“How Much Of God's Law Should We Ignore?”

Sunday, November 08, 2015

In Matthew 23, Jesus pronounces a long list of woes on the religious leaders and teachers of his day. In verse 23 of that chapter, he says, “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.” 

For many, there is a great temptation to interpret these words as meaning that we should not worry so much about keeping the “small details” of the law, but we should only focus on the biggest and most important things like love. We are told that Jesus’ problem with the Pharisees was that they put too much emphasis on the wrong things, and so we focus less on the details so the big picture is most important.

This interpretation, however, overlooks Jesus’ defining statement of the passage. He does not instruct his hearers to ignore any part of the law, but rather tells them to focus on the entire law. “These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” While the Pharisees thought that the matters of the heart such as justice and mercy and faithfulness could be overlooked, and while many today believe that the “smaller” commands of God can be overlooked, Jesus’ point overrides both of them. The point is TOTAL obedience—faithfulness to God in both our hearts and in our actions. Nothing short of this is true service to him. Nothing short of this truly respects his authority and power. Nothing short of this truly understands what he has commanded from us.

Jesus made the same point in the Mountain Message. There he said, “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). In the verses immediately preceding, he had informed his audience that he did not have any intentions of undermining the authority of the Old Testament scriptures. His intentions were, instead, to teach the multitudes about the true nature of the law which God had always intended. It was, from the very outset, a law to transform people on every level—to the deepest levels of the heart and the most minuscule opportunities for obedience to his commands. His calling is the same for us. Will we keep his law without neglecting any of it? 

- Dan Lankford, evangelist

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