Matthew 23:23 -24

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

Jesus continues contrasting the practices of the scribes and Pharisees with how they should be living their lives.

The Jews were required by law to give a tenth of the products of their land to the Lord's service. These plants mentioned are small ones of the mint family and worth very little on the commercial market. But these individuals were very diligent and careful to give the prescribed ten percent as the law required. And even though they were careful to keep the small points of the law they neglected the important matters of judgment, mercy and faith.

Jesus did not instruct the scribes and Pharisees to stop doing the small matters and replace them with the important matters, He told them to keep doing the small and also take care of the important matters.

Verse 24 covers the same message as verse 23, but uses different worldly terms.

The gnat and the camel were classed as unclean by the law of Moses. When the Jews made wine they strained it through a very fine cloth to remove all of the undesirable items which may have got in the wine during the production of the drink. They were so diligent to remove even a gnat to keep the product pure but they would figuratively swallow a camel.

The point is they went to great length to attend to small insignificant matters while overlooking the duties of great importance.