The Pharisee of old and the christian of today share the same common ground.
1. They believe that since they are the “chosen” of God, that they cannot be forsaken by God. They have not been revealing the love of God to those around them but they do not notice this. With this thought in their mind, God cannot reach them, since they believe they are righteous by their works and their profession. They (Pharisee and christian) do not take a moment and ask “who are my neighbors”. They do not ask if they would like some other mighty nation to suddenly land in our country, and help dissident Americans overthrow the brutal Bush regime. Instead, they bomb a country (or 50) into oblivion, set up a puppet government, then boast of the efforts they spent rebuilding those countries.
2. They have rejected the Son, the only One who could show them the error of their ways. These two conditions place them where they have nothing but a form of religion, but do not have the same Spirit that God has, nor His Son.
The whole of the New Testament was to reveal how a Christian lives, moves and has His being. Jesus had to show the difference between living by a set of man made religious ideas, verses living by the true Spirit of God (Christ).
This is why I bring up America's acts of terrorism throughout the world. You teach your children not to play by the “eye for an eye” game. You tell your little ones (if you have them) to ignore the bully and reveal God's love to the hard hearts. But when it comes to national pride, Americans are all for getting back at those who have wronged us.
This is the most clear demonstration that modern christians follow a fairy tale, rather than the actual Spirit of Love, The Spirit of Christ. The scriptures are plane “love your enemies” but this does not happen, thus revealing that men do not follow Christ.
Jesus said to the Jew “your house has been left desolate”, that is what I say to those who might feed the poor, but drop bombs on those that live farther away in other countries.