Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Christ's charge exposes religious leaders who were scrupulously exact over trifling outward rules like straining drinking water to avoid the smallest insect and tithing garden herbs, while committing and tolerating grave sins and neglecting the weightier duties of judgment, mercy and faith which should have been done without leaving the lesser undone. The blindness He names is inability to discern relative importance, magnifying trifles while treating matters of eternal importance as unimportant and even twisting God's commands to excuse unrighteous conduct. It was spoken in His final day of teaching in the temple as part of the series of woes upon scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites who devoured widows' houses, cleaned only the outside of the cup, and appeared as whited sepulchres outwardly righteous but inwardly full of hypocrisy and iniquity. The rebuke was sharp, fearless and burning in earnestness to keep people from being deceived by false claims to holiness, yet without irritated temper, showing that love and mercy coexist with righteous indignation against sin. The same woe falls just as surely on all in sacred positions of trust in every age who make high claims to godliness without practicing it, exalt human authority over conscience, and repeat the same exacting intolerance and neglect of light unless they repent and reform.
Setting and Tone
The saying was uttered on Christ’s final day of teaching in the temple, when He plainly laid open the priests, rulers, elders, scribes and Pharisees who claimed religious authority yet rejected His teaching. Its exposure of their hypocrisy was meant to warn and condemn them and to instruct listeners in every age and among every people. That final-day encounter in the temple courts centered on the character of rulers and elders who stood against the light He brought.
It belongs to the series of woes pronounced upon the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites and blind guides. It was spoken together with rebukes for devouring widows’ houses, for making proselytes twofold more the child of hell, for paying tithe of mint and anise and cummin while omitting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith, for making clean only the outside of the cup and platter while within full of extortion and excess, for appearing outwardly righteous like whited sepulchres while within full of hypocrisy and iniquity, and for filling up the measure of their fathers who killed the prophets until all the righteous blood shed from Abel to Zacharias should come upon that generation. It was a fearless denunciation of hypocrisy whose teaching and conduct opposed God’s truth, condemning impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness.
The denunciation was sharp and burning in earnestness, spoken fearlessly in order to keep people from being deceived by false claims to righteousness and holiness. Yet its searching rebukes were not uttered in an irritated temper. Its indignation was aimed at grave sins rather than personal abuse, showing that love and mercy can coexist with righteous indignation against sin.
Meaning of Gnat and Camel
The gnat is exactness about external cleanliness, even requiring drinking water to be strained to remove the smallest insect, thus carrying God's restrictions on unclean food beyond what He required. The camel is figurative, denoting the magnitude of actual grave sins tolerated in their own lives. Jesus used the contrast between this trivial concern for outward purity and those weighty wrongs to expose blindness and badly distorted priorities.
The minor matters strained at are trifling details and human additions concerning outward purity, such as scrupulous tithing of mint, anise and cummin. The weightier matters swallowed and neglected are judgment, mercy and faith, also expressed as justice, mercy and the love of God. The smaller duties should have been done, but not at the expense of the greater principles belonging in life and practice, and not while leaving judgment, mercy and faith undone.
The blindness named is inability to discern the relative importance of things that should be understood. It magnifies trifles while treating matters of eternal importance as unimportant. It even twists God's commandments and the prophets' teachings to support unrighteous conduct and mislead the people, stressing His mercy while passing over His warnings against sin and judgment. Carelessness about principles to be brought into life practice is fatal, and he who is saved must set things right in his own heart, rather than indulging speculative theories such as those over attitude toward the law as revealed in Galatians and calling attention to things that do not pertain to the solemn work of deciding eternal destiny.
Blind Guides and Hypocrisy
The verse exposes leaders who made high claims to godliness and demanded much of others without practicing it themselves, fastening on minor religious details while neglecting judgment, mercy and the love of God. Their outward show of religious care and concern for appearances and lesser matters concealed inward deceit, extortion, excess and iniquity, making them blind guides and hypocrites. Outward profession that hides a corrupt life belongs under Christ's burning denunciation, for outward religious strictness does not excuse a life without the fruit that glorifies God and its fruit is harmful.
Practicing iniquity under a cloak of godliness brings especially heavy retribution, and Christ's heavy denunciation falls upon all such hypocrisy and vain pretense. Those who profess to have light far in advance of others while their works do not correspond with their profession and their hearts feel no sanctifying influence come under that denunciation. An openly sinful person has more hope than such a hypocrite who conceals sin behind religious profession, and the pretender has less hope than the open sinner. Sinners who have spent life in sin but come to God in penitence with a sense of their sinfulness are treated by Christ with tenderness and are accepted, and they stand in a more favorable position for perfection of Christian character than those who have had great light and have failed to improve upon it, for neglect to improve granted light and opportunities leaves men and women in darkness.
This blindness and hypocrisy did not arise from excusable ignorance but from selfish motives and refusal of the light Christ brought. Selfishness and love of money and worldly honor can possess the heart and lead people to reject Christ's counsel, despise His mercy and reject His truth while claiming to represent Him yet living in continual denial of Him. The same Pharisaical spirit is condemned when it focuses on lesser matters while neglecting what is sacred and important, warned against in pride, self-appointed authority, and human plans that eclipse the Bible standard and divine instruction.
Warning to Later Generations
Christ's denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees and His warning not to follow blind leaders was an admonition to future generations, because human authority has continued to be exalted over conscience in the church. It warns future generations against religious leaders who use their authority to mislead people and rule their consciences. As in Jesus' day, religious leaders can misuse lawful authority for unlawful ends, and Scripture understood by the mind must guide conscience rather than obedience to leaders when their commands conflict with God's word.
The same woes and denunciation fall just as surely on all in sacred positions of trust and on all engaged in the same work unless they repent, are converted and reform character. This includes men connected with the management of God's work who walk in the same path, cherish the same principles, and reject reproof with an exacting and intolerant spirit, and those in positions of responsibility who misrepresent Christ's righteousness by an overbearing and imperious spirit and lack of principle. Such conduct is being very scrupulous about little matters and making a man an offender for a word while not scrupling to deal unjustly with the Lord's heritage and neglecting God's great and sacred work, failing to be actuated by right principles and to reveal justice, mercy and the love of God and practical love for brethren, tampering with conscience and by subtle reasoning making imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt to pass lightly over very serious wrongs. Those who reject greater light and pursue a similar course of injustice and disregard for justice, mercy and love of God will face God's rebuke, for righteousness exalts a nation and individuals and sin brings ruin. Neglecting light and rejecting reproof leaves people in darkness in a more unfavorable and worse position than the Jews on whom Christ pronounced woe.
The rebuke applies to self-righteous religious leaders who claim to represent Christ while living in continual denial of Him, rejecting His truth and despising His mercy, when selfishness and love of money and worldly honor possess the heart and lead to rejection of His counsel. It condemns a Pharisaical course of narrow precision that hinders God's work and the use of authority to confine its advance, focusing on small matters while neglecting what matters more. It likewise characterizes the popular ministry whose anger when its authority is questioned and whose denunciation of the warning message repeats the Pharisees' opposition, as blind guides treating the small as important while failing to recognize what matters most.
Present-Day Applications
To strain at a gnat while swallowing a camel is to be strict over small mercies while committing great cruelty, showing tender care against cruelty to birds yet hunting and condemning a blind afflicted brother in Christ to near ruin. The gnat is compassion for birds and scruples about taking animal life or censuring brethren for killing game to live on, while the camel is sitting as judges upon a man formed in the image of God and bought by Christ, who is of far greater value than dumb creatures. That greater sin is mercilessly judging and crushing him, hunting him to his death, laughing during his trial, turning lawyers to place a diseased, nervous, confused and unready speaker at great disadvantage, and shaking his confidence to near spiritual and physical ruin. To show compassion to dumb creatures while withholding reasonable, Godlike compassion and love from Christ in the person of His saints is blind hypocrisy devoid of mercy, courtesy, common humanity, tender consideration and neighborly love for infirmity.
The same blindness makes much of small faults in Sabbath observance, diet, dress, corsets and hoops, while swallowing pride, jealous watching, accusing brethren, blindness and a poor proud heart. It treats necessary Sabbath work such as writing as Sabbath-breaking, though priests offered more sacrifices on the Sabbath than on other days, and it watches others to catch them in words or to find something in their actions to use against them, which was the Pharisees' work against Christ. Those who do this need proud hearts set right and must leave off accusing others, for right Sabbath observance that glorifies God is not going to bed and sleeping away the sacred hours but having the heart right before God.
The verse also condemns fixating on small faults in others while neglecting one's own spiritual condition, measuring brethren by personal notions and picking at straws instead of examining one's own heart and being right with God. It is seizing upon little things, talking over particulars and putting one's own construction upon the words and acts of brethren, especially from envy and jealousy and fear that others will be esteemed more highly, and it belongs with being arbitrary, dictatorial and self-sufficient and not considering others better than oneself. It manufactures church trials over trifles when there are no real difficulties, spending attention criticizing appearance and conduct, and it causes trouble in the camp at once when others do not exactly agree. Humoring and indulging those divisive set notions too long calls the minds of the church and of the servants of the Lord away from God, truth and Heaven to dwell upon darkness, which feasts Satan, and it is none of the trials that purify the church and increase the strength of God's people. This stands opposite to correct views of self in contrast with the perfect Pattern and to faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
In positions of responsibility it condemns misrepresenting Christ's righteousness by an overbearing and imperious spirit and lack of principle, being very scrupulous about little matters and making a man an offender for a word. It is indulging speculative theories and calling attention to things that do not pertain to the solemn work of deciding eternal destiny, such as attitude toward the law as revealed in Galatians, when the smaller duties ought to have been done without leaving the greater undone. At the same time it does not scruple to deal unjustly with the Lord's heritage and neglect God's great and sacred work, failing to be actuated by right principles and to reveal justice, mercy and the love of God and practical love for brethren. It tampers with conscience and by subtle reasoning makes imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt, lightly passing over very serious wrongs while condemning with great severity wrongs that do not compare with one's own sin in cherishing and working false principles great in God's sight. Such blindness cannot discern the relative importance of things that should be understood, neglecting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith for minor matters such as tithing mint and anise and cummin, and carelessness in regard to principles to be brought into life practice is fatal, for he who is saved must set things right in his own heart, and the woes on the Pharisees fall just as surely on all engaged in the same work unless they repent, since righteousness exalts and sin brings ruin.
The phrase describes a self-righteous and pharisaical person who makes much of small matters while failing in larger matters of right conduct, as illustrated by Solomon as disorderly and not right with God despite professing love for Him. With burning earnestness and terrible severity against abominations seen in the church and in the world, refusing to allow people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity, it calls missionaries and physicians to stand in God-given manhood exercising freedom of speech and freedom of faith. They are to refuse to harmonize with a fellow laborer's wrong plans or to be cowered into silence by a masterful spirit, to refuse to verify statements they know are not true, and to refuse to hold speechless or listen without protest and correction when they hear wrong sentiments and false statements expressed.
Christ's charge exposes religious leaders who were scrupulously exact over trifling outward rules like straining drinking water to avoid the smallest insect and tithing garden herbs, while committing and tolerating grave sins and neglecting the weightier duties of judgment, mercy and faith which should have been done without leaving the lesser undone. The blindness He names is inability to discern relative importance, magnifying trifles while treating matters of eternal importance as unimportant and even twisting God's commands to excuse unrighteous conduct. It was spoken in His final day of teaching in the temple as part of the series of woes upon scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites who devoured widows' houses, cleaned only the outside of the cup, and appeared as whited sepulchres outwardly righteous but inwardly full of hypocrisy and iniquity. The rebuke was sharp, fearless and burning in earnestness to keep people from being deceived by false claims to holiness, yet without irritated temper, showing that love and mercy coexist with righteous indignation against sin. The same woe falls just as surely on all in sacred positions of trust in every age who make high claims to godliness without practicing it, exalt human authority over conscience, and repeat the same exacting intolerance and neglect of light unless they repent and reform.
Setting and Tone
The saying was uttered on Christ’s final day of teaching in the temple, when He plainly laid open the priests, rulers, elders, scribes and Pharisees who claimed religious authority yet rejected His teaching. Its exposure of their hypocrisy was meant to warn and condemn them and to instruct listeners in every age and among every people. That final-day encounter in the temple courts centered on the character of rulers and elders who stood against the light He brought.
It belongs to the series of woes pronounced upon the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites and blind guides. It was spoken together with rebukes for devouring widows’ houses, for making proselytes twofold more the child of hell, for paying tithe of mint and anise and cummin while omitting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith, for making clean only the outside of the cup and platter while within full of extortion and excess, for appearing outwardly righteous like whited sepulchres while within full of hypocrisy and iniquity, and for filling up the measure of their fathers who killed the prophets until all the righteous blood shed from Abel to Zacharias should come upon that generation. It was a fearless denunciation of hypocrisy whose teaching and conduct opposed God’s truth, condemning impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness.
The denunciation was sharp and burning in earnestness, spoken fearlessly in order to keep people from being deceived by false claims to righteousness and holiness. Yet its searching rebukes were not uttered in an irritated temper. Its indignation was aimed at grave sins rather than personal abuse, showing that love and mercy can coexist with righteous indignation against sin.
Meaning of Gnat and Camel
The gnat is exactness about external cleanliness, even requiring drinking water to be strained to remove the smallest insect, thus carrying God's restrictions on unclean food beyond what He required. The camel is figurative, denoting the magnitude of actual grave sins tolerated in their own lives. Jesus used the contrast between this trivial concern for outward purity and those weighty wrongs to expose blindness and badly distorted priorities.
The minor matters strained at are trifling details and human additions concerning outward purity, such as scrupulous tithing of mint, anise and cummin. The weightier matters swallowed and neglected are judgment, mercy and faith, also expressed as justice, mercy and the love of God. The smaller duties should have been done, but not at the expense of the greater principles belonging in life and practice, and not while leaving judgment, mercy and faith undone.
The blindness named is inability to discern the relative importance of things that should be understood. It magnifies trifles while treating matters of eternal importance as unimportant. It even twists God's commandments and the prophets' teachings to support unrighteous conduct and mislead the people, stressing His mercy while passing over His warnings against sin and judgment. Carelessness about principles to be brought into life practice is fatal, and he who is saved must set things right in his own heart, rather than indulging speculative theories such as those over attitude toward the law as revealed in Galatians and calling attention to things that do not pertain to the solemn work of deciding eternal destiny.
Blind Guides and Hypocrisy
The verse exposes leaders who made high claims to godliness and demanded much of others without practicing it themselves, fastening on minor religious details while neglecting judgment, mercy and the love of God. Their outward show of religious care and concern for appearances and lesser matters concealed inward deceit, extortion, excess and iniquity, making them blind guides and hypocrites. Outward profession that hides a corrupt life belongs under Christ's burning denunciation, for outward religious strictness does not excuse a life without the fruit that glorifies God and its fruit is harmful.
Practicing iniquity under a cloak of godliness brings especially heavy retribution, and Christ's heavy denunciation falls upon all such hypocrisy and vain pretense. Those who profess to have light far in advance of others while their works do not correspond with their profession and their hearts feel no sanctifying influence come under that denunciation. An openly sinful person has more hope than such a hypocrite who conceals sin behind religious profession, and the pretender has less hope than the open sinner. Sinners who have spent life in sin but come to God in penitence with a sense of their sinfulness are treated by Christ with tenderness and are accepted, and they stand in a more favorable position for perfection of Christian character than those who have had great light and have failed to improve upon it, for neglect to improve granted light and opportunities leaves men and women in darkness.
This blindness and hypocrisy did not arise from excusable ignorance but from selfish motives and refusal of the light Christ brought. Selfishness and love of money and worldly honor can possess the heart and lead people to reject Christ's counsel, despise His mercy and reject His truth while claiming to represent Him yet living in continual denial of Him. The same Pharisaical spirit is condemned when it focuses on lesser matters while neglecting what is sacred and important, warned against in pride, self-appointed authority, and human plans that eclipse the Bible standard and divine instruction.
Warning to Later Generations
Christ's denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees and His warning not to follow blind leaders was an admonition to future generations, because human authority has continued to be exalted over conscience in the church. It warns future generations against religious leaders who use their authority to mislead people and rule their consciences. As in Jesus' day, religious leaders can misuse lawful authority for unlawful ends, and Scripture understood by the mind must guide conscience rather than obedience to leaders when their commands conflict with God's word.
The same woes and denunciation fall just as surely on all in sacred positions of trust and on all engaged in the same work unless they repent, are converted and reform character. This includes men connected with the management of God's work who walk in the same path, cherish the same principles, and reject reproof with an exacting and intolerant spirit, and those in positions of responsibility who misrepresent Christ's righteousness by an overbearing and imperious spirit and lack of principle. Such conduct is being very scrupulous about little matters and making a man an offender for a word while not scrupling to deal unjustly with the Lord's heritage and neglecting God's great and sacred work, failing to be actuated by right principles and to reveal justice, mercy and the love of God and practical love for brethren, tampering with conscience and by subtle reasoning making imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt to pass lightly over very serious wrongs. Those who reject greater light and pursue a similar course of injustice and disregard for justice, mercy and love of God will face God's rebuke, for righteousness exalts a nation and individuals and sin brings ruin. Neglecting light and rejecting reproof leaves people in darkness in a more unfavorable and worse position than the Jews on whom Christ pronounced woe.
The rebuke applies to self-righteous religious leaders who claim to represent Christ while living in continual denial of Him, rejecting His truth and despising His mercy, when selfishness and love of money and worldly honor possess the heart and lead to rejection of His counsel. It condemns a Pharisaical course of narrow precision that hinders God's work and the use of authority to confine its advance, focusing on small matters while neglecting what matters more. It likewise characterizes the popular ministry whose anger when its authority is questioned and whose denunciation of the warning message repeats the Pharisees' opposition, as blind guides treating the small as important while failing to recognize what matters most.
Present-Day Applications
To strain at a gnat while swallowing a camel is to be strict over small mercies while committing great cruelty, showing tender care against cruelty to birds yet hunting and condemning a blind afflicted brother in Christ to near ruin. The gnat is compassion for birds and scruples about taking animal life or censuring brethren for killing game to live on, while the camel is sitting as judges upon a man formed in the image of God and bought by Christ, who is of far greater value than dumb creatures. That greater sin is mercilessly judging and crushing him, hunting him to his death, laughing during his trial, turning lawyers to place a diseased, nervous, confused and unready speaker at great disadvantage, and shaking his confidence to near spiritual and physical ruin. To show compassion to dumb creatures while withholding reasonable, Godlike compassion and love from Christ in the person of His saints is blind hypocrisy devoid of mercy, courtesy, common humanity, tender consideration and neighborly love for infirmity.
The same blindness makes much of small faults in Sabbath observance, diet, dress, corsets and hoops, while swallowing pride, jealous watching, accusing brethren, blindness and a poor proud heart. It treats necessary Sabbath work such as writing as Sabbath-breaking, though priests offered more sacrifices on the Sabbath than on other days, and it watches others to catch them in words or to find something in their actions to use against them, which was the Pharisees' work against Christ. Those who do this need proud hearts set right and must leave off accusing others, for right Sabbath observance that glorifies God is not going to bed and sleeping away the sacred hours but having the heart right before God.
The verse also condemns fixating on small faults in others while neglecting one's own spiritual condition, measuring brethren by personal notions and picking at straws instead of examining one's own heart and being right with God. It is seizing upon little things, talking over particulars and putting one's own construction upon the words and acts of brethren, especially from envy and jealousy and fear that others will be esteemed more highly, and it belongs with being arbitrary, dictatorial and self-sufficient and not considering others better than oneself. It manufactures church trials over trifles when there are no real difficulties, spending attention criticizing appearance and conduct, and it causes trouble in the camp at once when others do not exactly agree. Humoring and indulging those divisive set notions too long calls the minds of the church and of the servants of the Lord away from God, truth and Heaven to dwell upon darkness, which feasts Satan, and it is none of the trials that purify the church and increase the strength of God's people. This stands opposite to correct views of self in contrast with the perfect Pattern and to faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
In positions of responsibility it condemns misrepresenting Christ's righteousness by an overbearing and imperious spirit and lack of principle, being very scrupulous about little matters and making a man an offender for a word. It is indulging speculative theories and calling attention to things that do not pertain to the solemn work of deciding eternal destiny, such as attitude toward the law as revealed in Galatians, when the smaller duties ought to have been done without leaving the greater undone. At the same time it does not scruple to deal unjustly with the Lord's heritage and neglect God's great and sacred work, failing to be actuated by right principles and to reveal justice, mercy and the love of God and practical love for brethren. It tampers with conscience and by subtle reasoning makes imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt, lightly passing over very serious wrongs while condemning with great severity wrongs that do not compare with one's own sin in cherishing and working false principles great in God's sight. Such blindness cannot discern the relative importance of things that should be understood, neglecting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith for minor matters such as tithing mint and anise and cummin, and carelessness in regard to principles to be brought into life practice is fatal, for he who is saved must set things right in his own heart, and the woes on the Pharisees fall just as surely on all engaged in the same work unless they repent, since righteousness exalts and sin brings ruin.
The phrase describes a self-righteous and pharisaical person who makes much of small matters while failing in larger matters of right conduct, as illustrated by Solomon as disorderly and not right with God despite professing love for Him. With burning earnestness and terrible severity against abominations seen in the church and in the world, refusing to allow people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity, it calls missionaries and physicians to stand in God-given manhood exercising freedom of speech and freedom of faith. They are to refuse to harmonize with a fellow laborer's wrong plans or to be cowered into silence by a masterful spirit, to refuse to verify statements they know are not true, and to refuse to hold speechless or listen without protest and correction when they hear wrong sentiments and false statements expressed.