Religious Folks and/or Hypocrites

When I speak of the “religious folks,” I am specifically talking about those the Scriptures call Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Chief Priests and Elders. And these individuals were Jewish.

In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark Luke and John) we read where they were opposing Jesus at every turn. Ironically though, the Pharisees and Sadducees were also opponents of each other in what they believed.

An easy way I learned to distinguish between the Sadducees and the Pharisees was this.

The Sadducees did not believe in the “Resurrection from the Dead,” so they were “Sad-You-See“)

The Pharisees were focused and fixated on the Old Testament Laws of Moses and so their religion was merely external, formal and mechanical. Hence, the repeated rebukes from Jesus as "Hypocrites!"

I include the Chief Priests, Scribes and Elders because The Scriptures do also. There are many references to this fact in the Gospels. But for the sake of brevity, let’s take a look at just a few passages.

In Matthew 16:21 we read this…
“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised from the dead on the third day.”

Matthew 15:1-9 says…
“Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men."

Matthew 21:12-15 reads…
“Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.”

So, hopefully, I have qualified my statements about the “religious folks” in The Scriptures.

My observations of the “religious folks” today is merely my opinion based on my personal experiences in the “church system” for more than 45 years and their similarity to the Pharisees, Sadducees, Chief Priests, Elders and Scribes (those Christ called “Hypocrites” to their faces).

My prayer is that The Word of God dwell in you richly today and everyday...

In His Name...
Mackenzie Crockett
A disciple of Jesus Christ
MyWordsAreSpirit.com