“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna. If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
“It was also said, ‘Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,’ but I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery.
“Again you have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,’ but I tell you, don’t swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shall you swear by your head, for you can’t make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ Whatever is more than these is of the evil one.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 33, 37, 38, 45, 47 He is taken for an adulterer before God, whatsoever…
He is taken for an adulterer before God, whatsoever he be, that coveteth a woman: and therefore we must keep our eyes chaste, and all the members we have, yea, and we must eschew all occasions which might move us to evil, how dear soever it cost us.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv27–48 27 Ye have heard that it was said by…
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
Ver. 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery] This they corruptly restrained to the gross act, and made nothing of contemplative filthiness, hearts full of harlotry, hot as an oven with scalding lusts, Hos 7:6, very stews and brothel houses, cages of unclean birds; besides eyes full of adultery, hands defiled with dalliance, tongues taught to talk obscenities and ribaldries. Spurcitias Veneris eliminantes. But Seneca could say, Incesta est, et sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit: she is a whore that would be so had she but opportunity; and the Romans put to death a vestal virgin for singing this verse only.
Read full note →
" Faelices nuptae! moriar ni nubere dulce est."
St Paul’s virgin is holy, not in body only, but in spirit also, 1Co 7:34. Quae quia non licuit non facit, illa facit. {a} And for the avoiding of fornications, δια τας πορνειας, 1Co 7:2; (in the plural number, inward burnings as well as outward pollutions), let every man have his own wife, &c. Fecit quisque quantam voluit, saith Seneca. Every one doeth as he desireth to do. And Polybius attributeth the death of Antiochus to sacrilege only in his purpose and will. Josephus indeed derideth Polybius for so saying; but with as little reason, as his countryman Kimchi (soured with the leaven of the Pharisees) sets this strange sense upon Psa 66:18: If I regard iniquity only in my heart, so that it break not forth into outward act, the Lord will not hear me, that is (saith he) so as to impute it, or account it a sin.
{a} Has patitur poenas peccandi sola voluntas. Juv. Sat. 13.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48 The scope of our Saviour in these verses is…
The scope of our Saviour in these verses is the very same as in the verses immediately preceding, viz. to correct the jejune interpretation which the Pharisees had put upon the Divine law, and to show that he, instead of coming to destroy the law, came to fulfil it, as other ways, so by giving a more strict and true interpretation of it; and whereas they interpreted it only as to overt acts, which disturb human society and break civil order, he showeth that it reacheth to the inward thoughts, and unlawful desires of the heart, and any means that have a tendency to such prohibited acts. It was said by God to those fathers of the Jews,
Thou shalt not commit adultery, Exo 20:14. This law (saith our Saviour) your doctors expound, You shall not carnally lie with a woman that is not your wife; but there is a great deal more in it than so, for he that but secretly in his heart desireth such a thing, or taketh pleasure in such thoughts, and casts his eyes upon a woman in order to such a thing, is in the sight of God an adulterer. Hence we read of eyes full of adultery, to avoid which Job made a covenant with his eyes, Job 31:1, and would not suffer his heart to walk after his eyes, Job 31:7. We must so interpret the commandments of God, as not to extend them only to forbid or command those acts which are plainly mentioned in them, but the inward pleasing of our hearts with such things as are forbidden, the desires of our hearts after them, or whatsoever is a probable means to give us that sinful pleasure of our thoughts, or further inflame such unlawful desires in our souls.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 31, 33, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48 Our Savior next proceeds to explain the seventh commandment,…
Our Savior next proceeds to explain the seventh commandment, which forbids adultery; by which the Pharisees understood only the gross act of uncleanness, and carnal lying with a woman. But, says our Savior, Whosoever secretly in his heart desires such a thing, and casts his eyes upon a woman in order to such an act, entertaining only a thought of it with pleasure and delight, he is an adulterer in God’s account.
Learn, That such is the purity and spirituality of the law of God, that it condemns speculative wantonness, no less than practical uncleanness; and forbids not only the outward action, but the secret purpose and intention, and first out-goings of the soul after unlawful objects.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv27, 33, 38, 43 We have here an exposition of the seventh commandment,…
We have here an exposition of the seventh commandment, given us by the same hand that made the law, and therefore was fittest to be the interpreter of it: it is the law against uncleanness, which fitly follows upon the former; that laid a restraint upon sinful passions, this upon sinful appetites, both which ought always to be under the government of reason and conscience, and if indulged, are equally pernicious.
I. The command is here laid down (Mat 5:27), Thou shalt not commit adultery; which includes a prohibition of all other acts of uncleanness, and the desire of them: but the Pharisees, in their expositions of this command, made it to extend no further than the act of adultery, suggesting, that if the iniquity was only regarded in the heart, and went no further, God could not hear it, would not regard it (Psa 66:18), and therefore they thought it enough to be able to say that they were no adulterers, Luk 18:11.
Read full note →
II. It is here explained in the strictness of it, in three things, which would seem new and strange to those who had been always governed by the tradition of the elders, and took all for oracular that they taught.
1. We are here taught, that there is such a thing as heart-adultery, adulterous thoughts and dispositions, which never proceed to the act of adultery or fornication; and perhaps the defilement which these give to the soul, that is here so clearly asserted, was not only included in the seventh commandment, but was signified and intended in many of those ceremonial pollutions under the law, for which they were to wash their clothes, and bathe their flesh in water. Whosoever looketh on a woman (not only another man's wife, as some would have it, but any woman), to lust after her, has committed adultery with her in his heart, Mat 5:28. This command forbids not only the acts of fornication and adultery, but, (1.) All appetites to them, all lusting after the forbidden object; this is the beginning of the sin, lust conceiving (Jam 1:15); it is a bad step towards the sin; and where the lust is dwelt upon and approved, and the wanton desire is rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel, it is the commission of sin, as far as the heart can do it; there wants nothing but convenient opportunity for the sin itself. Adultera mens est - The mind is debauched. Ovid. Lust is conscience baffled or biassed: biassed, if it say nothing against the sin; baffled, if it prevail not in what is says. (2.) All approaches toward them; feeding the eye with the sight of the forbidden fruit; not only looking for that end, that I may lust; but looking till I do lust, or looking to gratify the lust, where further satisfaction cannot be obtained. The eye is both the inlet and outlet of a great deal of wickedness of this kind, witness Joseph's mistress (Gen 39:7), Samson (Jdg 16:1), David, Sa2 11:2. We read the eyes full of adultery, that cannot cease from sin, Pe2 2:14. What need have we, therefore, with holy Job, to make a covenant with our eyes, to make this bargain with them that they should have the pleasure of beholding the light of the sun and the works of God, provided they would never fasten or dwell upon any thing that might occasion impure imaginations or desires; and under this penalty, that if they did, they must smart for it in penitential tears! Job 31:1. What have we the covering of the eyes for, but to restrain corrupt glances, and to keep out of their defiling impressions? This forbids also the using of any other of our senses to stir up lust. If ensnaring looks are forbidden fruit, much more unclean discourses, and wanton dalliances, the fuel and bellows of this hellish fire. These precepts are hedges about the law of heart-purity, Mat 5:8. And if looking be lust, they who dress and deck, and expose themselves, with design to be looked at and lusted after (like Jezebel, that painted her face and tired her head, and looked out at the window) are no less guilty. Men sin, but devils tempt to sin.
2. That such looks and such dalliances are so very dangerous and destructive to the soul, that it is better to lose the eye and the hand that thus offend then to give way to the sin, and perish eternally in it. This lesson is here taught us, Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30. Corrupt nature would soon object against the prohibition of heart-adultery, that it is impossible to governed by it; "It is a hard saying, who can bear it? Flesh and blood cannot but look with pleasure upon a beautiful woman; and it is impossible to forbear lusting after and dallying with such an object." Such pretences as these will scarcely be overcome by reason, and therefore must be argued against with the terrors of the Lord, and so they are here argued against.
(1.) It is a severe operation that is here prescribed for the preventing of these fleshly lusts. If thy right eye offend thee, or cause thee to offend, by wanton glances, or wanton gazings, upon forbidden objects; if thy right hand offend thee, or cause thee to offend, by wanton dalliances; and if it were indeed impossible, as is pretended, to govern the eye and the hand, and they have been so accustomed to these wicked practices, that they will not be withheld from them; if there be no other way to restrain them (which, blessed be God, through his grace, there is), it were better for us to pluck out the eye, and cut off the hand, though the right eye, and right hand, the more honourable and useful, than to indulge them in sin to the ruin of the soul. And if this must be submitted to, at the thought of which nature startles, much more must we resolve to keep under the body, and to bring it into subjection; to live a life of mortification and self-denial; to keep a constant watch over our own hearts, and to suppress the first rising of lust and corruption there; to avoid the occasions of sin, to resist the beginnings of it, and to decline the company of those who will be a snare to us, though ever so pleasing; to keep out of harm's way, and abridge ourselves in the use of lawful things, when we find them temptations to us; and to seek unto God for his grace, and depend upon that grace daily, and so to walk in the Spirit, as that we may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh; and this will be as effectual as cutting off a right hand or pulling out a right eye; and perhaps as much against the grain to flesh and blood; it is the destruction of the old man.
(2.) It is a startling argument that is made use of to enforce this prescription (Mat 5:29), and it is repeated in the same words (Mat 5:30), because we are loth to hear such rough things; Isa 30:10. It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, though it be an eye or a hand, which can be worse spared, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Note, [1.] It is not unbecoming a minister of the gospel to preach of hell and damnation; nay, he must do it, for Christ himself did it; and we are unfaithful to our trust, if we give not warning of the wrath to come. [2.] There are some sins from which we need to be saved with fear, particularly fleshly lusts, which are such natural brute beasts as cannot be checked, but by being frightened; cannot be kept from a forbidden tree, but by cherubim, with a flaming sword. [3.] When we are tempted to think it hard to deny ourselves, and to crucify fleshly lusts, we ought to consider how much harder it will be to lie for ever in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; those do not know or do not believe what hell is, that will rather venture their eternal ruin in those flames, than deny themselves the gratification of a base and brutish lust. [4.] In hell there will be torments for the body; the whole body will be cast into hell, and there will be torment in every part of it; so that if we have a care of our own bodies, we shall possess them in sanctification and honour, and not in the lusts of uncleanness. [5.] Even those duties that are most unpleasant to flesh and blood, are profitable for us; and our Master requires nothing from us but what he knows to be for our advantage.
3. That men's divorcing of their wives upon dislike, or for any other cause except adultery, however tolerated and practised among the Jews, was a violation of the seventh commandment, as it opened a door to adultery, Mat 5:31, Mat 5:32. Here observe,
(1.) How the matter now stood with reference to divorce. It hath been said (he does not say as before, It hath been said by them of old time, because this was not a precept, as those were, though the Pharisees were willing so to understand it, Mat 19:7, but only a permission), "Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce; let him not think to do it by word of mouth, when he is in a passion; but let him do it deliberately, by a legal instrument in writing, attested by witnesses; if he will dissolve the matrimonial bond, let him do it solemnly." Thus the law had prevented rash and hasty divorces; and perhaps at first, when writing was not so common among the Jews, that made divorces rare things; but in process of time it became very common, and this direction of how to do it, when there was just cause for it, was construed into a permission of it for any cause, Mat 19:3.
(2.) How this matter was rectified and amended by our Saviour. He reduced the ordinance of marriage to its primitive institution: They two shall be one flesh, not to be easily separated, and therefore divorce is not to be allowed, except in case of adultery, which breaks the marriage covenant; but he that puts away his wife upon any other pretence, causeth her to commit adultery, and him also that shall marry her when she is thus divorced. Note, Those who lead others into temptation to sin, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselves guilty of their sin, and will be accountable for it. This is one way of being partaker with adulterers Psa 50:18.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv27–48 Ye have heard that it was said,.... These forms…
Ye have heard that it was said,.... These forms of speech, as well as what follows,
by them of old time, have been explained, in ver. 21. The law here mentioned,
Read full note →
thou shalt not commit adultery, is recorded in Exo 20:14 and the meaning of our Lord is, not that the then present Jews had heard that such a law had been delivered "to the ancients", their fathers, at Mount Sinai; for that they could read in their Bibles: but they had received it by tradition, that the sense of it, which had been given to their ancestors, by the ancient doctors of the church, was, that this law is to be taken strictly, as it lies, and only regards the sin of uncleanness in married persons; or, what was strictly adultery, and that actual; so that it had no respect to fornication, or unchaste thoughts, words, or actions, but that single act only.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 Thou shalt not commit adultery - And this, as…
Thou shalt not commit adultery - And this, as well as the sixth commandment, the scribes and Pharisees interpreted barely of the outward act. Exod. xx, 14.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 Verse 27. Ye have heard that it was said…
Verse 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old] By the ancients, τοις αρχαιοις, is omitted by nearly a hundred MSS., and some of them of the very greatest antiquity and authority; also by the Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Gothic, and Sclavonian versions; by four copies of the old Itala; and by Origen, Cyril, Theophylact, Euthymius, and Hilary. On this authority Wetstein and Griesbach have left it out of the text.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 31, 33, 38, 43 Mat 5:27-28. Ye have heard, &c. — Jesus now…
Mat 5:27-28. Ye have heard, &c. — Jesus now proceeds in his sermon to the seventh commandment, the true interpretation of which he gives us. Thou shalt not commit adultery — This, as well as the sixth commandment, the scribes and Pharisees interpreted barely of the outward act. But I say unto you, &c. — The command extends not only to unchaste actions and words, but even to looks, and the very thoughts of the heart: for whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her — Whosoever cherishes or indulges unchaste imaginations, desires, and intentions, hath committed adultery with her, &c. — Hath been guilty of a violation of this commandment, which was intended to forbid the corrupt inclinations of the heart, and all irregular desires, as well as the pollution of the body.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 Ye have heard that it was said by them…
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery - See the notes at Mat 5:21. Our Saviour in these verses explains the seventh commandment. It is probable that the Pharisees had explained this commandment, as they had the sixth, as extending only to the external act; and that they regarded evil thoughts and a wanton imagination as of little consequence, or as not forbidden by the law. Our Saviour assures them that the commandment did not regard the external act merely, but the secrets of the heart, and the movements of the eye. He declares that they who indulge a wanton desire, that they who look on a woman to increase their lust, have already, in the sight of God, violated the commandment, and committed adultery in the heart. Such was the guilt of David, whose deep and awful crime fully shows the danger of indulging in evil desires, and in the rovings of a wanton eye. See 2 Sam. 11; Ps. 51. See also 2Pe 2:14. So exceeding strict and broad is the law of God! And so heinous in his sight axe thoughts and feelings which may be forever concealed from the world!
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 46, 48 Jesus Christ here perfects the old law, which makes…
Jesus Christ here perfects the old law, which makes no mention of the acts of the mind and will. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 Ye have heard that it was said--The words "by,"…
Ye have heard that it was said--The words "by," or "to them of old time," in this verse are insufficiently supported, and probably were not in the original text.
Thou shall not commit adultery--Interpreting this seventh, as they did the sixth commandment, the traditional perverters of the law restricted the breach of it to acts of criminal intercourse between, or with, married persons exclusively. Our Lord now dissipates such delusions.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 (2.) Christian law of sexual purity.
(2.) Christian law of sexual purity.
27. Not commit adultery — The same principles are applied to the seventh commandment as are used in the preceding paragraph to elucidate and disencumber the sixth. Actual adultery is traced to the lust in the heart. The hidden crime is viewed as the essential crime of which the external act is the manifestation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 (β) Adultery, 27–32.
(β) Adultery, 27–32.
28. to lust after her i. e. “with a view to lust after her.”
Read full note →
in his heart] Contrast with the pure in heart, Mat_5:8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 (27) By them of old time.—Omitted in the best…
(27) By them of old time.—Omitted in the best MSS. If retained, translate as before, to them of old time. It was probably inserted for the sake of conformity with Mat_5:21. Here the words are simply those of the divine commandment, but it is given as it was taught in the Rabbinic schools, simply in the narrowness of the letter, without any perception that here too the commandment was “exceeding broad.” It is with that teaching, as before, that our Lord contrasts His own.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv27–48 Vers. 27-30. The seventh commandment. The verses occur in…
Vers. 27-30. The seventh commandment. The verses occur in this form only here, but vers. 29 and 30 are found in Mat_18:8, Mat_18:9, (parallel passage, Mar_9:43-47) as illustrations of another subject ( vide infra).
By them of old time. Omit, with the Revised Version (cf. ver. 21, note). Thou shalt not. (Exo_20:14 Deu_5:18)
Read full note →
Vers. 27-32. Christ"s second and third illustration of the Christian type of a true fulfilling of the Law.
