Tuesday, February 18, 2020

WOEFUL BEHAVIOR (PART 5)


Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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

No comments: