INTRODUCTION: The Bane of Religious and Psychological Manipulation

When I was at theological college in the late 1980s, a guy in my class discovered that I liked classical music. He liked it too. He would often seek me out to initiate conversations and obviously enjoyed our discussions. It was unusual to meet someone in that place who loved such music almost as passionately as I did. However, I always noticed that each time I spoke with him he behaved almost as if we were discussing the latest issue of Playboy Magazine. If one of the professors walked past he would pause or change the subject; and he always chose to talk to me where others would not hear.

One day, he asked if he could borrow a certain piece of music, one of Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies. He had discovered the composer and wanted to hear more. The next time I saw him was on the following Sunday at church. I had the music in the car and brought it in with me. After the service had ended, I met him and showed it to him. Now it really was like I was showing him Playboy Magazine! He went bright red and asked me to put it away, which I duly did. Then, as I was leaving, he sidled up to me very closely and asked me to slip the CD into his hand, which I also duly did. I felt like I was involved in an illegal operation!

The next day, when I saw him at college, I discovered why he had behaved so strangely. He told me that he felt guilty about enjoying music which had been written by an unbeliever. He felt that having that CD at church was kind of unholy. He also felt guilty when the music aroused his passions. He also knew that it wasn’t right that he should feel so guilty but realised that these were things which had been instilled in him from an early age by his parents, church elders and the prevailing religious culture.

On a similar tack, I remember being taken aside round the back of a church by a famous UK pastor after I had mentioned Mozart in a talk I had given about music on a conference platform which he was sharing with me. He said to me “I think you reduce the credibility of your talks by using Mozart as a musical example. He was a wicked man, you know. One shouldn’t listen to the music of wicked men”. I then said to him that I had enjoyed listening to the music of Schubert the previous night and that I believed his music transcended the sinfulness of the composer. He again reiterated, with even more vehemence, that I should not be listening to the music of sinful men.

Now, let me just say a few words here, because I set up this Diakrisis ministry more than thirty years ago to counteract religious and psychological manipulation in the Christian scene. What we’re dealing with here is just such an example of religious and psychological manipulation, coupled with a complete misunderstanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Do you really believe that the Lord Jesus wants people in His kingdom who are uptight fanatics and hedged around with acute fear of everyday living, even fear of beautiful things which are untainted with evil? I don’t think so for one moment. He wants people who understand the true meaning of freedom.

If one cannot listen to the music of sinful men, then where does that leave us? Others have said to me that unbelievers have nothing to teach Christians, which is rooted in a similar idea: That unbelievers and their works are tainted with sin therefore we must not appreciate their achievements and must not imagine that they have anything to teach us. This is complete balderdash! If we want to be consistent with their demands, we will have to reject numerous experiences of everyday life. We would have to avoid looking at great works of art and, if we want to be even more consistent we will have to avoid reading any newspapers, going to any kind of school or university, taking courses of any kind, and so on. Then we’ll wind up on a compound in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of nutters knitting their own underwear!

How weirdly cultish this all is. I could perhaps understand it if it was only baby believers with much weakness who thought like this, but no, we’re speaking about pastors — famous pastors, even.

Great Art is Produced in Spite of the Sinful Nature of its Producer

Yes, all the great composers have been frail, sinful men, to a greater or lesser degree. Yet, somehow, even they have mainly managed to transcend their frailties to write the most intensely beautiful music. The reason we can listen to their music without fear is because, thankfully, it is not propaganda for their sinful lives but enables us to experience great beauty and appreciate the hand of God in using even flawed people to make it. If it was propaganda for sin, then we would not listen to it. But, in this hideous world with its strange vestiges of beauty (and still carrying the tarnished image of God), corrupt people can still produce beautiful works of art. This is one of the great conundrums of living in a fallen world.

To listen to the music or look at the works of art of fallen men does not mean that we will be tainted with their sin. There was a gulf between their actions and their arts. This is not always the case, of course. A few musicians and artists do manifest their evil in their works. But we have nothing to do with those. Our pursuit of purity means that we eschew the morally defective or the debauched and we embrace the plainly lovely and inspiring. But to reject the enjoyment of all works by all sinners is religious fanaticism and madness of the highest order.

