Relationship or law

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

RELATIONSHIP OR LAW

Matt 23:23-24

23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. 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.

NIV

This comes down to paying attention to the letter of the law but missing the spirit of the law. Sure it is important to pay attention to the commands of God when it comes to living our life in the material sense. That is we should be bringing our tithe and offerings. Although there is no specific command within the New Testament about tithing, it seems we have retained that much of the Old Testament law. Certainly Jesus taught about giving to those in need and do it cheerfully, but there is absolutely no mention that New Testament Christians are obligated to tithe. That was part of the Old Testament law which Jesus fulfilled along with the rest of the law. If we live by one aspect of the law then we did not accept what Jesus did for us, as well as living by one point of the law puts us under the rest of the law. This would agree with the fact that if we are guilty of one point of the law, we are guilty of the whole law. Nevertheless what Jesus was charging them with was that they were so meticulous about their tithe, even down to the herbs in their garden, but were so impervious to the relational aspect of living with others. This is a self-centered personality trait, which we can see in the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. Jesus already told them all they do is for men to see rather than God. That is because of their need to be the center of attention, getting praise from men for their great appearance of holiness. Yet they left out the relational aspects of treating others as they would have others treat them. They were not interested in mercy toward others and judgment of God and faith in God. The Greek word which this translation uses as faithfulness is in reality just faith. This could only mean faith in God, for although we should have faith in our fellow man, it is faith rather than works which yields salvation.  The other word translated as justice in the Greek is means judgment, such as the judgment of the Messiah. This means they were not interested in seeing or having correct judgment of the scriptures in seeing that Jesus was the Messiah.  There life was all about them, not about others or God. Of course Jesus told them they should not forsake the former of tithing, because until he went to the cross the Jews were obligated to the law. But the point here for us is that we might get so intense about the rules and regulations of doing everything just right, being a good Christian that we really have forgotten the spirit of being a believer. We may well forget the relational aspects of living a Christian life. We might be so focused on doing good deeds, whatever that is for each of us, we lose sight of how we treat each other. In fact we might even rationalize some of our attitudes or behavior toward each other that is not mercy. Sometimes we forget to have mercy toward each other. This would show up in our judgmental attitudes toward them. We might also be so concerned about following the rules that we are not properly judging the scriptures in light of the spiritual aspects and our relationship and total dependency on God. We might think that good works are more important than faith in God. Yes, if we have faith we will do good works, but they are a result of faith, not a replacement of faith. And yet those works are not in obedience to the rules and regulations, the law, but in our relational aspects of life. Good works certainly can imply helping those in need, but it also implies our attitudes and behaviors toward each other. What good is helping those in need if we harbor any ill feelings or are judgmental toward our follow man? That would be just as the teachers of the law and Pharisees who are so particular about their tithe of spices and are not proper in their attitudes and behaviors toward others. No, we need to see being like Jesus is all about relationships, not about the law.