"Not leaving the others undone"

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. (NKJV)

As I read Jesus' pronouncement of judgment upon the Pharisees, I'm forced to look inwardly at my own attitudes. I recently concluded a series of sermons on stewardship at our local church. I have seen the response from our congregation and our tithes and offerings are up. This is always encouraging because as most of you know...it does take money to do ministry. But before I go off on a rabbit trail....let me just say that I don't really want to talk about money today. The Pharisees were very exact in their legalistic giving to "the work of God" and I'm sure there are many of us who are proud because we give a rigid tenth to the Lord (and no more).

But I think we could exact a principle from this passage and say that it could apply to basically any Christian discipline. It's very easy to be strong in one area and very weak in another. Allow me to illustrate from my own life if you will, and hopefully you will learn from my mistakes and hopefully by confessing this to you, I will gain deliverance as well. I tend to be very driven. When I begin a project, I often throw my whole heart into the project until it's come to fruition. That's not always a bad thing...but it does breed a certain line of thinking into my head. For instance, there are times when I put tremendous emphasis on bible study and consistancy in my reading. If I'm not careful, I will allow my zeal and accomplishments in reading to supplant my prayer life. Consequently, there are times when I feel a tremendous burden of prayer and put a great deal of emphasis on that. During those times, I find that my study habits tend to suffer because of it.

I think there is an inherent danger in any thing that we give a rigid over-emphasis to. Jesus commended the Pharisees (in a sense) for their steadfastness in giving, but was horribly disappointed that they had omitted (what He called) the "weightier matters" of a godly life. I often wonder how many times I have been "full-throttle" going after something and feeling good about it....only to omit some "weightier" matter of the Kingdom. May the Lord help us all to find balance and to do all the right things for His Kingdom without leaving the others undone. Paul prayed for the Philippians to "approve the things that are excellent" (Phil 1:10 ). Sometimes good is the enemy of better, and better is the enemy of best.

My musings today- feel free to add your own (and thanks for all the prayers by the way- I'm feeling some better but still not 100%)

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