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The Weightier Matters of the Law (Matthew 23:23-24) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine for a second you were just walking down your street
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and you see your neighbor standing out there in their
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driveway. OK, I am picturing it.
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Yeah, and they have, you know, a bucket of soapy water, a big
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sponge, and they were just meticulously washing and waxing
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the outside of their car. Right, just a normal Saturday
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chore. Yeah, exactly.
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I mean, they're scrubbing the rims, polishing the door
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handles, making sure there is not a single water spot on the
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paint. They look totally dedicated to
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taking care of this vehicle so. Far they sound like a pretty
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good neighbor to have. Well, yeah, but here is the
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massive problem. While they are scrubbing the
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exterior, the hood is popped open and the engine block is
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actively on fire. Oh wow.
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OK, that took a turn. Right.
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Flames are shooting out, black smoke is just billowing into the
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sky, and total destruction is happening under the hood.
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Yet they just keep polishing the side mirrors.
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That is, that is a really terrifying image because the
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disproportion of their focus is just so extreme.
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Yeah, it really is. I mean they are obsessed with
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making the outside look flawless to anyone walking by while
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completely ignoring the catastrophic reality that the
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whole core of the vehicle is burning to the ground.
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That terrifying disproportion is, well, it is the very subject
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we are unpacking today. Welcome to reform thinking.
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It is great to be here for this one.
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Today we are bringing you a really intensive look into a
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specific passage of Scripture. We are doing a deep dive into
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Matthew chapter 23, verses 23 and 24.
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Yeah, this is a heavy one. It really is.
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This is a moment where Jesus delivers just a blistering,
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absolute critique of religious hypocrisy.
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And you know, the sources we are looking at today provide two
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really comprehensive theological expositions on this very
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specific text, right? And our mission for this deep
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dive is to unpack the devastating warning against what
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we can call microlegalism. Microlegalism.
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I like that term. Yeah, it is this human tendency
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to obsess over microscopic outward rules while completely
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abandoning the heavy inward virtues of God's law.
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Which brings us right back to your car analogy.
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It is all about presenting A flawless exterior while the
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engine is actively on fire. So to grasp the full weight of
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this ancient critique, we first have to, you know, step into the
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tense, politically charged streets of 1st century
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Jerusalem. Yeah, the historical setting
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here is absolutely critical. We are in the final week of
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Jesus's earthly ministry. Right, the clock is ticking down
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to the crucifixion. Exactly.
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The tension in the city is just palpable.
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He has made his triumphal entry, he has cleansed the temple and
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now he's engaged in this escalating series of public
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clashes. And he's clashing specifically
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with the religious establishment, right?
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Yes, the text is operating within the dispensation of the
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Law. Jesus is offering the Davidic
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Kingdom to the nation of Israel, but the apostate leaders are
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actively rejecting Him. And this specific confrontation
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is really the climax of that rejection, isn't?
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It it is the targets of this specific rebuke are the scribes
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who are the experts in the law and the Pharisees.
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Let us let us put some dirt under our feet here and
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understand who he is talking to, because people today throw the
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word Pharisee around is just a generic insult, you know?
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Oh yeah, definitely. Anyone who is a bit too strict
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or judgmental gets called a Pharisee, right?
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But we really need to look at their actual history.
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They get a bad rap today, but didn't they start out as the
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good guys? They absolutely did.
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They started with a very noble motivation, and honestly
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understanding that motivation makes their eventual downfall so
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much more tragic. So if we go back a few 100 years
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before this confrontation, what were they actually trying to
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accomplish? Well, you have to trace their
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origins all the way back to the Babylonian exile.
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OK, so the destruction of the First Temple.
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Right. The Jewish people lost their
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land, their temple was destroyed and they were carried off into
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captivity and they had to ask themselves why that happened.
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And the prophets made the answer to that pretty clear, right?
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Exactly. It happened because the nation
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failed to keep God's law. They had fallen into idolatry
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and covenant unfaithfulness. So the exile was a massive
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traumatic judgment. A huge trauma.
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So when the Exiles finally returned, and then later during
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the Maccabean revolt, when Greek culture was really trying to
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assimilate them, there was this intense burning desire among the
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faithful to preserve the nation. They thought we can never let
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another exile happen. Precisely, they decided they
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must protect the law at all costs.
