Marsha's Musings: From my spiritual journal

Matthew 12:7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

Jesus doesn't want my sacrifice so much as He wants me to have mercy on those I might be tempted to condemn because they do not hold to the same standards of conduct that I would in certain areas. This verse also reminds me of the Old Testament verse where God says in

1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Also Micah 6:8 which says,

Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

God wants from me mercy, obedience, justice, and walking humbly with Him. It's a tall order. If I keep myself busy with these, there shouldn't be time to point fingers at what others are or are not doing that is not up to my standards of conduct. Seems the Pharisees spent the biggest share of their time fussing about the way everyone else practiced their religion instead of focusing on what God really wanted from them. This is not to say that we are not to be discerning and ignore error against the Word of God. We are to confront true error when it presents itself, but we are to do it in love, not arrogance. Scripture says we are to speak the truth in love. We need to discern between what is doctrinal error that opposes the Bible and what is our own preference and standard of conduct. We need to be careful we are not condemning others for violating our own personal standards of conduct.