DON’T BE AN
ACCIDENTAL PHARISEE
“Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves.”
Mark 11:13 · ESV
The message this weekend dropped a phrase that I haven’t been able to shake: accidental Pharisee. You don’t plan to become one. You don’t wake up one morning and decide to be the guy nobody wants to eat lunch with. You just drift there. Slowly. Quietly. Usually, while thinking you’re doing the right thing.
The Pharisees weren’t the bad guys in their own story. They were respected, they were religious. They were serious about God’s Word. Sound familiar? Do we want to be religious or relational? For most of us who care deeply about our faith, our marriages, our kids, the accidental Pharisee trap is right there waiting. We start using the Bible/Church as a hammer. We make every conversation a corrective. We “major on minors” until the people closest to us stop coming to us at all.
Jesus walked up to a fig tree full of leaves and found nothing. All the appearance of life. No fruit. The tree looked the part but couldn’t feed anyone.
“The Holy Spirit is always talking to you about you. The enemy is always talking to you about everybody else.”
— Pastor Jeff Little
THE QUESTION FOR THE WEEK
Do the people who actually live with me experience my faith as good fruit, or do they feel buried under a pile of leaves?
RUN YOUR WEEK THROUGH THESE:
Rules without relationship produces rebellion. Every time. This week, I will walk through five real moments where that choice shows up: Spirit over flesh, every day.
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