147th Post Jesus on Hell Con't. - Matthew 23: 23 - 24

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. 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. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
This passage was during the last part of Jesus' earthly ministry. Jesus is attacking the religious leaders of His day. They were supposed to be teaching the people the right way to live and honor God. But they had been teaching the people based on their own understanding, instead of what God was teaching them. If you look at the passage, Jesus uses their tithe of ten percent of their spices to show what they concentrated on, but they forgot to focus on justice, mercy and faithfulness. We think that Christianity was the first religion to focus on those things. This is wrong, the Jews in the Old Testament were to focus on those things as well. We can be guilty of this today as well. We can get so wrapped up in our daily things that we don't see, or refuse to see people in our own Churches that are having a rough time, and we could help them. Like the religious leaders in Jesus' day, we can choose not to see, and there by not have to do anything to relieve their suffering. We can get so tied up in our personal walk, that we are oblivious to the sufferings of members of our own Churches. We seem more interested in Missions abroad, than taking care of our own flock. This is what Jesus meant by you strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. As Christians, we are to think globally, but work locally first, before we concentrate fully on missions abroad.