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That makes totally sense from a psychological perspective.
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I mean, if you burn your hand on a hot stove, you do not just
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avoid the burner, you avoid the whole kitchen.
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That is a great way to put it, and that trauma response is what
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led them to develop this concept of building a fence around the
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law. A.
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Fence around the law. Let us break that down for the
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listener. What does that actually look
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like in practice? Well, the logic of the fence is
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pretty simple. If God's law says do not work on
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the Sabbath, the Pharisees would come along and say, well, let us
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define what work is down to the smallest possible detail.
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So they start adding their own rules to clarify God's rule.
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Right. They would make a rule that you
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cannot tie a specific kind of knot on the Sabbath, or you
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cannot carry an object heavier than a dried fig.
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A dried fig that is incredible specific.
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It is, but the idea was that if you keep all these extra
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stricter man made rules on the outside, if you never even touch
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the fence, you will never come close to breaking God's actual
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command in the center. OK, I see the logic, but the
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text we are studying today shows how that desire for purity
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morphed into something just completely absurd, particularly
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when it came to tithing. Yes, tithing is the specific
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issue Jesus targets here now. The Mosaic law in places like
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Leviticus 27 and Deuteronomy 14 commanded 1/10 of the land,
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seed, fruit, and grain. And that was to support the
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priesthood and the needy, right? Yes, it was a clear, manageable
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agricultural tax, essentially, but the rabbinic tradition,
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which was later codified in the Mishnah, specifically a tractate
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called Masrat, expanded this command.
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And when you say expanded, you mean they took it to a
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microscopic degree? Oh, absolutely.
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The text zeroes in on the tithing of mint, dill and cumin.
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So we're talking about tiny little garden herbs now.
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Right. These were common, inexpensive
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plants grown in tiny household garden patches.
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People just use them for flavoring food or for basic
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medicine. They were not major cash crops
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like wheat or olives, which the law was originally focused on.
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No, not at all. But the Pharisees applied the
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law of tithing so rigorously that they would actually sit
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down and count or weigh these tiny seeds and leaves.
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Wait, really? They would count individual
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seeds, yes. If they harvested 10 tiny dill
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seeds from their window sill, they would painstakingly set one
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aside for God. They believe this extreme
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scrupulousness merited divine favor.
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Let us let us think about the psychology of that for a minute.
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Go for it. If I sit in my kitchen counting
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out individual cumin seeds, I am doing something that is entirely
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within my control. Right, it is a completely closed
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system. Exactly.
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I can count it, I can put it in a Ledger, and I can visibly
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demonstrate how pious I am. If someone visits my house, they
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see my little separated pile of holy cumin seeds.
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Is this very tangible proof of your religion?
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But here is the catch. Counting seeds requires zero
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death to self. It asks absolutely nothing of my
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heart. That is the devastating part.
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You can be a greedy, arrogant, bitter person while counting
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your seeds perfectly, right? It is a highly measurable,
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performative religion that conceals total spiritual
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bankruptcy. That is the insidious nature of
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this micro legalism. It allows a person to feel
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intensely, wholly based on easily manageable external
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metrics. You can manage your mint leaves
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without ever having to confront the pride or the bitterness
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festering inside your own soul. And it creates a self-contained
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system of self justification. The tragedy here is that this
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system completely blinded the leaders of Israel to their true
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condition. I mean, they were standing face
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to face with the Messiah, the fulfillment of all their hopes,
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yet they were so enamored with their own rule keeping that they
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viewed him as a threat. So the historical progression
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goes from a sincere desire to protect the covenant community
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all the way to a massive superiority complex.
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Yes, a superiority complex that eventually orchestrates the
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crucifixion of the Son of God. That really shatters the
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assumption a lot of people have today.
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You know the idea that if you just get stricter and stricter
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with your rules, you automatically get closer to God?
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Right. It proves that historical
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progression did not equal spiritual progression.
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The most conservative literalist sect of Judaism became the
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architects of the crucifixion. It is a really sobering reality.
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Our sources argue that conservative rule following
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religion that lacks the Holy Spirit is as damning as outright
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paganism. I would agree with that
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assessment. You can go to hell from the Pew
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just as easily as you can from the street corner.
