“The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess» (Luke 18:11, 12).
WHAT IS THE MOST SUBTLE SIN? P. T. Forsyth called it «the sin of goodness»; that is, the sin of those who think they are good, but who do not know that they are not good.
Understand this well: there is nothing wrong with doing acts of kindness. One of the attributes of God’s character is His goodness (see Exodus 34:5—7), and goodness is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Why then, in the well-known parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, was it not the Pharisee who received forgiveness?
Among his virtues, the Pharisee emphasized that he fasted twice a week. As William Barclay wrote, «Jewish law prescribed only an absolutely obligatory fast—on the Day of Atonement. However, those who wanted to obtain special merits also fasted on Mondays and Thursdays,» the very days when more people visited Jerusalem because they were market days. On the other hand, the Pharisee gave tithe of everything; so it was very likely that he also tithed the «mint and anise and cummin» (see Matthew 23:23). Moreover, he did not steal, commit adultery, or commit injustices «like everyone else.»
Do we realize how subtle the «sin» of goodness is? More than a prayer, what this Pharisee did was to present God with a detailed report of how good he was compared to others. How offensive, then, must his prayer have been! On the other hand, «the tax collector . . . would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ » (Luke 18:13). He did not show off his good works or compare himself to others; he only asked for forgiveness by relying entirely on Gods mercy.
What is the lesson for us? The following quotation from Christ’s Object Lessons sums it up well: «There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable.»—ch. 13, p. 154.
Heavenly Father, please help me never to «boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world» (Galatians 6: 14),
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2022
“GREAT IS OUR GOD!”
From: FERNANDO ZABALA
Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate
