Keys to the Kingdom
By Carolyn Hayward Tucker
Germs and Gnats
I’m not a people watcher when I‘m shopping because I‘m usually on a mission and quite focused. However, one day I couldn’t help noticing a woman holding a folded wad of greenback between her lips as she diligently cleaned her cart handle with an antibacterial wipe. This puzzling absurdity blew my mind; I’m sure I stared. I’m no expert, but it’s a known fact that germs like to do a little party dance on money. I guess you could call it dirty dancing.
This scenario reminds me of the scripture in Matthew 23:24 NRS where Jesus is sternly talking to the religious leaders. “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” The rigid Pharisees and teachers of religious law would carefully strain their drinking water to make sure they didn’t accidentally swallow a gnat (the smallest inedible insect for the Israelites.) The camel was one of the largest unclean animals. Gnats and camels were both forbidden as food in the Old Testament. Jesus was purposely using a figure of speech to shock His hearers into getting the point.
Jesus was upset that doing justice, showing mercy, exercising faith in God, and loving Him was not being practiced by the religious leaders. Instead, they were busy straining their water. As Christ followers today, we need to be careful that we’re not majoring on the minors while ignoring the majors. Little trifling things that don’t amount to a hill of beans was not, and is not, what Jesus wants His disciples to major on.
Jesus criticized the Pharisees and teachers of religious law for their misplaced priorities. They neglected the more-important principles of a godly lifestyle. Practicing the weightier matters of loving God and loving others was sadly being neglected. The only people Jesus spoke to with consternation were the religious people who acted righteous on the outside but were unrighteous on the inside. Jesus sure didn’t beat around the bush when He said, “Great sorrow awaits you religious scholars and Pharisees — frauds and imposters! You are foolish to ignore the greed and self-indulgence that live like germs within you. You are blind and deaf to your evil” (Matthew 23:25-26 TPT).
When it comes to the practice of loving others, we believers don’t want to be guilty of making a mountain out of a molehill. Keep in mind that a fellow believer can be rough around the edges and still have a perfect heart toward God. We can read in Hebrews 11 about a lot of imperfect men and women who had a true heart of faith. Jesus said it’s all about the heart. Godliness is not just skin deep and can’t be confused with how a person looks on the outside. A godly person is one whose heart is sensitive toward God and takes Him and His Word seriously. The inside reveals who we really are, not the outside.
Honestly, believers should be hell-bent on majoring on the majors found in God’s Word. And it’s up to us to do our own regular heart checkups. When (not if) we find a problem, we need to submit to spiritual major-heart surgery performed by Dr. Jesus.
The Key: Spiritually speaking, let’s put our money where our mouth and heart is.