Fake Christianity: 3 Signs of an Inauthentic Faithნიმუში

Fake Christianity Mandates Higher Standards for Others

Grains of wheat. A withered hand. A sheep in a pit. It’s hard to imagine what these three things have in common until you read Matthew 12. Jesus and His disciples pinched off heads of grain as they walked through a farmer’s field on the Sabbath. Though this was legal, the Pharisees accused Jesus and His disciples of breaking the Sabbath law. Jesus reminded the Pharisees that because of the disciples’ hunger, no sin was committed in pinching off the kernels for sustenance.

In a second incident, He also challenged the hypocrisy of forbidding the rescue (healing) of a man from a physical affliction on the Sabbath but not thinking twice about rescuing an animal from a pit.

The Pharisees were creating religious rules for others but not keeping those rules themselves—a characteristic of “fake faith.”

Do you see where you tie up heavy burdens, rules that you hold to religiously, and place them on others? Often times these rules are good preferences that are turned into ironclad rules. Maybe it’s a particular approach to schooling children, a style of music, or something along these lines. Jesus doesn’t want you to be burdened by these things or for you to be a burden to others with these things. Instead, He wants you to foster a burden-relieving love. He desires for your life to look more like His life—one where He actively takes on burdens at great cost to Himself, in order to relieve others’ burdens.

Discussion Questions:

• If you had been with Jesus and the disciples during the grain-picking incident, how do you think the Pharisees’ reaction would have made you feel? (Confused, angry, disappointed, discouraged, etc.)
• When we hold someone to a higher standard than ourselves, we add to their burden. Do you agree with that statement? Why or why not?