After the illustration based on the letter of the sixth commandment, Christ takes the letter of the seventh as the basis of further illustration. Both of these commandments lend themselves so well for the instruction of the individual in the matter of the wide difference between the outer commandment and the spirit of it, that whoever will may learn that difference, and, learning it, become a true learner a learner in the school of Christ. In this illustration individual feeling, impulse, character, are so sensitively and so subtilly touched, that perhaps none could penetrate more effectually or have better opportunity of far-reaching and lasting lessons. Notice that Christ teaches how, to the true conception of God"s Law, it is necessary to remember that
I NOT ONLY BEFORE ALL AND EVERY ACTION OF SIN HE MAKES COUNT OF THE THOUGHT-SEED THAT GREW TO IT, AND NOT ONLY BEHIND ALL AND EVERY ACTION OF SIN HE MAKES COUNT OF MOTIVE, AND THE THOUGHT THAT WORKS AS MOTIVE THERETO, BUT ALSO THAT WITHOUT ANY ACTION WHATSOEVER, HE TAKES MOST SURE ACCOUNT OF THOUGHT, AS ITSELF MATTER AND SUBJECT OF SIN, WITH ITS QUALITIES AND ATTRIBUTES.
II THE BODILY SENSE THAT MAY BE THE INLET, THE AWAKENER, AND FEEDER TO THOUGHT AND HEART, OF SIN OR OCCASION OF SIN, MUST BE DENIED, CLOSED, AND DESTROYED, RATHER THAN LEFT TO BE AN "OFFENCE" TO THE KEEPING OF THE LAW. THIS IS TO HONOUR GOD"S LAW.
III THE BODILY POWER WHICH MAY HAVE THE SKILL AND CUNNING, AND ALL THAT MAY BE THE BEST TALENT OF THE PERSON GATHERED INTO IT, MUST IN LIKE MANNER BE DENIED, SUPPRESSED, DESTROYED, IF ANY PERVERSE BIAS POSSESSING IT MAKE IT PROVE AN "OFFENCE." THE SOVEREIGN VOICE OF THE COMMANDMENT IS THEN AGAINST IT.
IV THE COURSE WHICH FAILS OF HONOURING THE LAW OF GOD TO ITS TRUE INTENTION, IS ONLY TOO SURE TO BETRAY ITS OWN FAULTINESS, IN INVOLVING MANIFOLD OTHER VIOLATION OF IT, AND THIS, TOO, ON THE PART OF OTHERS AS OF THE WRONG-DOER HIMSELF. B.
Vers. 27-32. Purity.
In the preceding paragraph Jesus expounded the spirituality of the Law in ruling the passions; here he pursues the subject in respect to the appetites. The case of adultery is typical or representative of the series. Learn
I THAT THE LAW IS KEPT OR BROKEN IN THE HEART.
1. Acts are good or evil as expressions of the heart.
(1) This was the reverse of the teaching of the elders. Especially so in the school of Hillel. Hence the Pharisees took the technical observance of the letter to be the fulfilling of the Law. (see Luk_18:11)
(2) But an act apart from the will would be automatic and mechanical. It would cease to be moral. (see Mat_15:19)
(3) The spirit, therefore, is the essence of the Law. So David. (see Psa_66:18) The ordinances respecting ceremonial uncleanness and their washings and bathings were designed to teach this.
2. The senses are the instruments of the heart.
(1) The eye is an inlet to its wickedness. The appetite of Potiphar"s wife was stirred by the comeliness of Joseph. (see Gen_39:6) Samson was overcome by the vision of Delilah. (Jud_1:16:1; see also 2Sa_11:2)
(2) The eye is an outlet to its wickedness. Bad men look that they may lust. They lust in the look where further satisfaction cannot be attained. "Eyes full of adultery," etc. (2Pe_2:14) Were time, place, and opportunity in their favour, the look would ripen into the deed.
(3) The true sentinel will keep the gate of the citadel. So Job made a covenant with his eyes. (Job_31:1) He will be vigilant in prayer. (see Psa_119:37)
(4) What applies to the eyes applies also to the other senses. There is adultery in unclean discourse. In wanton dalliances. In immodest dressing. "Jezebel painted her face and tired her head," etc. (2Ki_9:30) Sex is the spirit of the modern dance. Men sin; but devils tempt to sin" (Henry).
3. The Pharisee, ignoring the spirit, transgresses the letter of the Law.
(1) The original law of marriage admitted of divorce for the one offence of infidelity to the specific marriage covenant. (Gen_2:24 Mat_19:3-8) Other causes there might be to justify separation , but not divorce.
(2) Moses permitted divorce under other conditions. (Deu_24:1) But this permission was hateful to God. (see Mal_2:16) It was suffered by Moses because of the hardness of the people"s hearts. (Mat_19:7, Mat_19:8) Between laws of command and laws of permission there is an important distinction.
(3) Taking advantage of the concession, divorces became common on account of dislikes and caprices. Rabbi Akiba said, "If any man saw a woman handsomer than his own wife, he might put his wife away; because it is said in the Law, If she find not favour in his eyes. " Josephus, not being pleased with his wife"s manners, put her away.
(4) Our Lord showed how this conduct operated against the Law. It made an adulteress of the divorced wife; for it treated her as though she had been such. It exposed her to the temptation to commit adultery. Bound by the law of her husband during his natural life, even did she marry another she would be an adulteress. (see Rom_7:1-8) By parity of reasoning, whoever married her would be an adulterer. The proper husband is responsible as the cause of all these consequences. (ver. 32; see also Psa_50:18 1Co_7:10, 1Co_7:11)
II THAT THE HEART MUST BE PURIFIED AT ANY COST.
1. Because the unclean heart is fit only for perdition.
(1) It can have no place in heaven. It would be there a monstrosity in the midst of symmetry. It would mar the harmony of purity, it would be out of sympathy with saints and angels. It would be an intolerable offence to the holy God.
(2) Gehenna is prepared for the devil and his agents. A man goes to "his own place." His hell is in his heart.
(3) In Gehenna there are also torments for the body. "Both soul and body." The body will be tormented in every part. The "eye." The "hand." The "whole body.
