There is a tendency in us to oversimplify, to return to childhood where during any moment, only one thing holds attention. There is a current preoccupation, and the child concentrates on it. All other things are blocked – for the moment. A part of maturity is recognition that there are simultaneous obligations, opportunities, expectations that must be factored into our lives. We wrestle to find balance and direction. We have to account for this, and this, and this – all to be carried through during the same time period. If mature, we know that there are a number of duties resting upon us, but we also know that there is a limit to the number we can bear. If wise, we learn how much weight we can lift and carry – but no more. Selectivity enters in. We actually give up some good things for some even better things. We not only have multiplicity but priority to consider. Many appeals contend for participation and/or resolution. Multitasking is necessary for the mind, but we may dislike the burden and resist it. Many persons never manage all this.
A variety of leaders through the centuries have accented this or that doctrine, and propounded it almost to the extinction of other major beliefs/conducts. So they develop sects, quirkiness, even disruptions among fellow believers. Laymen, impressed by the teachings of the leader create situations to advance the emphasis of this founder of the group. Former beliefs may be dropped, or so attenuated that they are given a twist, or as the popular current term has it, a spin. This may focus in a way that loses unity. It may dilute truth, or even fade to falsehood.
Matthew carefully quoted Jesus’ words when he argued that there were distorted spins in the way in which the representatives of faith had expressed their views. They had added and subtracted from God’s teachings. They cultivated exotic explanations to justify anything they wanted to believe and/or do. If they violated their oaths, they would say they took oaths because of the offering, not for the altar. They would refer to the altar if they acted one way, and to the offering if another. Rather than be seen as hypocrites, they manufactured ingenious concepts to do whatever they wanted to do, so to stand for their own orthodoxy. Jesus and the disciples would have none of it. In analysis, rhetoricians would call this the unacceptable argument that the means are justified by the ends. The Matthew 23 passage holds one of the sternest declarations of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ argument would hold for truth, and in a balanced life situation. Considering all matters together, there is an answer in whole truth that gains virtue – or it is not of God.
Currently in the world there has been something similar to the ancient situation. There is an accent on freedom that diminishes responsibility. In Jesus, freedom relates to necessity for carrying responsibility – both together. Much of Scripture is given to address this very issue. If I use freedom to avoid responsibility I am open to paying the penalty for broken responsibility. I may use freedom to avoid a life of righteousness. Consequences change. I may rob a bank, if I am willing to go to jail. I choose freely the way I will believe and walk, which is by way of Christian Scripture. Convolutions of arguments from conducts may disgrace us. To follow the light (Scripture) leads to habitual conducts that both meet the human condition, and lead to God. Secular society often misses the concept that God is needed for values in earth. Without him mankind makes up values, and may try to get on without them. Can’t be done. When a professor argued against values, I simply took the old position that he could not avoid them. He would not tolerate a student cheating on an exam. That meant he had some values. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020