Remember this: even this present writer is a frail, sinful man, yet you read his writings! This is hopefully because his literary works transcend his sinfulness and offer something of value to the soul. So, too, can the music of composers. In fact — now get this! — my own conversion was hastened, in part, by listening to the words in the mighty “Qui Tollis” section in Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor, which struck a huge chord in my heart:

“Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis”.
“You, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. You, Who takes away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. You, Who sits at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us”.

From the “Qui Tollis” in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor

What heresy, eh? Yeah, right! 😉 The Pharisees would say (and have indeed said), “The Mass is not biblical, so your conversion is spurious”. How sad and pathetic they are! Blind and bitter. And (now get this!) my own walk towards Christ was sparked initially through reading ‘by chance’ in a bookshop a chapter from the gospels in the New English Bible, a translation which would give most fundamentalists apoplexy! Even the poorest translation can transform the individual who is open to it. All the essentials are still there. (Though — and here’s one for any Pharisees reading this — I am not seeking to promote a less than perfect Bible translation!). My friends, even the music of sinful men can be balm to the soul. Music is a gift from the Lord. Just as the seven colours of the rainbow show God’s fingerprint in the sky, so the seven notes of the scale show His hallmark in music. Try to imagine a world without music and birdsong. What an act of grace to permit such wonders even in a fallen, sinful world such as this!

The Mature Spirituality of Life in the New Covenant

So… back to all this guilt manufacturing. Is it right for followers of Christ to feel so hemmed in by all this guilt and fear? I do not believe so. We, above all other people, should be able to live a life of freedom from fear (Letter to the Romans, chapter 8, verse 15; Second Letter to Timothy, chapter 1, verse 7). We don’t need manipulative, controlling people continually telling us how NOT to behave. That is not the mature spirituality of life in the New Covenant.

We need to be led with brotherly care down the pathway of how we should be behaving. The finger-wagging “not-ness” and bitter judgement of people on slender grounds (often only on the basis of gossip) which we see so much in the Christian scene is a classic characteristic of Pharisee-Land. What is happening here is the development of a crippling culture of the forbidden. One becomes continually frightened of what not to do, what not to think, what not to read, who not to have fellowship with, which versions of the Bible not to read, which places not to go, and so on. One begins to look over one’s shoulder the whole time. I can tell you now that the spirituality of Christ was never meant to be a culture of the forbidden, in which one continually has to be overly-anxious about what not to do due to the whingeing judgements of repressed individuals. Such a crippled life is not what being “in Christ” is all about.

OBJECTION: There are many things which we should not do as Christians. Are you saying that we should do them?

ANSWER: Ha! I was waiting for that one! Of course not. That would be to twist my words in a knot of illogicality (of which there is a lot about). What I am saying is that if we truly have the Spirit, we do not need to be continually told about what we shouldn’t be doing by manipulative, controlling people who never stop spying on others and complaining about them. A certain kind of person in the Christian scene seems to take delight in incessantly reminding other people about what not to do. If we show people what they are capable of doing with their lives and in the spiritual realm — if we inspire them instead of threatening them — then those things which they shouldn’t do will not be so much of an issue. This whole thing is really about control. Unregenerate pastors are always into control, and there are plenty of other impostors who behave in the same manner. Unfortunately, fearful people can be controlled. It is that simple. So when we find some pastor or ministry-maker rigidly laying down the law and engendering fear with threats about who one shouldn’t be mixing with, or where one shouldn’t go, or what one shouldn’t think, or what one shouldn’t do, please know that this is not the scent of the New Covenant in Christ. Such people know nothing of true freedom in Christ and are using their religious power as a way of controlling others. In fact, they are filled with fears themselves, then projecting those fears onto others. Advice, yes. Compulsion, no.

A Dialogue with Caiaphas the Pharisee

By way of illustration, let us just metaphorically eavesdrop on a conversation on the internet forum of the equally metaphorical discernment ministry called “Waiting for the Rapture”. Occasional forum guest, the author and researcher Hol E. Worthy, is being interrogated closely in the chatroom window by “Waiting for the Rapture” director and administrator of the forum, Caiaphas Crossman. Here is the dialogue which ensues:

CAIAPHAS (insinuatingly): “Did you say to someone on this forum that you went to a lecture by Christian Allman last weekend?”

HOL E: (wide-eyed and innocent): “Er, yes, why do you ask?”