2. Terror is the argument for the brutish.
(1) Fine sentiments have little influence with the lustful. The debauchee flings overboard all such when he tramples upon the sanctities of wife, family, home, and Church. Upon the principle that the garotter will respect the cat.
(2) To the adulterer, therefore, our Lord preaches damnation. The true minister will follow this example. He can only keep a clean conscience by declaring the whole counsel of God. (see Jud_1:22, 23)
3. Resolute dealing is needful here.
(1) The offending eye and hand must go. No matter how dear the "eye the idol. No matter how useful the "hand the acquisition. (cf. Gal_5:24 Col_3:5)
(2) Men, under surgical advice, will part with a limb or an organ to save life. So the sinner who hazards his soul for his idol must sacrifice his idol to save his soul.
(3) To neglect the mortifying of a single member may prove the destruction of all the members. When one member sins, all the members sin with it and suffer the penalty. Better one perish in repentance than all perish in Gehenna.
(4) Those duties which are most unpleasant are often most "profitable." God requires nothing from us that will not be to our advantage. J.A.M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain On vv27, 33, 38 Mat 5:27-32.
Mat 5:27-32.
The Law Concerning Adultery And Divorce
Read full note →
By this second example (see on "Mat 5:21") our Lord further illustrates and applies the statement of Mat 5:17-20 that he does not propose to relax the requirements of the law, but enjoins a still stricter and more spiritual morality.
Mat 5:27. Ye have heard that it was said. See on Mat 5:21. By—to—them of old time, is here a spurious addition from Mat 5:21.[1] It may be noticed (Stier) that a certain variety is observed in introducing this series of examples; the full phrase of Mat 5:21 is shortened in Mat 5:27 and still further in Mat 5:31; and then in Mat 5:33 the full phrase is resumed, to be again shortened in Mat 5:38 and Mat 5:43. Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exo 20:14 Deu 5:18) This prohibition of a particular species of unchastity may be regarded as carrying with it in principle-like others of the ten commandments—the prohibition of unchastity in general. No addition to this commandment is said to have been made in the traditional teaching, as was done in the former case; (Mat 5:21) but we know that the Jewish teachers were disposed to limit the commandment to actual adultery. Jesus extends it so as to forbid dallying with the corresponding desires. He thus ’completes’ the law. (Mat 5:17)
[1] It is wanting in most of the early authorities, and is manifestly an addition by way of assimilation to Mat 5:21, etc. Its presence in some Old Latin codices (with the Vulgate.) and in the Old Syriac, shows that the addition was made early, by the middle of the second century, like many other corruptions of the text.
Mat 5:28. But I say, The ’I’ is emphatic; see on Mat 5:22. To lust after her, i. e., with a view to lust after her, an intentional looking for the purpose of stimulating, and delighting in, impure desire. This, ’with a view to,’ is the proper force of the Greek phrase, the same that is used in Mat 6:1, Mat 13:30, Mat 23:5. The English word ’lust’ originally signified desire of any kind, good or bad (as in German now). In the Scriptures it is used only for evil desires, and at the present day is confined to one particular class of evil desires. The Greek word here used signifies ’desire’ in general, and is used in a good sense in Mat 13:17 Luk 22:15, and some other passages. More frequently it has a bad sense, as in Mar 4:19, etc., denoting evil desires in general (human desires being so often evil). The specific sense of sexual desire is found (in the New Testament) only here and in Rom 1:24, though of course included, along with other desires, in most cases of the bad sense. Hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. The distinction between our Lord’s teachings and what they were accustomed to, is essentially the same as in Rom 1:21 f. Jesus condemns, not merely the outward act of sin, but the cherishing of sinful desire. Stier: "He who experiences at a first glance this desire, and then instead of turning away and withdrawing from sin, (2Pe 2:14) throws a second glance with lustful intent and in order to retain and increase that impulse, commits the sin." As in 1Jn 3:15, ’whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,’ so here, every one that cherishes lust by a look is an adulterer. Compare Job 31:1; Pro 6:25; 2Sa 11:2, 2Sa 11:4; and 2Pe 2:14, ’eyes full of adultery.’ The Greek and Roman and the Jewish writers have also many sayings (see in Wet., Gill), as to the sinfulness of a lustful look.
Mat 5:29 f. The vigorous self-restraint which is requisite in order to avoid the sin just forbidden, suggests the idea that all our propensities must be controlled, and that the greatest possible self-denial would be far better than that suffering in hell, which must be the reward of sinful gratifications. This corresponds to the application made in Mat 5:23, and here again the address is to an individual, ’thou.’
