Jesus said:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; … I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
He follows at once with:
Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
What do we make of this? The Pharisees were the law zealots. Are we to be super zealots? And didn’t Jesus’ teachings sometimes clash with the law? He boldly declared: “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” He challenged the dietary laws saying: “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth.” The disciples were perplexed by that one. They took Jesus aside and asked: “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” To which Jesus, as he often does, answered paradoxically:
Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.
People often quote the verse stating that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law. Rarely do I encounter: “Your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees.” I wonder. Could this warning be the main point? If so, how do we succeed? I’ve thought about this a lot. The Pharisees lived by the letter, whereas Jesus lived by the spirit. Those living by the letter evolve into blind guides. More times than not, they cause themselves and others to fall into pits and get stuck.
Enough of the hard stuff! Let’s see if we can make this practical. Two kids, Bill and Mary, are on a long car trip. In response to a disturbance emanating from the back, the parents shout: “No Touching!” What happens next? Bill starts putting his fingers within a millionth of an inch from Mary’s face. He was following the letter of the law, wasn’t he? When confronted, he yells, “I didn’t touch her!” Of course, that is a losing argument. Technically he is right, but clearly, he intentionally disregarded the spirit. Now suppose things were different. The two are pleasantly playing a license plate game, enjoying each other’s company. When Mary gets something in her eye, Bill helps her remove the thing. In this case he, violates the letter, but not the spirit. In fact, if Bill and Mary always behaved this way, the “No Touching” command would never have been necessary in the first place.
Consider the ancient Israelites. Three months after the Exodus, Moses climbs to the top of Mt. Sinai, communes with God, and then treks back down with ten simple precepts. These should be sufficient. Unfortunately, everything changes. Moses is met with a wild party centered around a golden calf. As a result, the wealth brought from Egypt gets ground to dust and 613 laws replace the 10. There is a pattern here. Every violation leads to loss and requires more laws to maintain order. It can get to the point where there are more laws than we can count, or follow even if we want to. Laws are for the lawless. Maximum freedom occurs when laws are not needed.
What does all of this have to do with us? I would say, quite a bit. There are super legalistic congregations where people are ready to judge each other over minutia. They are especially ready to judge those totally depraved others. Sounds like the Pharisees to me.
This letter or spirit topic demands too much to adequately cover in a single post. Perhaps one example will suffice. Consider the matter of lying. What does the Bible teach? The following proof texts at first glance seem to settle the issue.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Deut. 6)
It apparently seems clear, doesn’t it? Never lie. If you do, it is an abomination to God, and as might be expected, it’s an abomination to us too. You can see where this will lead. Love our neighbor becomes judge our neighbor. Jesus’ statement: “Blessed are the peacemakers” becomes philosophical gobbledygook and beyond the reach of day-to-day life. We should take a closer look.
First: we need to clearly define what it means to lie. A list of synonyms could be a starting point. One that I came upon follows:
Untruthful, false, dishonest, mendacious, perfidious, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, duplicitous, dissimulating, dissembling, double-dealing, two-faced, Janus-faced, guileful, underhanded, disingenuous, crooked, bent, sneaky, tricky, hollow-hearted, spinner
I can’t speak for you, but if I have to worry about obeying everything on this list, I’m in big trouble. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Even the most legalistic evangelical websites recognize this. They are firm: lying is always wrong, no exceptions. Then they back off with lies that they say are not lies. Talk about the letter of the law and parsing words.
Maybe the Bible can help figure this out. There are a couple of lie accounts that God seems to approve. The midwives of the Hebrews refused to follow Pharaoh’s order to kill boy babies. They lied to give a plausible answer to Pharaoh and to avoid punishment: “Those Hebrew women are so vigorous that the babies pop right out before we arrive.” God blessed them for what they did. A second example concerns Rahab, a giant of faith, who lied to the Jericho leaders three times about the Israelite spies she hid. She told them: “I didn’t know they were Hebrews. They left already. You can still find them if you immediately send out a search party.” Apparently, the principle “do not lie ” is a bit nuanced.
Orthodox Jews study the Talmud, which is their oral tradition of Biblical application. It records a humorous debate between Hillel and Shammai, who were two ancient Jewish sages. These two argued over many things. Hillel tended to look at the spirit of a thing. Shammai was a legalist. The question at hand was: Should you tell an ugly bride that she is beautiful. Shammai said no; it would be a lie to do so, and lying is always wrong. Hillel said yes, every bride is beautiful on her wedding day. I’m quite confident that Jesus would side with Hillel. Sometimes, the plain, blunt truth can be worse than a lie.
Suppose a thief comes to your door, puts a gun to your head, and yells out: “Who else is at home?” Would any reasonable person say, “My wife and four children”? I don’t think so. Clearly, the spirit of the prohibition against lying is what is important.
Perhaps it will be beneficial to more closely consider the proof texts against lying. If we read the ninth commandment carefully, it specifically prohibits bearing false witness against our neighbor. This would include giving a false testimony in court, slandering people on the Internet, and spreading rumors that may be false. Gossiping (even if true) with the intention to cause hurt, embarrass, or destroy is particularly toxic. I wonder. Would the ninth commandment even be necessary if everyone would simply live by the principle: “Love your neighbor as yourself?”
When we come to Proverbs 6 (cited above), a lying tongue describes someone who habitually lies, and therefore is untrustworthy. It doesn’t address whether there are extraordinary circumstances when a lie might be permissible. How do we decide? This is a hard question. Of course, we can come up with a list of exceptions which we dogmatically follow. Some Jewish rabbis do just this. One such list that I found on a website considers a lie to be allowed when it is done to:
Spare a life
Promote peace
Avoid telling a person about an incurable disease
Claim ignorance when we know something that will cause damage
Avoid a person’s embarrassment
Hyperbolic statements like: You look white as a sheet
Avoid deflating someone who assumes something done was for them
To be sure, a list like this never settles an issue. One can argue, nitpick, add qualifications on and on. The real solution is that we need to apply godly wisdom. Rigid rules will cause us to again and again second guess ourselves over every word that we say. Then we become legalists. Better it is to simply live a life that strives to be trustworthy, considers the impact on others, and yes, tells the truth whenever possible. As Jesus demonstrated throughout his time with us, live by the spirit, not by the letter. Perhaps this is what it means to be more righteous than the Pharisees, and also be authentic in our faith.
Thank you for listening,secondlooknow.com Clik or touch to subscribe to this blog
Trouble is….
it IS so easy to misuse and manipulate rules given.
Mostly to self-protect, I think. But this question nails the issue quite firmly; and the answer confirms the basic truth. I am glad for this article…it does help me sort out the gobbledy-gook from the Truth.
God is Who we see when we see Jesus the Christ..; I am so grateful!
Thanks for this, Dan.
I bet you would enjoy Harvey Falk’s book, Jesus the Pharisee.