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No one starts out wanting to become a Pharisee.
But that’s the hard truth.
It often starts with a deep love for God. You want to please Him and do what’s right more than anything else.
At first, you’re tender, open to learning, grateful, and full of life.
But over time, something changes.
It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s a slow drift.
Love slowly turns into pressure. Performance replaces rest. The friendship that once made faith beautiful becomes just a system to manage and maintain.
You still talk and sing about grace, but you stop feeling safe enough to live as if it’s really true.
So you measure yourself and others. Who’s strong, who’s weak, who’s serious, and who’s slipping.
You build boundaries God never asked for and call them wisdom, discernment, or obedience.
But underneath it all, there’s fear.
Fear of being wrong, of being seen as soft, or of losing what others think of you.
Fear always seems to shout louder than love.
The danger is that it doesn’t feel like you’re moving away from God. It feels like you’re getting closer.
You feel sharper, more certain, and more disciplined.
But your heart slowly grows smaller.
The real tragedy of the Pharisee isn’t loving God too much, but never believing that God loved him enough.
So he worked harder, compared himself more, and judged more deeply.
When you don’t rest in love, you end up trying to earn it.
That’s where grace finally breaks through.
Not to scold or shame you, but to wake you up.
When love finally quiets fear, the Pharisee inside you doesn’t have to die in guilt. He just fades into peace.
Because fear can’t survive where love is trusted.
Click here to read When I Can’t See the Pharisee in Me.
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