Jesus confronted the Pharisees: “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” (Matt. 23.23).
The other aspects of the law are not necessarily less important or less necessary, as Jesus says they should not neglect the less weighty matters of the law, but Jesus places a higher emphasis, a greater weight upon these three: justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
Notice we are TO DO these “weightier matters” because Jesus said you “ought to have done” these things. How does one “do” justice or “do” mercy or “do” faithfulness?
Jesus teaches that justice is not just an exercise for your brain. In fact, justice is never justice until it is executed. Justice remains theoretical until someone gives what is due another. The politician promises he will right certain wrongs, and people vote him into office. The rubber hits the road only when he keeps his promises. Will he truly move to correct the injustices people see?
Likewise, mercy is not mercy until you do it. Don’t confuse mercy with feelings of compassion or empathy. It’s easy to feel that something should be done, but you extend mercy only when you act. The blind man in Mark 10.47 cried out to Jesus for mercy, and Jesus didn’t just pat him on the head and tell him He really hoped he had a good day and He would pray for him—He restored his sight! The Good Samaritan was the only one of the three passers-by who showed mercy to the man in need (Luke 10.37), because he was the only one who stopped and helped.
Faithfulness has to do with consistency to your good character and your word. You can make promises, you can assure your spouse of your faithfulness, you can beg your friends to believe you, but you are not faithful unless you consistently keep your word. A faithful person is characterized by keeping his commitments. That doesn’t mean he will never fail, but it means that when he does fail, people know that was out of the ordinary. “That’s not like him,” they say, and unless he falls into a rut of missing his commitments, they will easily overlook a misstep.
Talk is cheap, folks. It’s easy, even, to write this little article about doing these weightier matters of the law. Now I must do them in my workplace today, and I must go home and do them with my wife and children. Let me not be like the Pharisees who thought they could keep a list of regulations they deemed important while neglecting these undergirding matters of the heart.
He has told you, O man, what is good;
Micah 6.8
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?