FAQ #7 Weren’t the Pharisees severely condemned by Jesus for worshipping God without cultivating sufficient joy in the temple services?

Question 7.

Weren’t the Pharisees severely condemned by Jesus for worshipping God without cultivating sufficient joy in the temple services?

Answer 7.

No, the assertion that Jesus scolded the Pharisees for worshipping God without adequate emotional levels is based on a faulty reading of, or possibly an incomplete quotation of, the biblical text.

We find that the Pharisees had a tremendous zeal and enthusiasm for God and for Judaism (Galatians 1:14, Philippians 3:5-6, Romans 10:1-3, Acts 22:3, 21:20). So what did they lack? Why did Jesus so thoroughly rebuke them? First, they lacked knowledge about God’s righteousness.

For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:2,3)

Why did these Jews of the Jews lack knowledge? And why did they seek to establish their own righteousness instead of relying on God’s?

‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ ” (Matthew 15:9)

‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition…. thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.” (Mark 7:7-9,13)

We are told that the Pharisees gathered their brethren together in the temple, but they taught their own home-spun doctrines as if they were Bible passages. In fact, Jesus called them experts at ignoring the real Scriptures and teaching the extra-Scriptural traditions instead. These experts in tradition did not know their own Scriptures.

The cause for the rebuke they were given was in how they gave attention to their own philosophies and writings during temple worship, treating their extra-Scriptural traditions as if they carried the same weight or authority as the Word of God. And when extra-biblical writings are treated as being as authoritative as the Bible, the Bible is the first thing that gets “set aside”.

Oh, the Pharisees had a great zeal and a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and emotional affection, just as did the apostle Paul before his salvation. What the Pharisees lacked was an understanding of how to be genuinely righteous. They taught a form of Judeo-hedonism: pursue your own pleasures but couch it in a language of religiosity and tradition (Mark 7:10-13).

Then they conducted the temple ceremonies by rote instead of examining their hearts to see if they were hiding sin within themselves (“Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote’” Isaiah 29:13).

By teaching extra-biblical materials as if they were genuine Scriptures and by conducting ceremonies by rote without uttering genuine prayers of repentance, the Pharisees were conducting vain worship, not joyless or unemotional worship (Isaiah 1:10-17). The heart that is far from God is the heart that hides its sin and does not confess it. The Pharisees should have offered legitimate prayers during the temple ceremonies instead of just reading or reciting the same old repetitions over and over. Short sincere prayers of repentance will be heard while long prayers read for their grand linguistic stylings will not.

What then was the sin of the Pharisees? Certainly not a lack of zeal or emotion. It was teaching the people to replace true Scripture for their own philosophies and precepts. It was for conducting temple ceremonies by liturgical rote instead of actually calling on the Lord for forgiveness and actually repenting while sacrificing animals. In short, the Pharisees had set aside the one true religion for a man-made counterfeit that pleased them more.