I. GOD DETERMINES THE WEIGHT OF WHAT HE HAS SPOKEN

We must begin here because otherwise we will simply replace one human system of priorities with another. We do not decide what matters most. God does. The authority belongs entirely to His Word.

Jesus says explicitly that there are “weightier matters of the law.” Scripture itself therefore teaches us not only what is true but also how God’s truths relate to one another. We see this elsewhere in the teaching of Christ.

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”
—Matthew 22:36

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
—Matthew 22:37–40

Listen to the language Christ uses: first, great, second. Then He says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” There is order within the revelation of God. There is weight and proportion. This does not diminish the authority of any portion of Scripture; rather, it requires us to submit even our sense of importance to Scripture.

We do not have the authority to make small what God has made weighty, nor do we have the authority to make weighty what God has made small. Our responsibility is to hear God as He has spoken and give His Word the weight He has given it.

“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent…”
—Philippians 1:9–10

Christian maturity is not merely knowing that something is right or wrong. It is learning, under the authority of Scripture, to discern what is excellent—to recognize biblical proportion. A child may know several true things without understanding how they relate. Maturity learns their weight.

II. THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS DO NOT MAKE THE OTHER MATTERS UNIMPORTANT

After naming judgment, mercy, and faith as “the weightier matters of the law,” Jesus immediately says, “these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” That sentence guards us from a dangerous reaction.

When we discover that we have placed too much emphasis upon something, our tendency may be to swing in the opposite direction and treat it as though it does not matter at all. Jesus does not permit that. He does not correct disproportion with disobedience. He corrects disproportion with properly ordered obedience.

God has spoken concerning holiness, doctrine, fellowship, our speech, our conduct, our worship, our homes, our relationships, and our treatment of one another. Therefore, we do not possess the authority to dismiss what He has said simply because something else is weightier.

Jesus’ words hold us between two errors. One says, “That is a lesser matter; therefore it does not matter.” Christ answers, “not to leave the other undone.” The other says, “Because this matters, I will treat it as though nothing matters more.” Christ answers, “the weightier matters.”

Biblical faithfulness refuses both errors. Everything God has spoken deserves our submission, but everything must be held in the proportion in which God Himself has revealed it.

III. THE HEART IS DRAWN TOWARD WHAT IT CAN MEASURE

Why would a man carefully count mint while neglecting mercy? Why would someone become extraordinarily precise about one act of obedience while remaining blind to something God calls weightier? The answer takes us beneath behavior and into the heart.

Mint could be measured. Anise could be measured. Cummin could be measured. A man could look at what he had done and know exactly how much he had given. But mercy reaches much deeper. Faith reaches much deeper. Judgment reaches much deeper. Those matters expose the man himself.

There is something in the human heart that prefers a righteousness it can measure. It is easier to count what I have done than to ask what I have become. It is easier to establish an outward boundary than to ask whether I love my brother. It is easier to identify another person’s failure than to search for pride in my own heart. It is easier to know that I have kept a particular practice than to ask whether I have been merciful.

This is why Jesus’ rebuke is so penetrating. These men were not irreligious. Their blindness existed inside their carefulness. They could point to obedience and identify what they had done, yet Christ could see what their meticulous religion had allowed them to avoid: “…ye…have omitted the weightier matters…”

That means one of the most searching questions we can ask is not merely, What am I doing? We must also ask: What might I be neglecting while doing it?

IV. LOVE CARRIES ENORMOUS WEIGHT IN THE WORD OF GOD

If we allow Scripture to establish its own priorities, we cannot escape the extraordinary weight God places upon love. Jesus identified love for God as “the first and great commandment” and love for one’s neighbour as “the second” which “is like unto it.” The law is not discarded by love; Jesus says the law and the prophets hang upon these commands.

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
—John 13:34–35

Love is not the soft edge of Christianity. Love is not what remains after we finish dealing with the serious matters. God places enormous weight upon it.

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”
—1 Corinthians 13:2

A man may know much, understand much, believe much, and accomplish much, and yet God says that without charity, “I am nothing.” But biblical love must never be confused with indifference toward truth. The same chapter says that charity “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).

Truth and love do not compete in God. Therefore, they must not be placed against one another by us. Love does not require us to diminish truth, and truth does not permit us to diminish love. The God who commands one commands the other.

V. UNITY IS SOMETHING GOD COMMANDS US TO GUARD

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
—Ephesians 4:3

Paul does not tell us to create this unity. It is “the unity of the Spirit.” But he does tell us to keep it, and the word “endeavouring” tells us something about the seriousness of that command. Unity among believers is not something we may casually surrender.

