Why the Prostitutes and Tax Collectors Were Better Than the Pharisees

jennifer_bloom
Why the Prostitutes and Tax Collectors Were Better Than the Pharisees

Jesus said the pharisees and the tax collectors were entering the kingdom of God ahead of the religious leaders for they repented at the preaching of John while the Pharisees even after seeing many signs and miracles did not believe in Jesus who is God.

What is wrong with them?

The prostitutes were honest about their sins - if they weren't honest about their sexual availability to men they would not get customers.

The tax collectors were honest about their dependency on human beings - if they weren't honest about their need to collect taxes - they would never be able to collect taxes from others

The pharisees lied TO THEMSELVES about their spiritual condition. They lied to themselves about what kind of sinners they were.

The pharisees lied TO OTHERS about how hypocritical they were. They were emotionally needy and dependent on others for emotional support so they pretended to be better than others so they could maintain the emotional support they were getting from their peers but they could not let others know how emotionally and psychologically needy they were because if people knew how mentally and emotionally needy they were - they would question their righteousness. All of their hypocrisy was built on their fear of being rejected by others and their desperation to appear more righteous than they were. The currency of their spotless and perfect reputation was not the righteousness they held in their souls but their fear of social rejection by those who recognized them as religious people.

When you lie to yourself about how righteous you are

And then you use that lie to lie to others about how righteous you are

You create two psychological complexes within yourself that prevent you from understanding the simplicity of God's gospel.

Virtually everybody is equally bad inside because people are very complex creatures. I came to the conclusion 9 years ago that 98% of our personalities are things we aren't consciously aware of because they lie beneath the level of conscious awareness so mostly everybody is equally bad to everybody else.

I hear people on this site judging prostitutes and saying they are worthless people but the bible says those who lust after others are also guilty of adultery so unless you have never had a lustful thought - you have no business judging prostitutes for their sexual practices.

this is why Jesus favoured the prostitutes and tax collectors more than the pharisees - the pharisees were just as bad as the lustful prostitutes or dishonest and greedy tax collectors but they PRETENDED to be better.

Only by trusting in God and obeying God can you be truly better than a tax collector or prostitute - not pretend to be better but to be truly better on the inside

be honest with yourself

and be honest with others

then God can change you

Why the Prostitutes and Tax Collectors Were Better Than the Pharisees
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