NOTES for Mat 23:23-26
Jesus continues His denunciation of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, and in doing so expresses several principles that all of us greatly need. First, within the law, vast as it is, there are weightier matters: justice, mercy, and faith. Second, the concept of uncleanness, which is very important in the Old Testament, must be applied above all to a person's inner life. And third, what may be hardest for us: not “either-or,” but “both-and”; not either tithing or mercy, not either outward or inward purity, but “these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” After all, 50 percent outward purity and 50 percent inward purity do not add up to 100 percent purity. How are we to manage this? Let us remember that “all things are possible with God.”