Matthew 23:23
“”Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus Christ tells us to focus on the “weightier matters” of judgment, mercy, and faith, while only one of these are mentioned in the Ten Commandments. Mercy is a blessing from God to the thousands who keep His law (Exodus 20:6).
Why do these three virtues carry such weight? While professing to give strict adherence to the Law of God, the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees missed the mark relative to their spiritual condition. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus Christ did not say, “You are breaking the law. You need to keep it!” They had the law, and they allegedly kept it, in great detail. The problem appears to be that they had completely lost the meaning and purpose of the law. Instead of it being a joy and benefit to them, it had become a burden grievous and unhealthy to their spiritual state.
God intended the law to be “the law of liberty” (James 1:25; 2:12). If a person were to meditate upon it and obey it, they are to be liberated from guilt, shame, feelings of worthlessness, self-pity, abandonment, and loneliness. We can only obtain joy and happiness when we keep the law with God’s intended spirit and attitude. If a person were to use of the law or to break of it, they will be lead to negative effects that do not include, joy and happiness.
The scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees used the law on their fellowman like a weapon and perverted it for their own selfish gain. There did not follow the purpose stated by the Apostle James, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble” (James 1:27). To the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees, Jesus did not explain the relationship of judgment, mercy, and faith to the law. If anyone establishes the Law of God’s purpose and meaning, they will gain correct “weightier matters” perspective of how it should be kept, even in today’s world.
