Taking Matthew 23:23-24 as its anchor text, the sermon confronts a scribal, Pharisaic religion that tithes even the smallest herbs yet neglects “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness,” straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel. True righteousness, greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees, is measured by Micah 6:8’s summary of what the Lord requires: to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God, and by “mercy, not sacrifice.”
This righteousness plays out in concrete relationships: keeping the Sabbath rightly, being reconciled to a brother before bringing an offering, fulfilling the whole law by loving one’s neighbor, pursuing the peace and edification of Romans 14 and Hebrews 12, and adding to faith the Christian virtues of 2 Peter 1 so as not to be ineffective or unfruitful. The sermon calls the church away from a hollow, technical religion toward a lived-out righteousness of justice, mercy, and faithful love.