Tithe Mint and Rue
"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." -Luke 11:42
We need to be very careful to not pick and choose the commandments we obey. The Pharisees are chided here for doing just that. Jesus is not rebuking them for being disciplined in their tithing. He doesn't say, "Quit worrying so much about giving 10 percent, just love each other." No, he affirmed their tithing, saying they ought to to that. Then, he rebukes them for stopping there. They were neglecting other commandments. So we need to search ourselves and the Scriptures to see what commands we are ignoring while we are strongly committed to others. Have we turned our religion into legalistic obedience without any heart-felt love for God? Have we turned our back on obedience and solely obey the love commands? Both of these miss the mark of true Jesus-like Christianity.
2 comments:
he didn't rebuke them for stopping there. He rebuked them for forcing others to give what they gave. He called the pharisees "devours" of widows houses.
http://churchtithesandofferings.com
Provocative verse, Tex. Thanks for sharing it. Makes me think more about what I'm doing with my time and energy in addition to the money allotted me.
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