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Perhaps even more easily because the person in the Pew thinks
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their Ledger is balanced. Exactly.
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They have their 10th dill seeds separated so they assume God
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owes them his favor. They don't think they need a
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savior. That historical powder keg is
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precisely why the way the gospel writer structured this story,
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it's so incredibly hard. Matthew didn't just throw this
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interaction in randomly. No, this wasn't a casual debate
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that Jesus had while walking between towns.
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It reads like a carefully crafted legal argument.
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It does if we look at the literary context.
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The placement of this discourse is staggering.
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Let's unpack that literary placement.
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Where does this fall in the book of Matthew?
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It is central to understanding the impact in chapter 23.
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Jesus is delivering his final public discourse before leaving
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the Temple Mount for the last time.
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So these are his final public words.
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Yes. After this, he goes to the Mount
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of Olives and delivers the Olivet Discourse, which outlines
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the coming tribulation and judgement on Jerusalem.
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So chapter 23 is really his closing argument to the nation.
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It is. He is functioning in the office
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of the Prophet, much like Moses. This entire chapter operates as
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the ultimate covenant lawsuit. A covenant lawsuit, meaning he
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is officially pressing charges on behalf of God.
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Right. He is bringing the gavel of
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divine justice down upon the heads of the men who have
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scattered and abused God's flock.
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The sources we are reviewing frame Matthew chapter 23 as the
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dark mirror to the Sermon on the Mount, which is found earlier in
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Matthew chapters 5 through 7. That is a great way to look at
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it. A dark mirror.
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Yeah, because in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives the
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Beatitudes. He pronounces divine blessings
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on the poor in spirit, the merciful, the pure in heart.
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But here, at the end of his ministry, we get the dark
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reflection. We get the seven woes.
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He pronounces divine curses upon the proud, the unmerciful, and
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the defiled. We should probably define what a
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woe is in biblical literature. We definitely should.
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When we use the word today, it sounds like a mild complaint,
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like oh woe is me, I dropped my coffee.
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Right, it sounds a bit melodramatic.
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But in the Greek text and in the tradition of the Old Testament
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prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah, a woe is a very
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serious thing. It is an eschatological curse.
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Meaning a curse related to final judgement.
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Yes, it is an rejection of divine wrath.
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When Jesus says woe to you, he is speaking as the authoritative
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judge of the covenant community. He is declaring A prophetic
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sentence of impending doom. It is an announcement that time
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is officially up. The structure within this
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chapter is brilliant too. He delivers seven of these woes
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in total. And the first 3, which are found
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in verses 13 through 22, they condemn external public actions,
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right? Right.
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He calls them out for shutting the Kingdom of heaven in
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people's faces, for devouring widows houses and for making
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false proselytes. So these are highly visible
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crimes, things everyone could see them doing.
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Exactly. But then we hit the 4th Woe in
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verses 23 and 24, which is our text today, and the literary
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flow pivots very sharply. That pivot changes the entire
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nature of the attack. It really does.
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He transitions from exposing the damage they do to other people
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in public to exposing the cold, calculating internal corruption
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of their own personal obedience in private.
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So the. First 3 Woes expose their
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destructive influence, but the 4th Woe exposes the
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disproportion of their personal piety.
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Right. They look meticulous, but the
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structure forces the audience to see that their meticulousness is
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a complete facade. It makes me think of a highly
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skilled prosecutor delivering a closing argument to a jury.
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Oh, that is a good comparison. Yeah, the prosecutor starts by
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listing the visible damages and the tangible crimes the jury can
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easily see, You know, the fraud, theft, the victims whose lives
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were ruined. Then the jury is nodding along,
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agreeing that the defendant is a menace to society.
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Exactly. But then the prosecutor
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dramatically pivots. They walk over to the defendant,
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look them dead in the eye, and expose the cold, rotting,
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calculating motives inside the defendant's mind that made those
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crimes possible in the first place.
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The argument moves from the scene of the crime to the
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psychology of the criminal. That analogy tracks perfectly
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with the rhetorical strategy Jesus employs here.