Thy right eye, literally, thy eye, the right (eye); even an eye, even the best eye, must in such a case be given up. Compare Exo 29:20; 1Sa 11:2; Zec 11:17. The ’eye’ is doubtless selected because suggested by the preceding sentence, (Mat 5:28) and also because of its general importance. Offend thee, or, causes thee to stumble, or ’to sin.’ The Greek word is found in Sept., and quite often in N. T., though not found in profane Greek writers, and involves such difficulties as to justify a detailed explanation. Compare Conant. (1) The noun (skandalon), from which this verb is derived, denotes primarily the trapstick or trigger of a net or trap, against which the game strikes and causes the trap to fall; and derivatively, anything against which one strikes, whether a stumbling-block, as in Lev 19:14: ’Thou shalt not put a stumbling block before the blind,’ or more rarely, an obstacle set to hinder the progress of any one, as in the apocryphal book of Judith (Jdt 5:1) it is said the Israelites had put walls on the mountain-tops, and ’obstacles’ (or ’obstructions’) in the plains, to resist the progress of the invaders. From these derivative senses come several figurative uses, as to moral and religious objects: (a) A stumbling-block, as causing one to fall into sin. (Mat 13:41; Mat 18:7; Luk 17:1; Rom 14:13, 1Jn 2:10 Rev 2:14) (b) An obstacle which men strike against and stop, an occasion of disbelief. (Rom 9:32 f..; Rom 16:17, 1Co 1:23, 1Pe 2:8) (c) An object which one strikes against and is hurt or repelled, so as to be displeased with it, an "offence" in the present English sense of that word. (Mat 16:23 Gal 5:11) (By further derivation comes our English use of scandal, which word is borrowed from the Greek, but conveys a meaning no where found in Greek use.) In some cases two of these senses may be united, as the second and third in 1Co 1:23. (In Rom 11:9, the reference is probably not to a stumbling-block, but to the primary sense of a trap-stick or trigger, as a figure for a means of destruction) (2) In like manner the verb (skandalizo) is used figuratively in three corresponding senses: (a) To make one stumble and fall, to cause to sin. (Mat 5:29 f,; Mat 18:6-9 Luk 17:2; Rom 14:21; 1Co 8:13; 1Co 11:29) (b) To obstruct one’s path or make him stop, to cause one to disbelieve and reject or forsake. (Mat 11:6, Mat 13:21, Mat 13:57, Mat 15:12, Mat 24:10, Mat 26:31, Mat 26:33 Joh 16:1) (c) To pain or displease, to offend in our modern sense of the word, (Mat 17:27; Joh 6:61) (And from this by further derivation comes our peculiar English use of the borrowed word "scandalize.") Here also, as with the noun, two or three senses may sometimes be found combined.[1]
[1] It has always been found difficult to translate the words into English. Tyndale introduced the Latin ’offend,’ which might have been developed into all the senses of the Biblical Greek term, but has not been. The Great Bible’s’ hynder’ was a failure. The Geneva took ’cause to offend,’ and so Bible Un., Noyes, and Davidson. King James put this sometimes in the margin, and in the text imitated Tyndale, But this rendering has long been a stumbling-block to the general reader, and an offence to scholars. The Rev. Ver. has given perhaps the best available renderings, but various senses above described require to be carefully distinguished by the reader. The Syriac uses the same root as one which in Hebrew signifies to cause to totter, stumble, fall. The Coptic and the Latin versions here transferred the Greek word scandalizo, and following the Vulgate the Rheims version says ’scandalize,’ which to a modern English reader is even more misleading than ’offend.’ Wyclif’s ’slander’ is but another derivative (through the French) from the same scandalizo.
Thus the idea is, if thy right eye causes thee to sin. The expression is obviously designed to teach a general lesson by "assuming an extreme case," a method quite "characteristic of our Lord’s teachings," (see Alexander, and compare on Mat 5:24 and Mat 5:39). He is not presenting this as an actual case, or one likely to occur; but "if it should occur, if the only alternative presented to a man were habitual transgression or the loss of his most valuable members," then he ought to "choose mutilation rather than a life of sin; and that choice includes all minor cases, as the whole includes the part, and as the greater comprehends the less."
For it is profitable for thee. The appeal is to a man’s own higher interest, which is really promoted by all the self-sacrifice and self-denial required by the word of God. That one of thy members should perish, or simply ’that one of thy members perish,’ the old English subjunctive.[2] Be cast, same term as in the preceding clause. Hell, Gehenna, the place of torment. See on "Mat 5:22".
[2] This use of hina, and the subjunctive, which is common in the Septuagint and extremely so in N. T., though very rare in classic Greek, should not be called subfinal or hypotelic, for it is not at all a weakening of the telie or final sense, but is entirely independent. The clause introduced by hina is here really nominative to the verb ’is profitable’ (the Greek having no equivalent for our ’it’ in such expressions). So in Mat 10:28; Mat 18:6; Mat 18:14. Sometimes it is accusative, either of the direct object, (Mat 14:36; Mat 26:63) or of general reference, ’as to’; (Mat 8:5) in fact the final use really belongs under this last head. And sometimes it is appositional, whether to a nominative, (Luk 1:43) an accusative, (Joh 6:29) or a locative. (Joh 15:8) Whatever special idea may arise is due to the natural relations between the matters spoken of in each case, or to the connection of the statement. Abundant examples may be found in Grimm, but wrongly classified; nor are these uses at all satisfactorily treated by Winer, or Buttmann, or Jelf. (In the similar statement of Mat 18:8 f. we find not hina and subject the usual classical construction, the infinitive).
Mat 5:30. Another and entirely similar illustration of the principle in question. The repetition and reiteration of a thought, with only slight change of figure or phrase, is characteristic of the Scriptures; and it is not merely to be noted as a literary peculiarity, for the inspired writers, and the Great Teacher, employ this means of impressing upon men truths which are important and which they are unwilling to receive. So preachers are often compelled to do now; and though the fastidious may complain, as in the days of Isaiah, that they are treated too much like children, (Isa 28:10) yet others, and perhaps the complainers themselves, often need amplification and repetition—while of course these should not be used as an expedient to disguise poverty of thought, by hammering a very little gold into a very large surface. There is some. thing exceedingly solemn and stately in the repetition here; and in Mat 18:8 f., where our Lord presents the same idea in a different connection, we find the foot also introduced, as a still further amplification (compare on Mat 7:9-11); it may also be noticed that there the eye is mentioned last, (compare Mar 9:43 ff.) while here it comes first, because of Mat 5:28. Be cast into hell, literally go off—or away into hell. This reading is required by the best authorities for the Greek text; it was changed so as to be like Mat 5:29.
Mat 5:31 f. The extreme facility of divorce which existed among the Jews of our Saviour’s time, was the occasion, on a large scale, of the sin of adultery; (Mat 5:32) and thus the transition is very natural from the topic of the preceding verses to this, which is not to be considered a new and distinct example (see on "Mat 5:21"), but another department of the same subject. Accordingly it is introduced by a simpler form of expression than in the other cases; not ’Ye have heard that it was said,’ but simply, ’And it hath been said.’
The law of Moses (Deu 24:1) required that if a man determined to put away his wife, he should give her a formal document to that effect. The Jews in the time of Christ were greatly at variance as to the proper cause of divorce, but most of them held that it was lawful for a man to dismiss his wife ’for every cause’ (see on "Mat 19:3"), and that there was no restriction at all except that he must give her the document. Accordingly, in this case also our Lord is not setting aside the law, (Mat 5:17) nor at all conflicting with its true design. The Israelites, like other Oriental nations, had no doubt been inclined to great laxity in the matter of divorce, and Moses was not encouraging this, but to some extent restricting it (so also Henry, Achelis, Rüitschi in Herzog), by appointing that a man should not send off his wife with a mere oral dismissal, which he might do in a fit of passion, but should give her a regular writing. (Maimonides gives a form in use in his day, twelfth century, see in Lightfoot or Gill.) This, especially in the earliest period, when few could write, would require a Levite to prepare it, and thus give opportunity for reflection and advice, and would besides place the rejected wife in a better position for the future, by showing that she had been a lawful wife. The document, according to the intention of the law, implied that she was innocent of adultery; for if a wife was guilty of that crime the law required that she should be put to death, and there would in that case be no need of a divorce at all. Still, it was not considered obligatory to inflict this penalty. (Compare on Mat 1:19) A further restriction upon the facility of divorce was made by the provision (Deu 24:2-4) that after the termination, by divorce or death, of another marriage on the part of the woman, the man who formerly divorced her could not then take her back, as this would shock the instinctive sense of propriety.—It thus appears that Jesus is here carrying out the design of the Mosaic enactment by a still further restriction in the same direction; is not abrogating the law, but completing it.—According (Mat 5:17) to the terms of the law, and the common usage of the Jews, only the husband could divorce; and so our Lord speaks here only of what the husband may do. But on a later occasion, (Mar 10:12) he mentions also the case of a woman’s putting away her husband. It is natural that Mark rather than Matthew should record this, as it was a case much more likely to occur among Gentiles than among Jews.
Mat 5:32. In this verse, instead of whosoever, the correct text gives the slightly stronger expression, every one who, as in Rev. Ver., every single one, as in Mat 5:28 (compare on Mat 5:22).—But I say unto you. ’I’ emphatic, see on "Mat 5:22".—Jesus recognizes only one sufficient ground of divorce.[1] It is a part of the mystery of human nature that the connection between husband and wife produces a strange feeling of oneness. (Gen 2:23 f.; Eph 5:28; especially 1Co 6:15 f.) And it is only when the sacred tie which thus bound them has been broken, that either of them may lawfully form a marriage union with another person. It is not said that in such a case the husband must put away the offending wife, but in saying that he must not except in that case, it is implied that then he may. Hovey: "This crime is one which inflicts so deep a wound on the innocent party, and violates so utterly and completely the substance of conjugal duty, that it is recognized by God as a valid ground for divorce, whenever this is sought by the unoffending husband or wife." But "there are many passages of the Old Testament in which God addresses his people as an adulterous wife, whom, however, he still recognizes as his own, and strives to recover from idolatry"; and the wronged husband or wife is at liberty to exercise like forbearance.—The same rule as here is laid down at greater length in Mat 19:3-9 (see on "Mat 19:3"), and repeated on a third occasion, Luk 16:18.—The directions given by Paul in 1Co 7:10-16 refer to a peculiar state of things, but are in accordance with our Lord’s teachings, to which Paul expressly refers. Where only one of a heathen couple had become a Christian, the apostle says it was best for them to continue together, since that might result in the salvation of the one not yet converted; (1Co 7:10, 1Co 7:16) but if the unbeliever insists on a separation, the believer is not ’under bondage,’ ’enslaved’ in such cases (1Co 7:15), not compelled to live with the unbeliever, whether or no. (The word is not simply ’bound,’ but ’enslaved,’ and quite different from that rendered ’bound’ in Rom 7:2 f., which refers to the bond of marriage.) Yet the parties thus separated, the apostle says, must remain unmarried, and the believer must seek reconciliation.—Putting (1Co 7:11) together that passage and our Lord’s teachings, we learn that a husband and wife may for sufficient cause separate and live apart, but may not marry again unless the tie between them has been severed through the commission, by one or the other, of the crime our Lord mentions. If a man divorced his wife for any other cause, Jesus declares that he would be causing her to commit adultery, i.e., if she should be married to another; and whosoever should marry her when divorced (or, ’marry a divorced woman’; it may mean either, and there is no important difference)—unless, of course, the divorce were for the sufficient cause here mentioned—would be committing adultery, as she would still be, in the view of the divine law, the first husband’s wife. (Compare Hovey on The Scriptural Law of Divorce, Am. Bapt. Pub. Soc.) It has been well remarked that as the only ground of divorce which our Lord admits is one pertaining to the essential nature of the marriage relation, no changes in the form of the outward union, or of the outward divorce, can make any difference in this respect.—It follows that all legislation which allows of divorce "from the bond of marriage," except for the cause here named, is contrary to Christ’s teaching. It may be very well to legalize separation, with reference to questions of property, support, the control of children, etc., as is done in the so-called divorce "from bed and board"; and in cases where the civil law does not provide for this, but permits a complete legal divorce, it may be allowable to seek such divorce as an arrangement for separation; but still neither party has a moral right to re-marry, unless the religious union has been violated by the unchastity of one of them. In that case the innocent party has a right to full divorce and re-marriage; our Lord has said nothing as to the question whether the guilty party has a moral right to marry again. This could be true only after unquestionable repentance. Compare the case of a man who has killed his wife. But for civil government to refuse a legal divorce in cases where the Lord distinctly admits it, may be a grievous wrong to the innocent party, who is now absolved from all moral obligation to the other, and yet is not permitted by the civil enactments to marry again, if desired. The Greek and other Oriental Churches, and most Protestant Churches, have always held that in such a case re-marriage is allowable. The Church of Rome forbids it (save by special dispensation), maintaining the perpetual obligation of what it calls the "sacrament" of marriage. The German Protestant Churches are extremely lax as to divorce-starting from a wrong interpretation of Paul’s teaching, so as to make "desertion" (1Co 7:15) a ground of divorce—and that fact has embarrassed many of the ablest German commentaries upon the present passage. In some of the United States there has also been a grievous facility of divorce, against which a healthy reaction is now in several quarters arising. The new law of England allows legalized separation for various causes, and divorce proper for adultery. The State of South Carolina has no provision for legal divorce. (On the history of divorce in ancient and modern times, see Woolsey on "Divorce," New York.)