CAIAPHAS: “But Allman mixes with people who are distinctly dodgy. Some of them have even signed the Lausanne Covenant”.

HOL E: “So what? I know he has his weaknesses. But he’s a great speaker. Very inspiring. I didn’t detect anything wrong with what he said. And he personally has never signed any covenants”.

CAIAPHAS: “But by just being there you have tainted yourself with HIS sin of association. Firstly, he’s an Anglican. Secondly, he is very likely to be a freemason and he certainly mixes with ecumenists”.

HOL E: “Come on, Caiaphas. That is all supposition mingled with superstition. I judge a man by his fruits and Allman’s record on evangelism and teaching is superb. He has never subverted anyone. You are judging him ridiculously harshly”.

CAIAPHAS (thundering and going red in the face): “No, Mr. Worthy, it is you who is flouting the law of the LORD. Make no mistake about it: The axe of judgement will fall on you for this”.

HOL E: “Well that’s between me and the Lord. I had no check in my spirit about that meeting and I found it to be very spiritually beneficial. Plus, it is not really any of your business”.

CAIAPHAS: “You are deceived, Mr. Worthy. Did you give them your name and address?”

HOL E: “Sure. They took it at the door. We had to fill in a form”.

CAIAPHAS: “WHAT?!? You filled in a form? Have you taken leave of your senses? Those Lausanne people are databasing believers for the beast so that they can all be exterminated”

HOL E (having to repress laughter): “Funny you should say that. I could have sworn I saw little horns growing out of Allman’s head even while he was speaking”.

CAIAPHAS (thundering even more): “It’s not funny in the least and it ill-behoves you to make light of this. The LORD will judge you for such jests. Allman must surely be part of the great Conspiracy of the Coming Antichrist”.

HOL E: “Really? How do you know that?”

CAIAPHAS: “Well he must be, otherwise he would have repudiated those people rather than having anything to do with them. As it saith in the Scripture: “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor.6:14-16, Utterly Authorized Version) and “A drunken man staggereth in his vomit (Isa.19:14, Terribly Authorised Version)”.

HOL E: “You ought to have a chat with Allman. He could probably teach you a thing or two. Allman’s too gracious and longsuffering to repudiate a few old friends because they aren’t as tight as he is. He realises only too well that many weaker brethren aren’t very discerning. That doesn’t make them into sons of Belial. He can tell the difference between a lack of discernment and conspiratorial malice. He’s a mature disciple of Christ. He doesn’t confuse a mere lack of good judgement with the notion that someone is intentionally working for Satan to set up a global conspiracy. He wants to keep bridges open with brethren with whom he might disagree in certain matters but whose hearts are basically in the right place. It’s called spiritual maturity. You should try it sometime”.

CAIAPHAS (in the stern overtones of a judge passing sentence): “Are you or are you not willing to denounce Allman and renounce your involvement with him from henceforth?”

HOL E: Never. I assert my freedom in Christ to fellowship with whom I judge to be beneficial for my soul and theirs”.

CAIAPHAS: “Very well then. Enough of this rebellion. Take notice that I am going to ban you from this forum from now on, for you have wilfully disobeyed the Lord God, who says: “Come out from among them… come out of her, my people” (2 Cor.6:17; Rev.18:4, Unbelievably Authorized Version). You are bringing the gospel into disrepute and have been wickedly divisive. Banning you from this place henceforth is in line with what Paul says in Rom.16:17; Tit.3:10; Gal.5:12; 2 Thess.3:6 (Hugely Authorized Version). I must care for this flock in my charge and you must go henceforth from this forum”.

A CHATROOM MODERATOR (to the chatroom): “Come on, room, let’s cover Caiaphas in prayer and unite with him as he does the Lord’s work”.

A CHATROOM MEMBER: “We’re with you Caiaphas. Let’s deal with this apostate”.

CAIAPHAS (to the chatroom): “Thank you for your support, brethren. As you know, I do not do this lightly. It is with much love and a heavy heart that I must cut off this impostor from the people”.

