Commentary re: lesson #20

 “[We must] focus on identifying and correcting hypocrisy in [our] own lives, rather than [in the lives of] others”(New Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, 80).

“There is a [sin] which is frequently made manifest in the [members] … to see faults in others when we do not examine our own.  When you [find yourself] examining the faults of others, you may know that [you] are not walking in the path of obedience … for this simple reason[:]  it is all that you and I can do … to purify ourselves, to sanctify our own hearts….  [I]f persons [are striving to] understand the path of duty and walk therein … they will have plenty to do to examine themselves … and if they look at their neighbors … they will look for good and not for evil.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, 269-270.)

“The Pharisees paid a great deal of attention to outward ordinances and actions that would make them appear righteous, but they were not as concerned with actually being righteous in their hearts. For this Jesus referred to them as hypocrites … people who try to appear righteous but who do not try to live righteously.” (New Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, 80.)

Matthew 22:36  “[W]hich is the great commandment in the law*?”

[*nomos [Greek]: used to refer to the five books of Moses or the Mosiac Law]

Deuteronomy 6:5  “[T]hou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

Leviticus 19:18  “[T]hou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself…”

Regarding Matthew 22:35-40, “The [leaders of the] Jews had divided and subdivided the commandments of the law, and had supplemented even the minutest subdivision with rules of their own contriving. Now came the Pharisee asking which of all these requirements was the greatest. To love God with all one's heart and soul and mind is to serve Him and keep all his commandments….. Therefore the commandments to love God and man [are] the greatest... What need of the decalog could there be if [we] would obey [these] great and all-embracing commandments?” (See Elder James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 550.)

Elder Howard W. Hunter said: “He loves the Lord with all his heart who … is ready to give up, do, or suffer anything in order to please Him. He loves God with all his soul who is ready to be deprived of the comforts of the world [for] Him. He loves God with all his strength who exerts all the powers of his body and soul in the service of God. He loves God with all his mind who applies himself to know God and his will, who sees God in all things and acknowledges him in all ways” (Apr 1965 Conference Report; in New Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, 84.)

Regarding Matthew 23, “The scribes and Pharisees paid tithing, gave to the poor, attended worship services, and went regularly to the temple. [But t]hey did these things not out of faith, but out of a desire to be seen as righteous by others.”

Regarding Matthew 23:23  “… judgment [i.e., justice] …”

Exodus 23:6  “Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.”

Deuteronomy 1:17 “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great…”

Deuteronomy 10:18 “He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

Deuteronomy 16:19  “Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift …”

Deuteronomy 27:19 “Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow.”

1 Samuel 8:3  “And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

Isaiah 10:1-2  “WOE unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; [2] To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!”

Helaman 7:5 “... letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money …”

Jeremiah 22:3 “Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteous-ness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor…”

Ezekiel 18:7-8 “[He that] hath not oppressed any, but hath … given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment … hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase … [he] hath executed true judgment.”

Zechariah 7:9 “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother.”

Malachi 3:5  “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against … those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger … saith the LORD.”

Luke 11:42  “But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

Regarding Matthew 23:24, “the little word at … is a printers’ error that has persisted since the original 1611 publication of the King James Version. The translators intended this passage to read: ‘Ye blind guides, which strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel.’ The Greek word here is diylizo, which means 'to filter out'. Figuratively speaking, the scribes and Pharisees could never tolerate a little gnat in their (or anybody else's) drink, but a camel could be swallowed whole. Jesus, of course, is referring to the strictness with which these legalistic Jewish leaders had interpreted the law, yet their concern for detail did not prevent them from violating the most important commandments in the law.” (Royal Skousen; BYU Studies 26(4):9.)

President Joseph F. Smith said, “[H]ow many of us will strain at a gnat and swallow a camel; how many of us will criticize and find fault … while we ourselves are guilty of a great deal worse?”(April 1898 Conference Report).