From Karen Armstrong’s A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam:

In the New Testament, the Pharisees are depicted as whited sepulchres and blatant hypocrites.  This is due to the distortions of first-century polemic.  The Pharisees were passionately spiritual Jews.  They believed that the whole of Israel was called to be a holy nation of priests. God could be present in the humblest home as well as in the Temple.  Consequently they lived like the official priestly caste, observing the special laws of purity that applied only to the Temple in their own homes. … They cultivated a sense of God’s presence in the smallest detail of daily life.  Jews could now approach him directly without the mediation of a priestly caste and elaborate ritual.

In the church I grew up in, Pharisee was an insult.  However, a set-apart way of life and purposeful attempts to bring God into every aspect of life is what my church taught.  Unfortunately, most Christians are far more like the Pharisees that were mocked by Jesus in Luke.