Exodus 19:16-21:21Matthew 23:13-39
Psalm 28:1-9
Proverbs 7:1-5
Matthew 23- 23"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
This text is one of those that I've really had a hard time with. What is the balance between the weightier matters of the law and the lesser matters? While I know this verse has a clearly Jewish meaning, I am challenged by the Christian application. Does one weigh God's Salvation on the same level as Church Decisions? Should we say that Love has the same weight as Christian Worship? This is a very complex question with a multitude of answers. While I won't pretend to have it figured out, I will say that Jesus' response seems to be twofold. 1) Don't neglect the more important 2) Don't neglect the former. May I suggest that too often what we see in this area is a pendulum swing one way or the other. One direction is that Christians forget the weightier and only honor the lesser matters (example: showing zero love or compassion towards the broken out of righteous indignation). The other direction is that Christians honor the weightier yet forget the lesser matters (example: showing Christian love, but acting in rebellion towards the church). Jesus seems to be calling us to a balance here. Christianity is about majoring in the majors, minoring in the minors, and acting like Jesus during that entire process. Difficult? You bet it is.
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