Luke 11:42 – But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 

Without neglecting the others is translated in the King James without leaving the others undone – so the title of this presentation. With LifeResource, we try to get at what the things we read in the Bible mean for us today. So, hang on to your hat. We have a switcheroo coming your way. 

There’s also another incident where Jesus said nearly the same thing, but it does shed some light. So, let’s read that. It’s in Matthew 23:23. 

Matthew 23:23-24 – 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. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! 

We call this majoring in the minors today. The word faithfulness also means faith, as in faith to be healed – the kind of faith that causes us to follow God, as well as believe that He is God. It means trusting and being trustworthy, and consistent in belief and action. 

Now, from the two accounts we’ve read, we’ve learned that the love of God is the same thing as justice, mercy and faith. He says some things in the law are weightier. What does that mean? Well, maybe more important. In Micah 6:8, it says:

Micah 6:8 – He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Here comes a hard, but comforting passage from John in 1 John 4:15:

1 John 4:15-17 – Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. Notice that it is understood that it is not a person called the Holy Spirit that’s in us, but it’s by God’s power – that is, by His Holy Spirit – that God comes into us and lives in us. John continues in verse 16: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 

So, God is love and it’s His process that He works with us. And that causes us to grow in the kind of love that He has. But what kind of love is that? Well, look with me in 1 John 5:3:

1 John 5:3 – For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 

So, all the commandments of God are an expression of the love of God. And since God is love, they are also an expression of the essence of God. That’s how Micah got from the Ten Commandments to lovingkindness and walking humbly with God. They’re the same thing. And that’s how justice, mercy and faithfulness are weighty. They are the results, in a person’s heart, of obeying God’s law, and then, becoming like God. God laws are the characteristics of His heart. That’s why they’re the majors. Justice, mercy and faithfulness is the love of God. 

So, what would we call a minor? This is a little trickier. A minor could be all the things Jesus did, but didn’t talk much about. For example, the only time He mentions tithing is in reference to the obsessive way the Pharisees did it. It’s not that tithing was wrong. It was that they were majoring in the minors. 

Another example would be the Sabbath. He observed it. He said, in Genesis, that He gave it as a gift for us, and, in the Gospels, that He was the Lord of it. So, I don’t think the Sabbath is a minor, except that it wasn’t discussed much by Jesus – probably because everybody was doing it – at least in the Jewish world. They all knew that it was to be kept – and not from just Moses, but from way before – from the very beginning. It was something people were to observe. He objected when the Pharisees applied their own rules to it – as in not caring for the infirmed on that day. So, it’s clear that, in His mind, the Sabbath was still in effect. He didn’t talk much about it. He just did it. He probably didn’t talk much about it, because everyone was already doing it. He didn’t need to talk much about something everybody already knew about. 

But, here’s the most important part about a minor. He said, “These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.” Majors and minors are all majors when it comes to observance. Both are in the Bible. Now, if it’s not in the Bible, it isn’t either a major or a minor. For example, in the New Testament, the term Sabbath day’s journey is used. There’s no such law in God’s law about how far you can walk on the Sabbath. That was a Jewish tradition. It’s not in the Bible. It was in the oral laws, they called it. All this is confusing for modern people because we don’t know that, besides the Old Testament – Jesus called that the Law and the Prophets – the Jews had imposed upon themselves hundreds of extrabiblical rules. These rules were called the oral law, while the biblical law was called the written law. When Jesus says, “You have heard it said…,” He’s talking about these added rules that were oral and so heard – that controlled and oppressed the Jewish people. And when He said, “It is written…,” He’s referring to the law that He came to fulfill – the Law and the Prophets. He came to fulfill it and to amplify it. “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.” That doesn’t mean that the Sabbath and tithing and all the other laws of God are done away with, because they’re all a part of the love of God. 

Only God’s word is God’s word to us – not all those extrabiblical rules that they had that caused so much trouble. Sometimes following those caused people to break the law of God – the true law. 

So, some things in the Old Testament are no longer observed in Christianity, but some things are. Now, somewhat confusing to people. Putting aside what people are doing today, what is a good way to tell which is which? Well, there are parts of the Old Testament that are not possible to keep today, for one thing. And God wouldn’t require somebody to do something that’s impossible to do. The sacrifices, for example. Once the temple was destroyed, there was no place to offer animal sacrifices. God, through the destruction of the temple, showed that the old priesthood of Aaron had come to an end. Jesus Christ is the new High Priest. And we don’t sacrifice animals anymore. We sacrifice ourselves to live God’s way – that is, to live by His law now. 

