"Weightier Matters"

Keith McNeely

(Matthew 23:23)

Jesus expects His followers to not only believe in Him, but to live a life that is effected by those beliefs. This is not a showy life of hypocrisy that is denounced in Matthew 6:1-6, but rather a life that makes decisions based upon beliefs learned from Christ and His Word.

Jesus took aim at those that would profess to be followers of God, but yet would not learn and properly react to the “weightier matters of the law”. He pronounced a woe upon the scribes and Pharisees because they firmly supported the tithing of mint, anise and cumin but “have omitted the weightier matters of the law” (Matthew 23:23).

Mint, anise and cumin “were garden herbs grown in small quantities and used chiefly for flavoring.” (McGarvey on Matthew). Thus they were evidently very exacting in their tithing even to the extent of gathering the herbs from the garden and giving ten percent of them back to God. These actions depict an individual that was meticulous to the highest degree. Understand “Jesus did not condemn the tithing of these, but condemned their scrupulousness in tithing these little things, and leaving undone, or disregarding, the weightier matters of ‘justice, and mercy, and faith’.” (H. Leo Boles on Matthew-Gospel Advocate commentary series).

The fault that Jesus addresses is a failure to be sensitive to the “weightier matters”. Jesus first addresses judgment, “means here right judgment of our fellow-men.” (McGarvey). It is a fact that we are to be our brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:9); and that we who are spiritual are to have interaction with and restore those that are overtaken in fault (Galatians 6:1). Second, Jesus mentions mercy, which is defined as “Forbearance toward the guilty and compassion toward the suffering.” (McGarvey). Third, Jesus mentions faith, it “Is both the belief of the truth and habitual manifestation of that belief in the life.” (McGarvey).

Mature Christians do not have to live very long before such individuals are encountered. Those individuals that are detail conscious yet are willing to dismiss seemingly more important things. As Jesus puts it they “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” One writer commented that gnats were from time to time getting into the wine during it’s making, and that the gnat was considered unclean and so they would strain out these gnats, but they would commit sins enough to be a load for a camel to bear.

Christian are you conscious of the bigger things in your life? That is are you mindful of judgment, mercy and faith? Or are you spending all your waking moments on the minor issues? Be cautious that you do not “major on the minors”.