Matthew 23:23-24 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin… Why is any man lost who is lost? Is it because he did certain things which brought down upon him the righteous retribution of eternal punishment? No; but because, having broken God's commandments, he omitted to use God's way of escape — to go to Christ, to believe the promises, to accept pardon, to realize truth: therefore he is lost; and the cause of the final condemnation of every sinner in hell is a sin of omission. The gospel precept — unlike the law — is direct and absolute, not negative: "Thou shalt love God, and thy neighbour." And therefore the transgression must consist in an omission. It is only by not loving, that you can be brought in guilty, under the code of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Woe 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. |