Paul isn’t talking about the unrighteous unbelievers out in the world. This was a warning for those in the church who were defrauding their fellow church members. “Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.”
When Jesus refers to “the least of these my brethren” in Matthew 25, he is not saying that neglect of the poor will get you a rap that sin against the rich won’t, he is saying that he cares about all his people, not just the important ones. He is saying that you can’t get a passing grade by just treating the pastors and the prophets well. If you sin against the clueless, but faithful, Christian whom nobody holds in any esteem, Jesus still cares about them and will hold you accountable. Jesus is no respector of persons.
“…let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1). The “wrath of man” is here contrasted with “slow to wrath”, and hence is its opposite: the wrath of man is hasty wrath. Structurally, this statement is equivalent to saying, “Be sure to get up early every day: teenager’s hours will never make you rich.” It is implied that “teenager’s hours” are late instead of early, as it is implied that “the wrath of man” is hasty instead of slow. It is not implied that all teenagers keep “teenager’s hours” — just because a man is angry does not mean his anger is “the wrath of man”.
God’s wrath, on the other hand, is slow. We are often told that. “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…”. James is not exhorting us to never be angry, he is exhorting us to be like God: slow to wrath.
Weighing in against imprecation is Job in chapter 31: “If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me, or exulted when evil overtook him — no, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life in a curse.”
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Adam is animated into being by the breath of God.
When the patriarchs die in Genesis, they breathe their last. When Jesus died on the cross, he breathed his last. Or in the rendering of the king james, they gave up the ghost. Which is to say, they let their spirit go. That is, they breathed out their soul.
In the book of Job, Elihu talks about the breath of God. Well, first Job says in chapter 27 that “all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils”. Then Elihu picks up on the theme a few chapters later: “the spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life”. And he expands on it in chapter 34, “if [God would] gather unto himself his spirit and his breath all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust”.
The very breath of God in our nostrils. The very spirit of God moving in and out of our lungs. Our life is but a breath, the psalmist says. “In him we live and move and have our being,” says Paul.
And if all that weren’t enough, check out what Jesus does in John chapter 20. It is written, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’”
Wow.
The great passage on disciplining children is in Hebrews 12. It says that no discipline is pleasant at the time but it is worth it in the long haul, and claims that if God disciplines you, it’s because he loves you. But there’s something curious about this. The Hebrews aren’t being chewed out for being disobedient.
Sure, the author of the book is worried about them. They have gone through persecution before, he notes, and are going through it again. He is concerned that they will grow weary and give up, melt down in the face of opposition. And what are they being persecuted for? Not for any wicked deeds they have done, but for their faith. And this persecution, this opposition they are facing for their belief in the true God and his son Jesus Christ — that is the discipline that God is giving them. That is his means of chastening and scourging. That is how he is refining them and bringing about the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
Which means that discipline isn’t necessarily punitive. Means it probably isn’t even punitive at its core. The man who loves his son makes him do really hard work that the son would never do on his own initiative, not because he did bad things, but that he might learn in time to do much better things than he would ever accomplish otherwise.
The hypocrisy of the pharisees becomes apparent as the gospel narratives progress. But nowhere is it so obvious as at the end of the story.
When they haul Jesus before Pilate, what charge do they lay? That he has been teaching people not to pay tribute to Caesar and that he himself is a king. The first part of that charge is false, something they tried to catch him saying but couldn’t. The second is true. So they’re just loyal to Caesar and the status quo, right?
Well, no, because when Pilate asks them whom they want to have released for the feast, they insist on Barabbas. And what were his crimes? Insurrection and murder. Yup, they would rather have an already-convicted insurrectionist than one the civil authorities have just declared guiltless of that charge. False pretenses all around.
And consider what they do when Judas returns to them, repenting his betrayal. It’s in Matthew, chapter twenty-seven. He tells them he has betrayed innocent blood. They don’t deny it. They just say, “We don’t care. That’s your problem.” And when he throws the blood money down in the temple and leaves, they have a moral quandary. “We can’t put that money in the treasury. It’s blood money, and putting blood money in the treasury is against the law.” As if paying money for innocent blood isn’t. As if bearing false testimony against innocent blood isn’t. As if condemning the just isn’t. As if murder isn’t.
Truly, they strain out gnats and swallow camels.
