Straining Gnats and Swallowing Camels

Matthew 23:23-24 (NLT)

²³ “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. ²⁴ Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!

A while back, I heard someone say that they were praying for God to show them any Pharisaical ways within them. I had never even thought of praying such a prayer so I let the thought of it go. Since then I have read two different books that mentioned examining ourselves for traits like the Pharisees. The most recent book pointed out that the Pharisees were once known for their devout religious commitment to precisely follow the Law of Moses...nothing wrong with that, right? Over time, some of them started nit-picking and adding to the Law's requirements making for themselves a bad reputation. It's the same as when someone, in the name of Christian principles, commits a crime and makes all of us as a group look bad in the public eye.

Having now been presented three times with this idea of prayerful self-examination, I decided it was probably time to get into Matthew 23 and see what Jesus had to say regarding the Pharisees. We may spend more than one day in this text, but for today we are going to look at verses 23-24. Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees made a big deal of tithing off the smallest income, but failed to make even bigger issues of the law such as justice, mercy, and faith priority. He went on to say they strained their water to keep from swallowing a gnat, but swallowed a camel instead (both forbidden as food). In other words, these guys were making a big deal about little things while not putting enough emphasis on the bigger more important things.

It's pretty scary to think of the reality of how much like the Pharisees we might be. I'm not going to make list of examples, but instead, I challenge you to prayerfully get into Matthew 23 and let's dig deep into our lives to check out how we measure up. Remember, it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. Jesus came not to condemn us, but to set us free!