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And to appreciate the specific charges in this country,
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covenant lawsuit, we really have to analyze the precise words the
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prosecutor chose to use. The authors of the text we are
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studying conduct A rigorous exegetical breakdown of the
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Greek structure, and it is highly illuminating.
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Let us examine that exegesis. The text sets up a very sharp
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contrast. We have a minor obedience clause
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right next to a major disobedience clause.
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Right, Jesus says for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and
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have neglected the weightier matters of the law.
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The verbs painted in the original language give a very
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clear picture of their behavior. The verb used for tithing is
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apodekatu. Apodekatu, What does that
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literally mean? It means to give an exact 10th.
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It denotes active, careful, intentional calculation.
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So they're actively, intentionally tithing the
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insignificant garden plants. Yes, but then comes the contrast
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with the verb afinemi. This is translated as neglected
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or forsaken. And what does that imply?
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It signifies leaving aside, disregarding or failing to
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attend to it is an active omission.
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So they didn't just forget about the major matters because they
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were busy counting seeds. No, they actively calculated the
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mint, and they actively chose to forsake the monumental demands
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of God's character. And Jesus defines those
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monumental demands as the weightier matters of the law.
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The Greek phrase is baritera tu namu.
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TA baritera tu namu. The adjective baris means heavy,
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burdensome, or carrying great ethical gravity.
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In rabbinic literature of that era, laws were often divided
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into light and heavy commands, weren't they?
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Yes, they were. So Jesus is actually taking
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their own theological categories and turning them completely
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upside down. He is essentially saying you
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claim to be the experts on the heavy commands, but you have
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abandoned them entirely. That is a brutal indictment.
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So what are the three weightier matters he specifically lists?
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The three matters are justice, mercy and faithfulness.
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We should look at each one carefully, starting with
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justice. OK, justice, the Greek word here
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is crisis, right? Yes, crisis in the Greco Roman
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world. This pertained to legal
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judgement in a courtroom. But Jesus is speaking out of the
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biblical context, tracing back to the Hebrew word mishpat.
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Mishpat, that is a massive concept in the Old Testament.
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It is. It refers to righteous judgment,
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fairness, and upholding the rights of the oppressed
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according to God's standard. So it means dealing rightly and
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truthfully with others, refusing partiality, refusing to take
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bribes and refusing to see. Exactly.
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It is an objective standard of right and wrong based on the
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character of God Himself. You know, the authors we were
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studying make a very sharp critique here regarding how the
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concept of justice is handled today.
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They do go into some modern applications of this, yeah.
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They argue against modern secular redefinitions of
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justice. They specifically call out
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critical race theory and intersectionality.
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Right. And we should be clear that we
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are just reporting the critique made by the author of the source
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text here. We are not taking a side, just
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explaining their position. Of course, the perspective
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presented in this research suggests that modern political
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frameworks define justice based on oppressor versus oppressed
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group dynamics. And the authors contend that
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this is a distortion of the biblical text.
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Right. They argue that biblical crisis
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is not based on sociology or modern political theory, but is
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rooted entirely in the unchanging holiness of God.
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They emphasize impartial fairness toward every
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individual, regardless of their status or group identity.
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So that covers justice. Moving to the second weighty
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matter, we have mercy. Yes, mercy.
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The Greek word is elios. This translates the magnificent
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Old Testament Hebrew word has just.
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Has said is one of those words that is so hard to translate
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into English because it carries so much meaning.
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It really is. It means loving kindness,
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covenant loyalty, and compassionate grace toward the
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miserable. It requires a tender,
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compassionate response to the weak, the needy and the guilty.
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It reflects God's own pity towards sinners.
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And the Pharisees were notorious for being harsh, unyielding, and
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demanding. They lack the very compassion
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that characterized the God they claim to worship.
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They would watch someone suffer and assume it was God's
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judgement on that person rather than seeing an opportunity to
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show his As. It is a cold way to live.
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And the third matter is faithfulness.
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Right faithfulness. The Greek word is pistis.
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We usually translate that simply as faith or belief in the New
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Testament. But in this specific context,
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sandwiched alongside justice and mercy, it carries a different
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nuance, doesn't it? Yes, it carries the nuance of
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the Old Testament Hebrew word emuna.
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Emuna, what does that convey? It speaks of steadfastness,
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reliability, integrity, and fidelity to both God and man.
