Be careful about pointing the finger of blame at just the Pharisees

Feb 03, 2026

Scripture Testifies About Christ

===

You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me

John 5:39 (NET)

===

Jesus was chastising the religious leaders here.

He was not gentle with them.

He demanded much more because they were knowledgeable and in leadership roles.

They used their positions of authority to build up their own status, but didn’t help the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

You’d think as much time as they spent memorizing the Old Testament that they would have paid more attention to the warnings from the prophets.

Well… it’s easy to point fingers at them.

Yet I’m prone to the same temptations of pride.

Something useful I’ve found in reading through the four Gospels — especially when I come across passages like this where Jesus is disciplining the religious leaders — is asking myself the hard question:

Is this true of me too?

I don’t let myself say “no” and then move on.

I sit in it.

I take some time to think about it. I recognize that as a man who has been placed in some leadership positions within the Church (or, at least, para-church ministries) I have a similar responsibility as the Pharisees did.

They failed in their spiritual leadership.

I don’t want to fail in mine.

So, I ask the hard questions, dig into the hard answers, and take steps to make changes that lead to better work with God.

Now, I’m not going to demand you do something similar … but … I think you should consider it.

Not easy to do, but worth it.

In my humble opinion.

— Ricky Ketchum

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Daily Scripture Minute

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?