Letter and spirit of the law by God. Not all Pharisees, nor all Jews of that time, were legalistic. Though modern language has used the word Pharisee in the pejorative to describe someone who is legalistic and rigid, it is not an accurate description of all Pharisees. The argument over the "Spirit of the Law" vs. the "Letter of the Law" was part of early Jewish dialogue as well The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is one of the New Testament texts to address this theme. The passage concerns a dialogue between Jesus and an "expert in the law" or "lawyer". As described in
Parable of Drawing in the Net Aubrey Lee Brooks professor of theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, asserted that the parable is about the harvest. He explained that the present age is different from the future age, but both stand under divine ordinance. The church should not attempt to establish a holy community. The association of the evil with the righteous is only temporary. At the end, the separation will occur and therefore each Christian must examine himself to avoid being declared evil. John Chrysostom described this as a "terrible parable," noting that: And wherein does this differ from the parable of the tares?