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It is about keeping your promises even when it hurts.
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Absolutely. If you look at Old Testament
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prophets like Micah chapter 6 verse 8, you see a very similar
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triad. Oh.
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Right to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly
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with your God. Exactly.
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Jesus is echoing the prophets here.
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He is pointing out that these virtues are not secondary
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concerns. They are the central obligations
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of the Covenant. Because they reveal what God
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himself is actually like. Spot on.
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Now, if we look at this from a practical standpoint, I can see
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a listener pushing back on this entire concept.
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Pushing back how? Because when Jesus comes down so
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incredibly hard on the Pharisees for obsessing over the tithing
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of herbs, people often use passages like this to excuse
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ignoring the finer details of their own faith.
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Oh, I see what you mean. You will hear someone say, look,
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God only cares about my heart. Right, they say he only cares
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that I am a good person and that I love people.
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He does not care about specific rules or theology or church
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attendance or moral guidelines. They say sweating those details
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is just straining gnats. Are they reading the text
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correctly when they make that argument?
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They are completely misreading the text if they draw that
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conclusion. We have to look at the divine
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command clause right in the middle of the verse.
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What does that clause say? Jesus says these you ought to
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have done without neglecting the others.
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OK, so he addresses both sides. Yes.
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In the Greek syntax, he uses an imperfect verb a day, which
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indicates an absolute binding moral obligation.
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He uses a chiasm of priority, right.
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These, referring to the heavy matters of justice, mercy and
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faithfulness, must absolutely be done.
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Yes, but the others referring to the minor details like the
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tithing of herbs must not be neglected.
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So he is not swinging the pendulum wildly from strip
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legalism over to complete lawlessness.
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Not at all. We are not just supposed to
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throw the rule book out the window because we are focusing
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on on quote UN quote love. Jesus demands comprehensive
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alliance. He affirms the necessity of both
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the major and the minor commands, but he insists on
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proper proportion. The error of the Pharisees was
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not that they were careful about small things.
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No, their error was a distorted spirituality that elevated the
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small while excusing the total neglect of the great.
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True obedience flows from the inside out when a person's heart
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is governed by genuine justice, mercy and faithfulness, that
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inner reality will naturally produce careful obedience in the
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smaller details of. Life.
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You do not abandon the details. You put them in their proper
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place in the hierarchy of obedience.
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That distinction protects against dead legalism on one
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side and spiritual laziness on the other.
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It is a brilliant calibration it.
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Is and after laying out this dense, devastating legal and
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linguistic argument, Jesus knows he needs an image that the crowd
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will never forget. He needs a visual that will
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stick in their minds long after they leave the Temple Mount.
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And he delivers one of the most memorable, almost comical punch
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lines in all of Scripture. He says in verse 24, You blind
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guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.
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That is the climactic summary of the entire woe.
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The authors of our text explain that this is actually a
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brilliant Aramaic word play. Yes, Jesus most likely spoke
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Aramaic to these crowds in daily life.
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And the Aramaic word for Nat is gelma.
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Well, the Aramaic word for camel is gumbel.
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It is a pun, but a pun with massive theological weight.
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Both of these animals are considered unclean according to
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Leviticus chapter. 11 The visual comedy here is really grounded
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in strict Levitical law. Leviticus 11.
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Verses 20 through 23 declare winged insects to be unclean,
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and verse 4 explicitly declares the camel unclean.
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And the Pharisees were so terrified of ceremonial
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defilement that they would painstakingly filter their
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drinking wine through a piece of cloth or a fine sieve.
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They want to ensure they didn't accidentally ingest a tiny
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galma, A gnat that might have landed in the cup.
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That is the smallest unclean creature.
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But spiritually speaking, Jesus says they're opening their
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throats and gulping down a massive gamla, the largest
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unclean animal in their region. The visual of a distinguished
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religious leader carefully filtering his wine and then
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unhinging his jaw to swallow a live camel hole is just
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grotesque. Is grotesque and hilarious at
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the same time. The text points out something
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fascinating about the grammar here too.
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What is that? The Greek uses present
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participles. It says straining out and
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swallowing. Ah, so this indicates that this
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wasn't just a one time mistake they made.
