Matthew 12:7

7 If you had any idea what this Scripture meant - 'I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual' - you wouldn't be nitpicking like this.

Matthew 12:7 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 12:7

But if ye had known what this meaneth,
&c,] The passage of Scripture in ( 6:6 )

I will have mercy, and not sacrifice;
of the sense of which, (See Gill on Matthew 9:13)

ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Our Lord taxes the Pharisees both with ignorance of the Scriptures, in which they pretended to be very knowing, and took upon them to be the interpreters of; and with inhumanity, for condemning innocent persons, the apostles, for rubbing a few ears of corn, for the refreshment of nature; which they would never have done, had they understood the word, and will of God; who prefers acts of humanity, compassion, and mercy, to the observance of rites and ceremonies; or had they the common affections of human nature, and those bowels of compassion which one man ought to show to another.

Matthew 12:7 In-Context

5 And didn't you ever read in God's Law that priests carrying out their Temple duties break Sabbath rules all the time and it's not held against them?

6 "There is far more at stake here than religion.

7 If you had any idea what this Scripture meant - 'I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual' - you wouldn't be nitpicking like this.

8 The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; he's in charge."

9 When Jesus left the field, he entered their meeting place.