Yet just as love cannot be separated from truth, neither can unity. In Christ’s prayer in John 17, He prays, “That they all may be one” (John 17:21). But only moments earlier He prayed:

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
—John 17:17

Truth and unity stand together. We must never preserve unity by abandoning what God has clearly spoken. But neither may we unnecessarily destroy unity over something to which we have assigned a weight that God has not.

It is possible to say, “The Bible speaks about this,” and yet still need to ask, “How does the Bible speak about this?” Is this an explicit command? Is this a principle faithfully drawn from an explicit command? Or is this my application of that principle? Those are not necessarily equal.

A personal conviction may be wise. An application may be prudent. A boundary may genuinely help us obey God. But our application does not become inspired merely because it arose from a sincere desire to obey inspired Scripture. God’s Word remains the authority.

Scripture must govern not only what we believe but the weight with which we hold it.

VI. CHRIST PERFECTLY DISPLAYS THE WEIGHT OF GOD

Jesus did not merely teach the weightier matters. He embodied them. No one was ever holier than Christ. No one ever possessed a greater commitment to truth. No one ever hated sin more purely. Yet no one ever showed mercy more perfectly.

Jesus was called “a friend of publicans and sinners” (Matthew 11:19). That did not mean He approved their sin. He came to save sinners from it. He could say:

“Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
—John 8:11

Mercy did not erase holiness, and holiness did not extinguish mercy. In Christ they stood together perfectly.

Nowhere do we see this more clearly than at the cross. God did not save sinners by deciding that sin was a lesser matter. The cross declares precisely the opposite:

“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.”
—1 Corinthians 15:3

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree…”
—1 Peter 2:24

At Calvary, righteousness was not discarded so that mercy could triumph. Justice was not ignored so that love could be shown. The holy Son bore the judgment our sin deserved. God’s holiness remained holy, God’s righteousness remained righteous, and mercy flowed to guilty sinners through Jesus Christ.

This is not balance produced by human wisdom. This is the perfection of God revealed in His Son.

We do not merely need our priorities rearranged. We need Christ.

God has spoken. Therefore, everything He has spoken deserves our submission. But Christ teaches us that within God’s revelation there are matters of particular weight: judgment, mercy, faith, love for God, love for our neighbour, truth, holiness, and the unity of God’s people. These are not priorities we invent; they emerge from the Word itself.

Faithfulness is not merely believing everything God has said; it is giving everything God has said the weight God Himself gives it.

The gnat mattered. But the gnat was not the camel.

Now the passage must cease being merely about the Pharisees. It must search us. What occupies my attention? What most quickly provokes me? What failures in another believer disturb me most? Are those the things upon which God places the greatest weight?

Perhaps I am meticulous in an area where Scripture permits me to be meticulous. Good. “These ought ye to have done.” But what have I omitted? Have I been truthful but unmerciful? Have I maintained a conviction while losing charity? Have I guarded a boundary while neglecting humility? Have I been quicker to identify another man’s error than my own pride? Have I demanded that another believer carry the weight of my application as though God Himself had spoken it explicitly?

These are not questions merely for someone else. They are questions for us. They are questions for me. The danger of Matthew 23 is that a man may become so occupied with proving his obedience that he no longer hears the weight of the God he claims to obey.

Return continually to the Word of God. Let Scripture determine our convictions, examine our applications, and determine their weight. Where God commands, obey. Where God warns, tremble. Where God gives liberty, do not manufacture bondage. Where God calls something weighty, do not treat it lightly.

Where God commands love, love. Where God commands mercy, show mercy. Where God commands holiness, pursue holiness. Where truth requires a boundary, maintain it. Where the Spirit has created unity, endeavour to preserve it.

And when we discover that our hearts have become disordered, do not merely rearrange the list. Look again to Christ:

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…”
—Hebrews 12:2

He is not merely the example of properly ordered obedience. He is the Saviour of those who have failed in it.

Perhaps you have read these words and realized that your problem is deeper than misplaced priorities. You have never been reconciled to God. The answer is not to become more balanced, nor is it to become more religious. The Pharisees were religious already. Your deepest problem is sin.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
—Romans 3:23

But the same God whose holiness exposes our sin has provided His Son:

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
—Romans 5:8

Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Salvation is not earned by careful obedience. It is received by grace through faith in Christ.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
—Ephesians 2:8–9

Come to Christ. Trust Him.

For those of us who already belong to Him, let us come beneath His Word again—not asking God to bless the weight we have assigned to things, and not asking Scripture merely to confirm the priorities we already possess, but opening His Word with a surrendered heart: Lord, teach me what carries weight with You.

May we care about everything God has spoken and obey everything He commands. But may God keep us from straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel. May His Word determine not only what we believe, but what we love, what we emphasize, what we defend, what we pursue, and what we become.

God has spoken.

And Then There Was Silence