A Pharisee, A Scribe & A Taxcollector

Remember the people in the Bible called the Pharisees, what about the Tax collectors and the Scribes? Studying the different characteristics of these people we discover that there are Pharisees, Scribes and Taxcollectors in the Church today. You might be one of them or at least sit next to one in your church.

Pharisees were the teachers of the Law of Moses but they never cared about obeying it themselves, they loved long prayers &public fastings to be seen by men. In short, they were hypocrites and pretenders.

Pharisees in the Church are people whose faith is but a show-off to others. They are the people whose profession of faith is the complete opposite of their lifestyle. Are you a pharisee or is your faith genuine? If not please repent and seek the Lord out of a pure heart.

Scribes were the ones given the privilege of translating the written law from one scroll( book) to another. They were also tasked with writing whatever was being preached in the temple. In short, Scribes were simply writers.

There are scribes in the Church who write and write everything in the pulpit yet when they get home they never revise their written work nor even practice it. Writing in the church is very good, but it's useless if what you write is never studied to heart so as to be practiced. In fact, it is better to listen with your ears than to write something you will not use. Otherwise, you become a Scribe. Please be serious about what is spoken in the pulpit and write it to revise it &put it to practice.

A tax collector was the one tasked by the government to go door to door collecting tax. Tax collectors were well-known thieves &corrupt officials because they often cheated people and demanded more money than what was needed by the government. Therefore, when they went to the temple, these were often judged as vile sinners, unworthy to enter the holy temple.

There are tax collectors in the church who are well known for their sinful lifestyle and are therefore judged as unworthy to be at church. This kind of attitude is often painful to them hence they find the church unfriendly & judgemental. Hence they leave it never to come back, away from Christ and salvation. Instead, the church must be a welcome home even for the vilest of sinners. So that they can also hear the wonderful message of Christ's love for sinners that He died for them. Remember, all of us were once sinners without hope until God's grace fell on us. So we must look at others with the same understanding &patiently lead them to Christ.

That is the story of A Pharisee, A Scribe, And A Tax collector.

Sinothi Ncube