Many passages in Scripture talk about our good works and the benefit they have in our lives. Our good works are often the first witness we have with other people. I appreciate the phrase that says, “Don’t tell me I have a friend in Jesus until you show me I have a friend in you.” Good works matter, but Jesus said they might also be a wrong priority. When are good works not good?

In this passage, Jesus was speaking to the scribes and Pharisees, the most dedicated people of his day to accomplishing “good works.” Pharisees saw themselves as living examples of obedience to God. Jesus talked about the careful measures they took to tithe, even to tithe their spices to God. Then Jesus told them why their careful tithe wasn’t as important to God as they believed.

Jesus called these men “hypocrites.” In our culture, that sounds like slander, but Jesus wasn’t slandering them; he was describing them. In the first century, the word hypocrite literally referred to “an actor.” Jesus called them actors on a stage, people pretending to be someone they weren't.

Money and spices were a tithe of what they owned but didn’t indicate a dedicated heart to God. Jesus told them they were giving what was easy while neglecting what was important. Jesus said the weightier matters, the priorities that mattered the most, were justice, mercy, and faithfulness. We are to tithe, to do good works, but we ought not to think that those things replace our most important calling to be holy.

Good works are a wrong priority when we place those works ahead of our sanctification, the work of God in and through our lives. Sanctification is the work we do that makes us holy, more like Christ. God’s priorities are wisdom. God has called us to become the kinds of Christians whose priorities reflect that the character of Christ is at work in our lives.