Articles
These Are The Things You Should Have Done - Matthew 23:23
These Are The Things You Should Have Done - Matthew 23:23
I find it interesting that certain verses are seemingly known by almost everyone in America. People who have never read the bible can quote John 3:16. People that have no idea where to find the Sermon on the Mount can quote the “judge not lest you be judged” of Matt. 7:1. Another verse that is often partially quoted is Matt. 23:23; but the last part is left off.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23).
It is often alleged that we ‘only need to do the big stuff’ and not worry about ‘the little things’; of course, the ‘big stuff’ is usually defined by the one making such allegation. Usually I have heard this quoted when it has been pointed out that something needs to be done. The quoting of the first part of this verse is used to excuse the disobedience, while the rest of this verse is completely unknown.
The scribes and Pharisees had been meticulous in offering up the tenth of even the garden herbs. It is a funny picture to me of seeing a Pharisees measuring out the mint and dill so as to enable their giving of a tenth. However, as funny as that might be to us, Jesus did NOT tell them to quit worrying about such small matters of obedience. To the contrary, He affirmed that they OUGHT to have done that! Their problem was NOT in the tithing of such herbs but in the neglecting of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Their obedience was selective and partial.
When WE begin dividing the commandments of God into ‘big’ and ‘little’ ones, it seems to me that we often err in favor of our own likes and dislikes. If it is something that we find distasteful or difficult to do, it gets relegated to the unimportant list. Once put on the unimportant list, it simply gets forgotten.
In practicing justice, mercy, and faithfulness, I have my own difficult time seeing how that would keep the Pharisees from tithing mint, dill and cummin. Again, the problem was not in the tithing of these herbs but in their neglect of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. I am not sure that there would be an occasion where in they could NOT tithe these herbs. What I do know is Jesus said that they should not have neglected such small things!
I am sure there are times when we are faced with a choice of having to neglect one commandment in order to keep another. That appears to be a logical conclusion from this teaching. However, in my own struggle to walk in the light I have not often been faced with such a dilemma.
We need to be bluntly honest with ourselves when we begin excusing ourselves for disobedience. Is it REALLY a matter of having to leave off the doing one in order to keep another? Is there not a way that we could do both? Have we really attempted to find a way to obey both?
Yes, there are weightier provisions of God’s commandments. Yet, concerning the ‘lighter provisions’, Jesus taught that those too should be done and not neglected. We need to be careful in our handling of God’s word.
Hugh DeLong
