The danger of religious character

Perhaps one of the most dangerous characters a person can develop is a religious character without a Christlike character. It is possible to become very religious and yet remain selfish. It is possible to know the Bible and still be proud. It is possible to attend church and still harbour hatred. It is possible to speak about grace and refuse to forgive. It is possible to defend truth while treating people without love. It is possible to be right in doctrine and wrong in spirit.

Jesus repeatedly confronted this problem. The Pharisees were not irreligious. They were deeply religious. They fasted, prayed and gave offerings. They knew Scripture and were careful about religious observances. Yet Jesus said:

For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.

This is a remarkable statement. Jesus did not condemn them because they cared about obedience. He condemned them because they had reduced obedience to outward observance while neglecting the character that God’s law was intended to produce: justice, mercy and faith.

Two men at prayer

Jesus told a parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stood and prayed about 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.

The facts in his prayer may have been true. But his prayer was a speech about himself and a comparison with someone else. The tax collector stood at a distance and would not even lift his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast and said:

God, be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

One man had religion and the other had honesty before God. Jesus tells us which of them went home right with God.

The outside and the inside

Jesus said:

First cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

The Christian life must begin on the inside. Not because outward conduct is unimportant. It is important. But outward conduct without inward transformation becomes hypocrisy. God wants truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6). He wants integrity when nobody is watching. He wants love when there is no advantage in loving. He wants forgiveness when forgiveness is difficult, purity when temptation is strong, humility when we could take credit, and obedience when obedience costs us something. That is character.

Paul: zeal without Christ

Paul knew from the inside what it is to be religious without being Christlike. Describing his own record before he met Christ, he writes that he was circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, “concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6). By the standard of outward observance, he had nothing to be ashamed of. And he was dragging believers from their homes. Then he met Christ, and he wrote:

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

Paul did not stop being zealous. His zeal was brought under Christ and changed in spirit.

Jonah: right about God and wrong in spirit

Jonah’s story shows the danger of being right in doctrine and wrong in spirit. God relented from the destruction He had threatened against Nineveh when the people repented, and Jonah was angry about it. He explained why he had tried to run away in the first place:

I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.

Jonah was correct about God’s character. He had simply not allowed it to touch his own. He knew the right words about mercy and resented the people who received it. The book ends with God’s question to him, and it is left unanswered, as though it were put to every reader: “Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city?” (Jonah 4:11).

When being right becomes more important than being Christlike

There is another danger. Sometimes people become so determined to defend what they believe is correct that they forget the character of the One they claim to follow. They win arguments and lose people. They defend doctrine but destroy relationships. They insist on truth without demonstrating love. Yet Scripture says:

But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head: Christ.

Truth matters, and so does the spirit in which truth is presented. Jesus was full of both:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

We must never choose between truth and character. Christ had both.