Another example would be the laws of the nation of Israel. While all these laws are good things to do – were then, and still are today, and will be again in the future – it’s not possible to reconstruct that governmental system in our world – like what to do with a bird’s nest, if it falls out of tree. What God says to do with it, it would be good to do that, but it’s not a law of the United States, or even one of God’s laws today because it’s not the nation of Israel anymore. It’s the church. Another example of the national laws of Israel are the judgments about penalties for crimes. Just like Israel of old, every nation had its own penalties for crime and its own definition of what constitutes a crime. 

In the first five books of the Bible, there are two types of laws. One type were laws that have always been in force since the creation. The other type is the kind of laws that had to do with the administration of the nation of Israel and the administration of the priesthood of Aaron. That law was given to Israel in the time of Moses. 

So, how do we differentiate the difference? Well, it’s simple. It’s really simple. Since the breaking of the law is a sin, anytime you find the word sin used before God gave the law to Moses – that would primarily be in Genesis – you can look at the behavior that’s called the sin and know that it was a law that was in force before Moses. You know, most of time, when that word sin is used, it’s referring to one of those commandments that God gave to Moses later. Everybody knew you shouldn’t kill, you shouldn’t lie, that you shouldn’t make false images, you should worship only God. That was all known to God’s people and they were all doing those things before Moses. Before Moses, we can see that Noah knew which animals were clean and unclean. That law wasn’t just given to Moses. It’s always been around. That wasn’t something that was unique to Moses at all. And after Christ – thirty years after Christ died – Peter said he had never eaten anything that was unclean. A pig is always a pig. And they have a purpose, but not for food. 

We know the Sabbath has been observed from creation by those who follow God and that the observance of it identifies a person as belonging to God. Did you know that it took five hundred years for Satan to remove the Sabbath from Christianity. It did. For hundreds of years after Christ came, Christians were keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day. It wasn’t because they were Jews. It was because they were Christians and they knew that the Sabbath was given way before Moses. And it’s the seventh day for all time. Just because nobody keeps it today, doesn’t mean we don’t need to keep it today. 

Abraham, after winning a battle – way before Moses – said that he would give one tenth to God. It belonged to God. So, tithing was in effect before Moses as well. We can know that murder, adultery, covetousness – all ten of the commandments – were in effect. They were just not written down in a codified form that God gave to Moses so that the Israelites would know how to follow God. 

Jesus said He did not come to do away with God’s law. He came, in part, to fulfill it – that is, to live it to the full – expand its meaning to include the state of the human heart, as well as human behavior. He said all of those law of Moses are still on God’s books, waiting for the time when Jesus will establish God’s government on the earth, and then they will again become part of everyday life for everybody. 

Let’s look at another way to understand how we can discover God’s law and obey God today. Let’s look in 1 Peter 2:21. 

1 Peter 2:21 – For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 

You know, all the things we talked about today, like following Jesus, that’s what that means. It means to live like He lived. And you can find that over and over and over again in the New Testament. Nobody would argue with that, but they’re just not willing to do it.

Would Jesus, knowing that He came to set an example for us on how to live, ever do anything we didn’t need to do? Or, would He have left off doing something that we would need to do? Well, I should hope not! It’s a silly question, really. 

So, what are some of the minor things – we can call them minors – that He did? Well, He said that tithing should not be left undone. Yes, He did. We just read that, didn’t we? So, how does a person tithe? I ask this because I met a man not too long ago who told me that today tithing is just being generous. That’s all it means. Well, what does the word tithe mean? What did it mean when Jesus said the word? Well, it meant then and it still means today, tenth. Now, it means giving a tenth and in a generous way. That’s how He wants us to do it. Rather than measuring out every last cent, He wants us to give a tenth then and a little more maybe. So, yeah, He tithed. 

We know He observed the Sabbath. Did He observe the holy days? Yes, we can see that in the Bible. Now, I call some of these things minors – and so did Jesus – since they’re still a part of the law of God. And since the law of God is an expression of the heart of God, and since we just read that we ready ourselves for Christ’s return by striving to bring our hearts into sync with His, are the minors not still important? Of course, they are! Jesus said it’s all supposed to be observed. 

So, what was one of the weightier matters of the law? Well, one of them that He mentioned was faith. Does it take faith to keep the Sabbath? Well, yes it does. Does it take faith to tithe? To believe God will take care of us if we give that money, plus offerings to God – if we’re generous with Him? Does it take faith and love to stop at the scene of an auto accident, even when we might be late for work? Yes. Anytime God tells us to do something, it takes faith to do it. Why does God want us to give offerings – besides tithes? Well, in Luke 6:38, it says:

Luke 6:38 – …give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. 

