Jesus warned of swallowing camels while rebuking

Matthew 23:23-24

23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

The Pharisees had many practices in their lives right according to the law. In some ways their adherence to the law, in the search to be thorough and ‘all embracing’ of scripture made for lives that lost sight of the forest for the trees. Place this in the context of how the Pharisees sought to bring judgement on Jesus during his life based upon such a reading of scripture. Indeed, it seems their search to find fault in others left their senses unable to differentiate between the sensation of swallowing a gnat as opposed to a camel.

Some Christians may point to Jesus’ mention of judgement as the justification of rebuke. This ignores Jesus’ tying of judgement to mercy and faith, as well as Jesus’ parable of one who points out the mote in anothers eye while being oblivious to the beam in their own. Further, it ignores the context of staying away from judgement. Judgement is best employed by the individual as a judicious restraint of negative action or unleashing of positive action for the sake of others.

It’s a reminder of the two greatest laws, on which all others hang. It’s important to note that love is the context for both these laws. As much as love is downplayed in some Christian circles these days as being too weak or flowery, it is the weightiest matter of the law, as prescribed by Jesus himself:

37Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38This is the first and great commandment.

39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This is the weightiest matter, and we do well not to ignore it, lest we beat down the spirit of others in rebuke for gnats while missing the camel stuck in our throats.