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The Weightier Matters

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 26, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 43.

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The Weightier Matters

By L. A. S.

THE Pharisees carefully paid tithes of mint, anise, and cummin, but omitted the weightier matters of the law,—judgment, mercy, and faith. Matt. 23: 23. They were ruled by a harsh, critical spirit, which led them to judge and condemn, and even to persecute those who did not agree with them and walk according to their traditions. To be careless of the interests of their fellow men and to manifest toward them this hard, unsympathetic, unmerciful spirit, was deemed by them a light thing; but it was not light. It was in violation of the weightier matters of the law.
To the Pharisees, the weightier matters had become those which required a display of form and ceremony. The works upon which they prided themselves were the things to which they attached chief importance. To show an unselfish interest in the welfare of others was not an essential thing in their system of religion, and the absence of such a feeling from their hearts was not to them a matter of consequence. But though they realized it not, these things which determined the character of the spirit which they displayed, were the weightier matters. What in their view were non-essentials were the real essentials of the law. Mercy and justice were greater than all their works.
The weightier matters of the law have not changed. No works that men can accomplish are of so much consequence as is the spirit of kindness, sympathy, and unselfish interest in the welfare of others,—the spirit that attracts and wins people, in contrast with that which repels. In this spirit is contained the weightier matters of the law.
God sees not as man sees, and his standards are not those which men have set up. A meek and quiet spirit may pass unnoticed by the world, but it is “in the sight of God of great price.” This is more than could be said of the greatest works that men have ever undertaken, or of the greatest riches that men have accumulated.
The weightiest matters in God’s sight are not always those which make the greatest show among men. They are not always those which set forth the letter of the law. The letter is of no use without the spirit, and the spirit of the law is love. Love is the weightier matter of the law. The greatest thing is charity.
“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” L. A. S.