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Exactly. It was an ongoing, habitual
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practice. They woke up every day, strained
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their wine and swallowed camels. It unveils the utter
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irrationality of sin. Hypocrisy trains the human
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conscience to be terrified of trifles while remaining totally
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tolerant of enormities. You become hypersensitive to
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minor infractions while becoming completely desensitized to
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massive moral failures. The Pharisees would panic if a
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gnat touched their wine, but they felt absolutely no
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conviction about plotting to murder an innocent man, which is
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exactly what they were doing with Jesus.
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It is like someone decided to take out the household trash but
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before before they walk to the curb, they put on a full maximum
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security biological hazmat suit. With an oxygen tank and taped up
23:11
seams. Right, they're terrified of
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getting a microscopic germ on them from a discarded wrapper.
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But then they come back inside, take off the hazmat suit, and
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decide to eat completely raw, unwashed chicken for dinner.
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Yes, it is a terrifying disproportion of caution.
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The hazmat suit shows they understand the concept of
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contamination. But eating raw chicken proves
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their survival instincts and their fundamental understanding
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of reality are completely broken.
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That analogy perfectly captures the absurdity of their
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condition. And this grotesque disproportion
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leaves the original audience and frankly, the modern reader, in a
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state of despair. Because if you think about it,
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the Pharisees were the most religiously devout, disciplined,
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biblically literate people in that society.
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If they failed this badly, if where religion was this corrupt
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at its core, where is the hope for anyone else?
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The law demands perfect justice, mercy and faithfulness.
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Who can actually produce that? If they couldn't do it with all
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their free time and dedicated study, a regular person has no
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chance. And that brings us to the most
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critical turn in this entire discussion.
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The text exposes A terrifying human inability.
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Fallen humans cannot produce the perfect justice, mercy, and
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faithfulness that the law requires.
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We simply do not have it in us. If a sermon ends with just the
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message you guys need to be better at mercy and justice, we
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are all doomed. We are just going to try to
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build a new, slightly different fence.
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We have to look at how this text points to the fulfillment of the
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law. We do, as Reformed theologians,
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affirm all Scriptures point to the work of Christ.
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This passage is a negative exposition of the law.
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It shows us what the law demands and how badly we fail at it.
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But that negative exposition demands a positive
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Christological fulfillment. Jesus is not just a moral
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teacher diagnosing A societal problem.
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He is the solution to the problem.
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He is the only human in history who perfectly fulfilled both the
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minor details and the major matters of the law.
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The authors talk extensively about Christ's active obedience.
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I want to break down what that term actually means for the
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person listening right now. Active obedience refers to Jesus
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living a life of perfect, flawless submission to God's law
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on behalf of his people. So he didn't just come to die,
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he came to live perfectly first. Right.
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He was born under the law, as the Book of Elation states.
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He kept the feasts. He paid the temple tax.
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He obeyed every minor statute. But infinitely more than that,
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he embodied the weightier matters.
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He didn't just perform isolated acts of justice, mercy and
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faithfulness. He is the very embodiment of
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those virtues in human flesh. He is perfectly just in all his
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judgments. He is endlessly merciful toward
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the outcast and the broken. And he is unfailingly faithful
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in every covenant obligation to his Father.
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The breakdown of his roles here is fascinating.
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We see Christ functioning in three distinct offices
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simultaneously, prophet, king and high priest.
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Let us start with prophet. As a prophet, he is standing on
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the Temple Mount exposing the hypocrisy of the false
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shepherds. He is declaring the pure truth
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of God's demands without compromise.
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And as a king, he is pronouncing divine, authoritative judgment
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upon his enemies. The woe is a royal sentence from
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the throne. But it is as our great High
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Priest that the Gospel shines the brightest in this text.
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Think about the cross in relation to these specific
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weightier matters we just discussed.
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OK, God's justice, his crisis, demands that sin be punished.
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God cannot simply overlook the rebellion and the camel
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swallowing of humanity. To satisfy that massive,
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unyielding matter of justice, Christ willingly took the purse
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upon Himself. The unmitigated holy justing of
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God was poured out upon the sun on the cross.
