Pharisee or Disciple?

As I’ve mentioned previously one of my favorite singers is Lauren Daigle. She’s from the Lafayette area and so we share some mutual friends. This means stories about her pop up on my Facebook feed regularly. Recently she was mentioned quite often due to her performing on the Ellen Degeneres talk show. She was criticized by some for going on the show to perform and her response is, in my opinion, powerful. She said, “I think the second we start drawing lines around which people are able to be approached and which aren’t, we’ve already completely missed the heart of God.”

The profoundness and impact of that statement is so close to my heart. When I was younger I worked with some “Christian” women and some unbelievers. Soon I began to see conflict in the work place like I had never seen before. I had a specific co-worker that was a non-believer. She never claimed to know Christ and so why would she be expected to act like a Christ follower? These godly women that were leaders in their churches and in the community began to criticize her. They would say cruel things behind her back and eventually to her face.

When we had our company Christmas party we decided to ride together. As I took her back to her car we sat in the parking lot for a couple of hours talking. We talked about the difference in our upbringings and our lifestyles. We laughed and cried and genuinely got to know each other. How could anyone be mean to someone so sweet? But the words she spoke to me that night have impacted my life far beyond what I’m sure she expected. “I have never known a kind Christian until you”, she told me. That statement broke my heart as it should yours.

I want you to stop and really think about that for a minute. She had never met a kind Christian. How is that even possible? Just like Lauren Daigle’s response, people had drawn lines around her and decided she shouldn’t be approached. She was too far gone. The choices that she had made up until that point in her life were “disgusting” and so she didn’t deserve to hear about the love of Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:2 tells us, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” You can teach Sunday School, have quiet times, go to Bible Study and do everything perfect, but if you do not have love then it is worthless.

The Pharisee’s had knowledge and faith, but they did not have love. They were bound by law and religion so much so that they couldn’t see Jesus for who He was. He didn’t act the way they wanted Him to. He didn’t cater to the “righteous” but rather went to the sinners. The Pharisee’s wanted lines drawn dividing them from those that they considered beneath them. Christ came to erase those lines and as His disciples we should too.

What kind of legacy are you leaving? Have you missed the message of Christ completely or have you shown love to someone that has never seen it before? Are you a Pharisee bound by law and religion looking down on people around you? Are you a disciple of Christ that operates in love and relationship leading others to know what Christ is really offering them? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be responsible for someone deciding against Christ because I couldn’t or rather didn’t want to show love. So, which is it, Pharisee or Disciple?