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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give
a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. 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. 24 You blind guides! You
strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
Matthew 23:23-24
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
“Woe to you…you hypocrites!”
These are not words anyone should want to
hear Jesus say to them but as we have seen over the past four devotions, the
members of the Jewish religious establishment were hearing them spoken again
them.
Why was Jesus rebuking these seemingly
pious men who claimed to be holy representatives of the Lord?
Because they were not only rejecting
salvation through opposing Jesus but they were influencing people to do the
same. Additionally, the spiritual attitude of the Jewish leaders was not
inclined toward God. They were neither consulting God in reference to Jesus and
His ministry nor were they placing their full faith in Him. In fact, they were
placing more importance in offerings given to the temple or placed on the altar
than they were the more divine temple or altar themselves.
As we read this, we’re reminded just how
easily religious leaders can be led astray when they lose their focus on the
Lord and instead focus on either themselves or the things of the world. And as
we’ll see today, these leaders can also err in placing more of an emphasis on
minute matters while overlooking more significant ones. Such is the case with
the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as we see in today’s scripture
passage and the fifth devotion of this series on woeful behavior. Look again at
these words here:
“Woe to you, teachers
of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint,
dill and cumin. 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. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but
swallow a camel.” Matthew 23:23-24
Here, we find Jesus highlighting a “good
news, bad news” scenario.
The good news was that the Pharisees and
teachers of the law were laser-focused on tithing. They took their obligation
to give one tenth to the temple to extreme degrees, even offering up a tenth of
their spices like mint, dill, and cumin. This was good and the Jewish religious
leaders were setting a great example for their followers when it came to the
matter of giving.
Unfortunately, the Pharisees and teachers
of the law were not as laser-focused on larger matters, matters that were as
important as tithing if not more.
What were these larger matters?
Jesus tells us, calling the Jewish
religious authorities for neglecting critical social elements such as justice,
mercy, and faithfulness. One could argue that measuring out an offering and
giving it is pretty easy. It can be done rather quickly, an obligation met. But
when it comes to justice, mercy, and faithfulness, a person would have to work
harder and do so consistently over time. Upholding those God-given requirements
would take conscientious effort by the Pharisees and teachers of the law and it
was obvious they weren’t willing to put forth that effort. If they had, Jesus
wouldn’t have had to call out their woeful behavior.
This highlighted a problem with legalism, a
root issue with the Jewish religious leaders. They were so rooted in stringent
conformance with the law that they often missed the bigger picture. Legalism
can too often minimize or eliminate being humanitarian or as a commentary I
read on this passage stated, the Pharisees and teachers of the law “majored in
minors but minored in the majors”.
Anyone doing the work of the Lord needs to
be well-rounded and willing to do everything He expects and wills to be done.
We can’t pick and choose the things we feel are more important than others, or
even worse, to choose to willingly do the things we don’t want to do or the
things we don’t want to invest in.
The Lord wants us to be totally obedient to
Him in all things He calls us to do. To do otherwise is woeful.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at the sixth devotion
in this series. Hope you’ll come back to read it.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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