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And because that massive requirement of justice was fully
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satisfied in the substitute, God is now able to extend the
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weightier matter of mercy, His ileos, to wretched sinners like
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us. The cross is the exact point
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where God's perfect justice and perfect mercy intersect.
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He doesn't compromise 1 to achieve the other.
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And Christ's willingness to endure the cross, to go all the
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way to death, demonstrates ultimate faithfulness.
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His Pistees. He was faithful to the Father's
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plan and faithful to save His people.
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This theological reality is why the application of this text
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requires so much precision it. Really does.
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Because if someone listens to this deep dive, here's all this
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history and exegesis and walks away thinking, OK, the lesson
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here is that I just need to try harder.
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Right, if they think I need to be a nicer person, I need to
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focus less on my daily calendar and more on being just and
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merciful. If that is their take away, they
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have entirely missed the point of the text.
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I want to stop and push on that. Why is try harder to be nice
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missing the point? Didn't Jesus literally just
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command them to do the weightier matters?
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He is commanding it, yes, but according to the theological
27:56
framework we are studying, preaching this text merely as a
27:59
command to do better is preaching the law, not the
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gospel. The law says do this and live.
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But our fallen human nature makes that impossible.
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We cannot generate true God honoring justice and mercy out
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of the Stony ground of our own fallen hearts.
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If we try, we will inevitably turn our attempts at mercy into
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another form of self-righteous performance.
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We will just start measuring our mercy at the same way the
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Pharisees measured their mint. The gospel, however, relies on
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union with Christ. We must be united to Him by
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faith so that his perfect righteousness is credited to us.
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His flawless record of justice, mercy and faithfulness is
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imputed or legally credited to our account.
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That shifts the entire paradigm of how we live.
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Once a person understands they cannot earn salvation through
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micro legalism, or even through their own flawed attempts at
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macro righteousness, their entire motivation changes.
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You stop doing good works to earn a paycheck from God, and
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you start doing them out of gratitude.
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This brings us to the modern polemical applications.
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How do the authors of these texts apply this ancient warning
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to the current age? They utilize a concept known in
29:07
reformed theology as the third use of the law.
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The third use of the law. Explain that briefly.
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Well, the law has different uses.
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It restrains evil in society, and it drives us to Christ by
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showing us our sin. But the third use is the
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normative guide for the believer.
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Meaning it shows us how to live a life that pleases God.
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Yes. We do not pursue justice, mercy,
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and faithfulness in order to be justified or saved.
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We perceive them because we have already been freely justified by
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faith alone. The Holy Spirit writes the law
29:37
in our hearts, empowering us to obey out of a profound
29:40
gratitude, not out of a terrifying fear of condemnation.
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With that foundation of grace established, the text
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systematically lays out some very sharp critiques against
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various modern movements. The authors argue that the
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spirit of the Pharisees is alive and well, just wearing different
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clothes. The first critique is directed
29:58
at Roman Catholic doctrines. And again, we are just outlining
30:01
the arguments made in the source text here.
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Correct. The authors argue that adding
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sacraments, penances and human traditions as necessary
30:09
requirements for justification is akin to the Pharisaic edition
30:13
of the Mishnah. They argue it mirrors the works
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righteousness system that Jesus was condemning, substituting
30:19
outward rituals for absolute reliance on the finished work of
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Christ. The authors then pivot and level
30:24
a critique at theological liberalism and the social gospel
30:28
movement. The argument here is that these
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progressive movements divorce the concepts of justice and
30:33
mercy from the blood atonement of Christ.
30:36
The authors claim that by stripping away the supernatural
30:39
elements, the wrath of God, and the necessity of the cross,
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these movements turn the Christian faith into a secular
30:45
political action committee. They want the weightier matters
30:48
of the law. They want social justice and
30:49
mercy for the poor. But they want them without
30:52
submitting to the Lord of the law or acknowledging the depths
30:55
of human sin that made the cross necessary.
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Next, the text turns its critique toward pragmatic,
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seeker, sensitive modern evangelicalism.
31:05
This is a very common target. It is, the authors argue, that
31:08
these church models focus almost entirely on outward, manageable
31:12
metrics. Things like weekly attendance
31:14
numbers, the square footage of the building, the production
31:16
value of the music and social media engagement.
