Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 21
November 20, 1969
NUMBER 29, PAGE 9

Swallowing Camels

Donald R. Givens

Jesus severely condemned all forms of hypocrisy. Nowhere is this more vividly seen than in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew. Listen carefully to this scathing rebuke: "Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides, that STRAIN OUT THE GNAT, and SWALLOW THE CAMEL!" (Matt. 23:23, 24; emphasis mine, drg).

Please get the full picture of our text: Here is an eagle-eyed scribe or Pharisee who very carefully and cautiously strains a tiny gnat out of perhaps a glass of water; but then turns right around and blindly swallows a big old hairy camel; head, neck, body, legs, hump and all! What a sense of values he had.

These hypocrites were more concerned with the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin than with performing the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. No, the little things were not to be left undone; but the big things were to be done also.

What about disciples of Christ? Do we occasionally strain out gnats, but swallow camels?

Dad catches junior stealing an apple from the corner grocery and punishes him (and rightly so); but then dad boasts about how he permanently "borrowed" some valuable tools from his employer.

Mom lectures sister about cleanliness in cooking meals; but then allows sister to feed her mind on rotten, immoral filth in modern "romance" or movie magazines.

Both mom and dad warn their children against dancing (and that is good), but then allow those same children to sit in a drive-in movie lot with their boyfriends and girlfriends and pet and play with each other's bodies.

Straining at gnats and swallowing camels! Solution?

Ignore the gnats? Absolutely not.

But do not be so engrossed with the gnats that you blindly swallow the camel!

4349 Vassar, Port Arthur, Texas