Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 6 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Radical Christian Living  /  How Obedience Can Become Pharisaism  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 6
Using Matthew 23:23–24 (“tithing mint” while neglecting justice, mercy, and faith), Bercot challenges “radical discipleship” churches for having detailed standards on head coverings and dress but not standards about helping the poor or visiting the sick; what does that comparison suggest about what God prioritizes, and how would your church’s written standards reveal your real hierarchy of commandments?
Another way to ask: Bercot compares strict rules on dress and head coverings with having few expectations about helping the poor or visiting the sick. What does that say about what God values most, and what do your church’s written rules show you really treat as most important?

Direct Answer Bercot’s comparison suggests God prioritizes the “weightier matters” (justice, mercy, faith; love of God and neighbor), and church standards can reveal a distorted hierarchy when they are detailed about lesser issues but largely silent about mercy and mission-shaped obedience.

Support from Transcript:

  • He quotes Matthew 23:23–24: they tithed “mint and anise and cumin” but “neglected the weightier matters…justice and mercy and faith.”
  • Jesus didn’t say the small obediences were wrong: “These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone,” but they “missed the whole importance.”
  • Bercot applies it to “radical discipleship” churches: many standards focus on “head covering” and applications of 1 Peter 3:1.
  • He notes what’s missing: standards rarely stipulate helping the poor, visiting the sick, or other neighbor-love duties.
  • He identifies the two greatest commandments: “loving God…[and] loving our neighbor as ourself,” and says without these “everything else means nothing.”
  • He points to Jesus’ sheep/goats criteria: feeding, clothing, visiting the sick/prison.
Discussion Follow-ups If someone read only your written standards, what would they assume your church thinks is most important to God?

Jumpstarter 6 of 10
Back Questions Next