HOL E (laughing like a drain with disbelief): “You’re all crazy and you don’t even realise it. You know nothing about love and that word has no right to even fall from your lips. It’s like a cult in here. You call yourselves Christians, intrude into the lives of gullible people and make the church into a dark, dark place. It’s supposed to be the suburbs of heaven, but you have twisted all that is supposed to be lovely and made it into a tainted rat-run for finger-waggers and black-capped, mean-faced judges. You have extinguished the light and quashed the spiritual adventure that Christ-centredness is supposed to be. I appeal to the brethren in this room to…” (Caiphas presses the button and Hol E. is gone. The chatroom breathes a sigh of relief. ‘Judgement has fallen justly’, writes one. ‘The Lord has been honoured’, writes another. ‘You will receive your reward from the Lord, Caiaphas’, writes another. A hushed silence of reverence and awe falls on the chatroom. They bask in what they believe is the Spirit’s approving presence).

Pause for thought…

My friends, this is not the spirituality of Christ. No way. It is Pharisaism of the worst sort. Controlling cultic Pharisees. They are everywhere. I have had personal run-ins with many in the past like that Caiaphas. Not any more though. I take great care these days concerning who I spend my time with, whether online or not, and would not waste a moment of my life in their company. If I get the remotest whiff of that dung in the air, I’m outta there. The time has come to free yourself from them. You do not need to be intimidated by them. You can easily stand up to them and have a Christian walk which is based on trust rather than fear. They may seem ferocious, but they have to be seen in perspective. I believe that these enforcers and Pharisees of today are actually damaged people. Emotionally damaged and thus spiritually damaged. They are hiding this damage behind a pious exterior of self-repression and the control of others. They come into the church as some kind of theatre where they can act out their neuroses under the guise of spirituality, while all the while manipulating and coercing others into sharing their repressed worldview and religious fanaticism.

Obviously, there is a certain sadness to this. However, this does not mean that we must, out of compassion, leave them to do their thing without saying anything. If a man abusing one of his kids is subsequently discovered to have been abused himself as a child, this doesn’t mean that he should be allowed to continue the abusing without anything being said. That would be ludicrously irresponsible. The abusers and Pharisees in the church today are just as destructive and need to be confronted firmly with what they are doing. Many are frightened of them, with good reason. For they are scary people. So how can we resist their attacks and nullify their destructive behaviour?

Dealing with the Destructive Behaviour of Today’s Pharisees

For a start, we can follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was continually being hounded by the religious fundamentalists of His time (especially the Pharisees, but also the Sadducees, priests, lawyers and scribes) but He always stood His ground. He clearly exposed the fact that “they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23, verse 4). That is the natural fallout of creating a culture of the forbidden. Occasionally, He had to denounce them in a most devastating manner (read, e.g., the whole of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23). But generally, he confronted their Pharisaism and hypocrisy in a reasoned and patient manner. And so should we. Sometimes He toyed with them in an almost sarcastic manner, in the hope that this would give them insight. For example, he says to the Scribes, “Have you never read…?” and then He quoted Psalm 8, verse 2. The Scribes were those who spent their whole days and nights writing out scrolls of Scripture, which they knew by heart; and Jesus says to them, “Have you never read…?” Brilliant! That is an expert takedown!

It is plain that all those religious people — the Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers and Scribes — were completely jealous of His freedom from fetters, His inner wisdom and His popularity. He was running rings around them (which is always easy to do as such folks are not normally the brightest bulbs in the box as far as spiritual wisdom goes). He was, not surprisingly, stealing the limelight from them. Above all, they resented Him practising mercy and justice and placing those things on a higher pedestal than the ritualistic religious observance which they carried out to the letter and beyond. Consequently, they were particularly miffed about Him hanging out with those deemed by them to be lowlifes:

“Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard that, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance’”.

Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9, verse 10-13

What a great retort! He tells them to go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”. They needed educating, so He set them some homework. Imagine a man not much older than 30 years old giving the proud Pharisees some homework! Boom! If ever there was a lesson which needs learning, this is it. What does it mean? It is a quote from the Book of Hosea, chapter 6, verse 6: “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”. Here we see a lovely pointing forward to the New Covenant from the Old. The Lord was revealing that something of much more importance lay behind all the sacrificial rituals in which the Pharisees would have been immersed (by rote). For one could go through the motions of all those rituals yet never really “get it”. Get what? Get the fact that the rituals were never meant to be an end in themselves because their sole purpose, as a temporary signpost, was ultimately to point the way to Christ, the real sacrifice. We must not think that the purpose of sacrifice in the Old Testament was a human attempt to ‘appease an angry god’, such as it was with pagan religions. It was never about appeasement, as if a sacrifice would sort of ‘change God’s mind’ about the one doing the sacrifice. This is why Christ plainly said to the religious folks, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’”. The primary purpose of sacrifice in the Old Testament was to bring an awareness of one’s moral failure and the restoration of relationship with the Divine. This is precisely the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice also. Sacrifice was never really about bringing ‘satisfaction’ to God through some kind of ritual killing — implying that God’s mind can somehow be changed through the act — but about Divine restoration. This is the great ‘underground’ purpose of the Old Covenant. For even under that covenant, that great secret was revealed. As the wise proverb says: “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” (Book of Proverbs, chapter 21, verse 3). Wow! What an amazing statement to make. It is saying that our inner spirituality and its practical outworkings in the world are what count and not our outward religious observances. This is stamped all over the Old Testament like the delicate fingerprints of Christ. Another example is in the Book of Micah:

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Book of Micah, chapter 6, verses 6-8

There we have that justice, mercy and righteousness again, along with humility. These are what should ooze out of our pores like a sweet-smelling aroma (Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 14-16). That is what is being asked of us to practice. It is not an unreasonable request, for such love is actually the aim of the law of God in our lives (Letter to the Romans, chapter 13, verse 10), not always looking for what others are doing wrong and haranguing them. Many folks think that by going to church regularly, opening their Bibles and reading, praying, serving as an elder, avoiding the “wrong” people, and indulging in other outward aspects of Churchianity, they will be pleasing to God. But those things in and of themselves are not what pleases the Lord, who actually sees beyond the outward motions right into the heart. The only real things which the Lord requires of us are “to do righteousness… to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly” with Him. The qualities which really lay behind the law of the Old Covenant — what the Lord Jesus called “the weightier matters of the law” — always were justice and mercy and faith (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23, verse 23). Those who “get it” know this.

Those who were true believers in Israel under the Old Covenant (which was generally comparatively few) “got it”. Let’s look at a couple of important examples of Old Covenant people who “got it”. For example, David “got it”. In one psalm, he says: “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart” (Book of Psalms, 51, verses 16-17). Similarly, in another psalm, he says:

 “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart’”.

Book of Psalms, 40, verses 6-8

We can see from the above two quotations that true spirituality is rooted in the heart — not in any outward ritual. This was even apparent to Old Testament believers. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart”. YES! To understand this is to “get it”. In just the same way that Old Testament believers “got it” by realizing that the actual Old Testament land of Israel was only ever intended to be a temporary pointer to “a better, that is, a heavenly country” (Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11, verses 13-16), so they also “got it” by realizing that the rituals and sacrifices were only ever temporary signals of something better —which would indeed come in a New Covenant which God would guarantee in Christ (Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 22). [To read more about this, see my free-to-download book, “Abraham our Father: Jerusalem our Mother“.]

In a truly remarkable outburst of New Covenant theology, one of the scribes said to the Lord Jesus: “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him, and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark, chapter 12, verses 32-33). Amazing! Now there’s a guy who “got it”. Small wonder that “when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’” (Mark, chapter 12, verse 34).

So, we can see that the remnant who were true believers under the Old Covenant “got it”. Those who are true believers under the New Covenant also “get it”. Those who don’t “get it” have always continually criticized those who do — which is why the Lord Jesus had such a hard time with the Pharisees and all the rest of the legalists. This is par for the course when you are a true disciple of Christ. The Pharisees will always despise your freedom in Christ, disdain your disregard for mere outward appearances and they will absolutely loathe the blossoming of a sense of righteousness, mercy and justice in your heart. This will always mean that those who “get it” will always come under the terrible scrutiny of those who don’t. And when those who don’t “get it” have some power of control over you, you will pay for it bigtime.

Another Personal Anecdote from Many Years Ago (this is for real!)

