A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone that is perfectly instructed will be like his teacher.”​—Luke 6:39, 40.

Too, just as “a pupil” who imbibes the thinking patterns of his teacher becomes “like his teacher,” so all who imitated the Pharisees would end up being like them​—out of God’s favor and in danger of losing their lives. Hence, Jesus said on another occasion:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you traverse sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one you make him a subject for Gehenna [eternal destruction] twice as much so as yourselves.”​—Matt. 23:13-15.