In preparation for the comment of this comic I went looking through Phacebook (ha!) to see what context the term Pharisee is used in. Almost every post I had access to was about the Pharisees being religious. In those posts the “religion” they were following was the Torah, the Old Testament laws as some called it. Others called it the “ceremonial laws”. This is something common I have seen in the last few years. Anyone that is trying to follow the Torah is considered a Pharisee.

However, If we look at what Jesus railed on the Pharisees for, it wasn’t that they were following the Torah, it was because they weren’t. Let me repeat that. Jesus yelled at the Pharisees because they were NOT keeping Torah. The Mark 7 reference in the comic he even states specifically that this is what he is talking about:

Mark 7:8 NIV: You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.

What are the commands of God? The Torah! If you go back and read the commands when they were given they start out with “and God said to Moses….”. These weren’t things that Moses just made up. God commanded them to be done. They weren’t religion, they were ways for us to be set-apart, to not be like the world. (Exodus 19:6, Deut. 7:6, 10:15, 1 Peter 2:9) To even give two witnesses to this fact that those commands are what are considered the commands of God we have the following:

Nehemiah 8 – Everyone is gathered together Ezra beings out the Book of the Law of Moses, which GOD had commanded. Then a few verses down, the same book is now referred to as the Law of God.

Luke 2 – Jesus is born. The time has come for the purification rites, as required by the Law of Moses, next verse: as it is written in the Law of the Lord. It then describes the rite, which can be found in the Torah in Leviticus 12:8.

You don’t see Jesus later on yelling at Mary and Joseph for doing these things listed in Leviticus. Because they were supposed to do them.

The real focus of what Jesus was getting on to the Pharisees about, besides but still relates to not keeping Torah, are points 1 and 4 in the comic:

* Not practicing what they preach
* Knowing better, yet wanting to do things their way

You see, they knew the Torah, they were the ones teaching it and Jesus even said to listen and do what they teach (Matt. 23:2-3). But, they didn’t do it. They made all sorts of other “laws” to put a fence around God’s Laws so that no one would break God’s Laws. Then, when someone broke one of their laws, they saw that as sinning. Mark 7 lists out several of these man-made laws that they followed. The account in Mark 7 shows their reaction and mindset about those man-made laws.

My comic last week on Galatians 2 and showing how it equates to the same thing Peter was doing in Acts 10 is another of their man-made laws. I can go and reference several things found in Judaism today that are in this same vein of thought. However, like my Church vs. Bible teaching, my main focus is on what I came from, what I used to believe. Showing the error that leads to lawlessness in those teachings. So with that, what falls into these lines in the Church?

* Drinking – I did a comic about this in the past, but there are several denominations out there that say drinking is a sin. Even a glass. Beside the fact that there isn’t one Scripture that supports this, and the fact Jesus’ first miracle was making an alcoholic beverage at a party, I have been in many a home where their church believed this way. Yet, they had wine or other strong drink hidden away somewhere. It especially stayed hidden if people from their church came over. Or maybe there is a former alcoholic that has come to the church and everyone focuses on that and keeping off of it as equating to their salvation. So when they stumble, and they will, everyone says “well, they never really got saved”.
* Smoking – The same as drinking could be said here. There definitely isn’t anything in Scripture about not smoking. Yes, it is a very bad idea. Yes, it is not taking care of your Temple, but so are a number of other things that people do without anyone in church blinking an eye.
* Appearance – If there is one thing that stuck with me from childhood, it is that church going people repeatedly told me I was going to Hell for wearing shorts and having long hair. We even have a children’s picture Bible that was recently given to our children and in it Samson pretty much just has a mullet. I’m sorry, someone that never cut their hair from birth into adulthood would rival hair length with many women who don’t cut their hair. In some churches there is so much focus put in appearance. We even have a phrase in America “our Sunday best”. Trying to be as flashy as possible for God.
* Holidays – I’ve already written on this one at length in other comics, but again it’s another thing similar to the Pharisees: A man-made tradition that is held in higher regard than the commands of God.

There are but a few and ones that I have had the most experience with. With all these items, if someone is breaking the tradition, they are called out and called ‘Not true Christians’. Similar to how the Pharisees protected their own man-made laws. Just like with the Pharisees, several of these Christian man-made traditions aren’t bad to do, for example not smoking, that is a really good idea. Or with the Pharisees, washing your hands before you eat, again a really good idea especially for children who put their hands in everything. However, if we are elevating these things up to not doing them being a sin, we are now taking the place of God on judging what is right and wrong. We don’t get to do that. He does that, and gave us the results of that: the Torah. Following Torah isn’t following religion, or trying to be religious. All these examples of man-made traditions… that’s religion.