Luke 11:42 –
“What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”
Two things I catch here, one is this is one of the few places Jesus directly addresses the tithe, or 10% of your income. It’s clear what His answer is, so there are no question about the “new testament” church and our responsibility to tithe. We like to use the widow giving here last “mite” as an example, where Jesus wants it all. But here it is clear God still wants us to surrender the first 10% of our earnings. Again “proper” Biblical finances are 10% to church, 10% to savings and live off 80%.
Now the more “important” point of this scripture has nothing to do on money and all to do on our relationship with God. We get so wrapped up in being “churchy” and never really pay attention to the world around us. We get so into the latest worship music, but miss being fair in a business dealing. The Pharisees did just this where the motions become more important than living and showing God. Don’t get so caught up in the nuts and bolts of church you miss opportunities to show God’s love.
The biggest thing we tend to miss is God’s love. Again we get so wrapped up in our lives and the day to day grind, that this beautiful sunset God painted gets missed. Our focus is on the details and the “goal” that we get into a very high pace that we actually begin to ignore God’s love and not just miss it. I think the reason we start to ignore it is because God tends to sometimes require action and that cuts into our schedule. Sometimes seeing God’s love requires us to stop and spend some time with say a homeless person. And part of experiencing God’s love is sharing it with others. This requires a time and emotional commitment we don’t tend to have.