The Undone More Important than the Done

A lot of times in life what is undone is more importance than what is done. There are a lot of people who seem to have their lives together and seem to be living in a perfectly healthy way.

A lot of what we see is only what people do in the world. The reality from scripture is that what is undone can often be more significant that what is done.

You see this all through Jesus' teaching. He criticised the Pharisees not primarily for the things which they had done, but leaving the important things of the scriptures undone.

A good example is Matthew 23:23

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

The critique of the Pharisees was not so much about how they lived, but the great depths of living that they failed to do. It is interesting that often a sever legalism looks very righteous on the surface because of its many requirements, but the requirements are all at the surface of good.

A lot of the really deep things in life are impossible to sum up in rules. The bible sets out many clear rules, but more often it sets out general principles to live by.

The interesting thing about the bible is that it clearly sees the complexity of life. Jesus for example understood the Sabbath teaching of scripture more clearly than the Pharisees - there is an apparent breaking of the Sabbath which on a much more real and deeper level is in fact a keeping of the true Sabbath.

Scripture spends a lot of time pointing directionally because in life there are often many things which require great wisdom. Two good things seem to pit each other against each other and we must choose.

Interestingly we may not always be called to serve. There were moments in Jesus' teaching where crowds were seeking his wisdom, but Jesus did not teach them instead he went into the wilderness to pray.

Amazingly even the son of God could not serve the world 24/7! Many people think they can serve the world constantly, but they simply lack the wisdom to understand that even Jesus was not capable of this with limitations of a human body.