James 3:1 "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation."
In this verse, the Holy Ghost by James the brother of Jesus was making a reference to:
Matthew 23:14 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation."
In this, the Bible is giving us the connection between the scribes and Pharisees, and the word "master". Referring to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said in:
Matthew 23:8 "But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren."
This is yet another witness from Scripture that the scribes and Pharisees who call themselves "Rabbi" (meaning "master") have sought replace Jesus who is the real Master.
A "scribe" is in a sense a writer, while a Pharisee is a sense a priest, and they both work together to teach the law. They called themselves "Rabbi" (meaning "master"). Contrast this with Jesus, who is the real Master. Jesus is both the living Word as well as the written Word, he being the Word of God from heaven.
All forms of the word "scribe" (scribe, scribes) and all forms of the word "Pharisee" (Pharisee, Pharisees) are found together in the same verse 44 times in 22 verses in the 1611 King James Bible. These numbers ought to blow your mind if you are someone who believes that God has put his divine signature in the book that he has authored.
Today, we find many false bibles (NIV, NKJV, NASB, ESV, NLT, etc) and many more false teachers (I won't name the names) in churches all over the world. Even though the scribes and the Pharisees are no longer with us, but their spirits live on in the form of "... doctrine of the Pharisees" (Matthew 16:12). In that sense, they continue to make disciples, converting them into '...twofold more the child of hell' (Matthew 23:15) than themselves. Their spirits are very much alive in false churches built upon false bibles, preaching false gospels, and teaching the congregation to deny Christ, producing false converts. John tells us in:
1 John 4:3 "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."
The spirit of antichrist is one with the scribes and the Pharisees who hated Jesus (the Word of God) and persecuted the body of believers, which "... which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Revelation 12:17) Someone once challenged me: "Show me the evidence that modern version bibles confess not that Jesus is come in the flesh!" My simple answer to his challenge is this elaborated in this post:
Jesus said in:
John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:"
Where is the voice of the LORD these days? Many teachers, especially those from the liberal churches, claim to hear the voice of the LORD whispered through the "Holy Spirit". Is that true? How do we know that for a fact? How different are these teachers before the eyes of the LORD from common believers like you and me?
So, I looked up the word "whisper" in the King James Bible. No where in the Bible did I find the Holy Ghost speaking directly or whispering to believers. The method by which the Holy Ghost impart knowledge, wisdom and understanding to a born again Bible-believing Christian is to teach him all things which he (the Holy Ghost) has brought to his (the believer's) remembrance, along with the words in the Holy Bible which the believer has heard, and has kept in his heart (r. John 14:26). The Holy Ghost does not speak directly to a believer. There are entities which do "whisper", however, it is not the Holy Ghost. These entities are "familiar spirits" according to Isaiah 29:4. BTW, this is how familiar spirits work in churches today, enabled by the doctrines of the Pharisees which works to shut the kingdom of God against men.
What about the fruits of the disciples of the scribes and Pharisees who claim to be Christians?
Open your eyes and see how many Pharisees these false churches have produced, people who call themselves Christians yet reject the truth for lies, and get offended at the very words of the LORD. Some of them even claim to be fundamental Christians or KJV-onlyists, but when we examine their comments or writings, often times we will find that they either employ rhetoric to wrest Scripture or they use things that are not found in the KJV but they present as Scriptural truth in their arguments. You will easily find their teachings on the internet. The fear of the LORD is not in them. These are not real born again bible-believers but scribes and Pharisees wanting to teach and make converts out of the people they met online.