There now follows another personal anecdote based on a real incident. I hope that you “get it”:

“And behold, I wanted to organize a conference to which I would invite those who do not yet have a faith in Christ but who have some shared interests in the wayward direction of the events of this world. In this I saw a unique evangelistic, bridge-building opportunity. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to their e-mail lists: “Now do you see what an impostor this man is? He is plainly a wolf in sheep’s clothing encouraging us to mingle with Satan’s seed so as to usher in the Antichrist”. When I heard of this, I replied to the Pharisees: “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. Go and learn what this means: ‘I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some’. Then read First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 19-23, then read the extended CyberSermon which I have written on those verses, entitled ‘Becoming All Things to All People’”. For we have not been regenerated in order to hide in ratholes with a bazooka on our shoulders and bitter condemnation in our hearts. We, above all other people, have been called to build bridges which can carry a multitude, especially those who I call ‘disciples-in-waiting’”.

The Need for Maturity to Soften the Heart and Get the Spiritual Juices Flowing

This whole thing is really about spiritual maturity and, unfortunately, most professing ‘Christians’ are terribly immature, and wilfully so, for they refuse to mature, they do not want to mature, they do not even realise that they need to mature. This has nothing whatsoever to do with gathering experience or the number of years one has been in the faith. It is a state of soul. This is not merely about the personal spiritual maturity of each one of us but also the spiritual maturity necessarily involved in the change from the Old Covenant to the New. I wrote at length about this in my article “From Servitude to Sonship: The Law of God & the Covenants” (which I must update and put on my website). It is a wonderful subject.

When we were children, we were always being told not to do things. Do not touch this. Do not touch that. Do not go here. Do not go there. Do not speak to strangers. Etc. But as the child matures, the wise parent realises that those commands must became less and less frequent. As the child matures, the commands gradually change to advice and sometimes admonition. Sometimes the maturing person must even be left to his own devices so that he learns from his experiences. This is what has happened in the change from the Old Covenant to the New. Pharisaic people have no understanding of this whatsoever. The essence of what I am teaching here is enshrined in the saying of the psalmist to his God: “Your law is within my heart” (Book of Psalms, 40, verse 8). This is what New Covenant teaching is all about. We see it drawn big in the Book of Jeremiah:

“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more”.

Book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verses 33-34

Do you see what is being said here? This New Covenant indeed began to be realized, beginning with the house of Israel at the coming of Christ (such as we saw above with the scribe who “got it”) and radiating outwards from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria and unto the ends of the earth (Book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8). True believers don’t really need crude commands or guilt-inducing manipulation or gaslighting, for the law is in their hearts, the Spirit indwells them, they are not little children anymore. In other words, the New Covenant believer does naturally what those living under the Old Covenant had to be commanded to do or not to do. He or she will certainly stumble from time to time, but even that will work to their own good if their hearts are essentially changed through being “born from above”. In God’s gymnasium, all things work together for good as far as the true believer is concerned. Nevertheless, as a general rule, the New Covenant believer has God’s law engraved on his or her heart and thus grows and operates on the basis of encouragements and inspirations rather than mere brute commands from some control-freak.

Thus, instead of outright commands, we have admonitions in the New Testament. The dictionary definition of “admonish” is “to reprove gently but earnestly”. The New Testament is full of that. This is why Paul referred to himself and his co-workers as “ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 6). So, when he wants to encourage us to higher things, he doesn’t continually hurl threats and commands but he admonishes. The bottom line is this: “Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Letter to the Philippians, chapter 1, verse 27). If we are His, we already have all the resources at our disposal to do this. We do not need anyone breathing down our necks to force us to do it with fear and loathing.

Time to Leave the Religious Bullies and Pharisees Behind!

There are far too many religious bullies in the Christian scene whose only desire is to squeeze others into the constricted alley down which they have chosen to go. They will stop at nothing in order to prevent you from exploring the full depth and breadth of the envelope of faith in which the Lord has placed us. The more you explore, the more they will set out to destroy you, for they want you under their control. But they have no right before God to do this. None whatsoever. For the way of education in the New Covenant is not through fear and coercion but through love and persuasion and sometimes loving admonition.

If we want to exercise our rightful freedom in Christ, we must resist these coercers and be fearless of the inevitable bitter backlash which they will manifest. I can assure you that it will come. Remember, “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment” (First Letter of John, chapter 4, verse 18). Perfect (i.e., mature) love —the love which comes with spiritual maturity — has no room for fear and torment.

Let us therefore be nurturers of this love in ourselves and in others — using it to fend off the fear which the Pharisees effuse and steering clear of the cul-de-sac of coercion down which they would force us. This is our Declaration of Independence from attempted bondage and a proclamation of our freedom in the law of Christ.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]