31:19
They compare this obsession with data to the Pharisees counting
31:23
mint leaves. The critique is that by focusing
31:25
on these highly visible, easily manipulated metrics, pragmatic
31:29
leaders ignore the heavy, difficult, unpopular preaching
31:33
of sin, God's wrath, and the need for deep repentance.
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The author suggests these leaders strain the gnat of
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potentially offending a first time visitor with hard truth,
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but they gladly swallow the camel of generating thousands of
31:45
false conversions by preaching A watered down message.
31:48
Finally, the text offers a critique regarding charismatic
31:51
movements, specifically from a cessationist perspective.
31:55
The argument presented is that an intense, constant pursuit of
31:59
spectacular Apostolic era signs, wonders and emotional
32:02
experiences can actually distract people.
32:05
Distract them from the weightier matters of daily obedience.
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The authors contend that the true, lasting evidence of the
32:12
Spirit's work is not found in spectacular public displays, but
32:16
in a quiet, steady, often boring life marked by consistent
32:20
justice, mercy and faithfulness. When you look at all these
32:24
critiques laid out together, the traditionalists, the liberals,
32:27
the pragmatists, the charismatics, you start to see a
32:29
universal human problem rising to the surface.
32:32
That is exactly what I was thinking as I read through those
32:34
arguments. I see a fascinating pattern.
32:36
Aren't all these different modern factions guilty of the
32:39
exact same underlying psychological trick?
32:41
What do you mean? Aren't they all just finding
32:43
different ways to prefer a manageable, measurable religion
32:46
over actual, painful inward transformation?
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The authors would strongly agree with that assessment.
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The central idea of this biblical text is that fallen
32:55
humans will use any metric available to them to establish
32:58
superiority over others. And to mask their own internal
33:02
rebellion against God. Whether you are using
33:04
theological exactitude, attendance numbers, social
33:07
activism credentials, or ecstatic spiritual experiences.
33:11
If you use those things to avoid the humbling, crushing demands
33:16
of God's moral law regarding how you treat your neighbor and how
33:20
you view your own sin, you are playing the Pharisee.
33:23
You are out in the driveway polishing the outside of the car
33:26
while the engine block burns to ashes.
33:28
The warning is universal and it is completely unavoidable.
33:32
It forces every single one of us to look in the mirror, not just
33:35
at other groups. Which is a tough thing to do.
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It is. And that leads me to a final
33:39
thought I want to leave you with today.
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We have talked a lot about ancient history, Greek words,
33:44
Aramaic puns and theological frameworks.
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But we need to bring this right down to the ground.
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Let us bring this right into your living room right now.
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If Jesus were to audit the literal Ledger of your daily
33:55
life today, what would He find? And by that we mean he bypasses
34:00
your own flattering self perception and looks strictly at
34:03
the hard data. Yes, looking strictly at your
34:05
digital calendar and your bank statements, what would he find?
34:09
It is a devastating audit to consider because our calendars
34:13
and our bank accounts do not lie about what we truly.
34:15
Value. They are the objective ledgers
34:17
of our lives. Would he see a meticulous,
34:20
exhausting counting of mint leaves?
34:23
Would he see an obsession with minor daily routines, protecting
34:26
your own comfort, meticulously managing your retirement
34:29
portfolio and carefully curating your outward image on social
34:33
media? Or, looking at exactly how you
34:35
spend your time and your money, would he see the heavy,
34:38
undeniable footprints of justice, mercy and faithfulness?
34:41
Would he see evidence that you actively care for the
34:44
vulnerable, that you forgive those who wrong you, and that
34:47
you are faithful to your promises even even when it costs
34:49
you financially or socially? That audit reveals whether we
34:52
are straining gnats and swallowing camels in our own
34:55
modern context. It strips away the religious
34:58
language and looks at the functional reality of our faith.
35:01
It is a hard question, but a necessary one.
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I encourage you to genuinely audit your own routines this
35:06
week. Look at where your energy
35:08
actually goes. Look at what makes you angry and
35:10
what makes you rejoice. See where you might be straining
35:13
gnats while swallowing camels. Thank you for joining us for
35:16
this deep dive on the form thinking.
35:18
We hope this discussion has been helpful.
35:20
We will catch you on the next one.