will find yourself attributing wrong motives for the good that others do and being critical of those whom others appreciate.

There are many who have been hurt in the church system. If a pastor wants raise up an individual, he may surpass the pastor himself, so sometimes he will either pick someone he KNOWS will not exceed him, or he may make it difficult for him to get ahead.

I knew a fellow who was not very gifted in preaching, did not know the Bible as he should, nor had a humble heart, but the pastor chose him as the person he raised up. In fact, this individual did not even WANT this honor, but somehow was pressured and told that he would be disobeying the will of God. In time, he became a pastor in a church that was in this senior pastor‘s network of churches that he ran so he could keep a close eye on him. At the same time, however, another fellow was highly gifted in wisdom, but was very humble, so he wasn’t noticed. He wanted to go to seminary, but was not encouraged by this same pastor. So this fellow never went to seminary, and faded into the shadows of the institutional church with his gifts never being used and thus nobody was edified.

The truth is, by the actions of this pastor, he seemed to be jealous of this young man. He was afraid he may even take his position, for he was running this church network for 20 years, and people loved him. He had written books, and was famous. He didn’t want some young whipper-snapper whom he did not know to rise up the ranks without his authority and control. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident in the institutional church. Some denominations are more likely to do this than others, but it’s not as uncommon as you may think.