So, if we’re generous with God, He’s going to be generous with us. And when we give in this way, who are we acting like? Yeah, we’re acting like God. He’s generous. He’s a generous God. He’s the author of generosity, not obsessive knit-picking giving. His law teaches us to be like Him. That’s the whole point of it. 

So, did Jesus go to the temple and offer animal sacrifices? No record of it. He was a sacrifice and still is today. As we said earlier, after the Romans tore down the temple in 61 AD, there was no longer a way to offer animals in the temple or function as a priest in the temple that no longer required temple service, because it wasn’t there. 

Is there any other way to understand what are minors and majors? Well, yeah. Look in Jude :3 with me. He says:

Jude 1:3 – Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation – you know, the fun thing he wanted to talk about – I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Because there were people in the midst there that wanted to use Christ’s sacrifice as an excuse to drop the law of God. So, he found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith – what faith? – that was once for all delivered to the saints. By who? By Jesus when He came down here. 

So, there’s no need to change anything in the law of God. It was perfect then – everything Jesus does is perfect and eternal. Just the way that He delivered it – that’s what we need to do. No updates. No changes. No modifications. No adding to or taking away from. And we’re to contend for that faith that was delivered just one time by Jesus to the church people. And we can find that faith in the book of Acts and all the rest of the epistles by Paul, James, Peter and John. 

Once we get past the faith that was delivered to the apostles and the brethren of Jesus for all time – in history. Once we get past that period of time those people were alive – it all goes to pieces. They started changing things right and left. Once the people that knew what Jesus did and who followed His example were dead. 

We can see Paul using the Day of Atonement – one of the biblical holy days – a day that he said that he kept – there is a reference that he kept the fast – that’s the only fast day in any of the holy days that God has given – so, he was observing Atonement. And he used that day – the meaning of that day – to explain salvation through Jesus Christ to the Jews. Who would want to leave off observing that? Especially after reading Paul who tells us he was planning to keep the fast. Atonement was the only fast day appointed by God. They were keeping it years after Christ died. 

Or, we read of the church being founded on and observing Pentecost. That’s another holy day. Why did God found His church on Pentecost? Could it be that that day was always about the church? And that the way the Jews observed it in Moses’ day was just a picture of what was to come? That’s what Paul said it was. 

Or, we can see that Peter testifying that many years after Christ died, he had still not eaten common or unclean. Paul did not eat pigs. 

Or, we can see the church telling Gentile converts not to meant that was strangled. Why not? Because in God’s law, it’s always been that blood is unclean. Blood was not to be consumed. And those laws were in effect for God’s people long before Moses. Remember that there were seven times more clean animals loaded into the ark – so way back before Moses. 

Okay, well, I mean I think I’ve given you some really good reasons about how to find out what we should observe and what we shouldn’t today – to take the confusion out of it. Now, we saw earlier that Jesus taking to task the Pharisees because they kept all the less important elements of the law, plus 600-plus additional things they added and had lost sight of what the law was for. That was to teach them to love God and each other and to love justice and mercy more than sacrificing animals. It even says that in the Old Testament.

I think some of us have gone the other way with it when we still give lip service to the majors – like faith, for example. I think some of us have dropped from our minds the importance of some of the minor things (I say minor with quotes) like tithing, Sabbath observance, eating only clean foods. All of God’s law is an extension of His heart. And all of His laws are exercises in faith building. It takes faith to observe these lesser elements. And faith is one of the fundamentals of following God. And we have a clear picture, in the New Testament, of both Jesus and the church’s example, after Jesus died, of the faith and practice that they followed. They lived it all out, just like Jesus lived it. And so should we. 

Okay, so to wrap this up, let’s look at something John said late in his life, laying the New Testament church history. In 2 John, he’s writing a letter to a faithful woman he knows to encourage her. I hope that at some point in the future, God will be able to say of us what John says to this faithful woman. Turn to 2 John 1:4 through 6. 

2 John 1:4-6 – I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. So, he’s really happy that her kids stayed with the faith. And that reflects on her. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. Well, Jesus said He gave a new commandment, but John said this is from the beginning. And then he says:  And this is love – now he’s going to define what that means – what Jesus meant when he said a new commandment I give you – that you love one another. And this is love: that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.