[1] The Greek term employed, porneia (which primarily signifies ’harlotry,’ the primary signification of fornication also) is not always confined to unchastity in unmarried persons, but applied to the married also, as in 1Co 5:1 ff.; Amo 7:17. The corresponding Hebrew word is the one always employed figuratively to denote Israel’s unfaithfulness to Jehovah, her husband. Thus in Eze 23:5, Aholah (Samaria), after "bearing sons and daughters" to Jehovah, (Eze 23:6) "played the harlot When she was mine," compare Num 5:19 f. See Hos 3:3, and Gesenius on senah. Dion Cass. says of the Empress Messalina, kai emoicheueto kai eporneuto, ’she both committed adultery and played the harlot.’ Chrys. says here: "Do you see how this agrees with what precedes? For he that does not look at another man’s wife with unchastened eyes, will not commit; and not committing porneia, he will not afford the husband occasion to cast out his wife." Chrys. certainly knew Greek, and he distinctly applies this term to the case of a married woman. So Theophyl. and Euthym. expressly, and so Origen on Mat 19:9. Apolinarius (in Cramer,) says, "Christ allows one to put away her that has committed fornication, because she dissolved the physical union." Jerome speaks of the wife as having " separated herself from her husband by fornication." The Peshito Syriac translates by ’adultery’ in Mat 19:9, though not in Mat 5:32, and though distinguishing the two terms in Mat 15:19 and elsewhere. Almost all expositors have understood the word in this passage as signifying unchastity in general. See Grot., Meyer, Weiss. As the general term it would include the case of adultery, and also that in which a wife was found to have been unchaste before marriage, which latter ease the law treated as having the same guilt and requiring the same punishment as adultery. (Deu 22:21 f.)Dollinger urges that this last is in Matthew the sole meaning, but unsuccessfully. Yet if the term ’adultery’ had been here used, it would have excluded this case. We thus see a reason for employing the general term, here and in Mat 19:9.—’Maketh her an adulteress,’, (Mat 5:32) represents the correct Greek text. It means that if she is taken as wife by another man, her first husband has caused her to be now an adulteress, by putting her away without proper ground; and the second husband becomes an adulterer, for she is still properly the wife of the other man. The woman appears as passive.
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 5:28. Licentious looks. How much of grievous sin is committed in this respect before him who perfectly sees the heart, and to whom impurity in the heart is as real a sin as gross acts of unchastity. Many a one would boast, like the Pharisee in the parable, of being no adulterer (Luk 18:11), who yet has often committed adultery in the heart; and God has seen it. The principle of our Lord’s teaching alike forbids anything else by which men encourage lustful feeling, as looking for that purpose at works of art, indecent dances, reading, speaking, or hearing obscene stories or obscene jests, filthy imaginations, etc.—Luther: "You can’t prevent the devil from shooting arrows of evil thoughts into your heart; but take care that you do not let such arrows stick fast and grow there. Do as a good old man of past times has said: ’I can’t prevent a bird from flying over my head, but I can prevent him from making a nest in my hair.’ " —Remember that the great means of keeping improper thoughts out of our minds, is to keep them filled with good thoughts. (Gal 5:16)
Mat 5:29. Sins of the eye. How many forms of sin are indicated or excited by looking. The lustful eye, the jealous eye, the envious eye, the revengeful eye, the suspicious eye—the gambler’s eye, the robber’s eye, the flatterer’s eye. Chrys: "For this were not to act as one hating tile eye, but as one loving the rest of the body."—Philo (in Griffith): "It seems to me that all who are not entirely uninstructed will rather blind themselves than gaze on things which are unseemly, and make themselves deaf than listen to hurtful words, and cut out their tongues than speak what ought not to be spoken."—Profitable for thee. Man has a complex nature, and the Bible, which is divinely adapted to human nature, appeals not only to conscience, the felt obligation to do right because it is right, but also to our interest in the true and high sense, our hopes and fears for time and for eternity. Scriptural self-denial is real self-interest.
Mat 5:30. Seneca (in Griffith): "Whatever vices rend your heart, cast them from you; and if they could in no other way be extracted, the heart itself ought to be plucked out with them." Dykes: "The battle of conscience and reason and modesty against appetite, is to be fought within the heart of the tempted man, and for it help is to be found nowhere but on his knees."
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv27, 30, 33, 43, 44, 47, 48 In his heart.
Mat_5:27-28
In his heart.
Read full note →
The heart or will is, in man, the seat of virtue or vice.
I. Actions must be our invariable touchstone of truth whilst we sojourn in this state of imperfect knowledge and comparative obscurity, where expression is the only avenue to sentiment, and action the only publisher of intention.
II. Actions are the only public representatives of our private sentiments.
1. So many channels through which the heart discharges its flow of various passions.
2. So many mirrors by the reflection of which the internal dispositions of the soul become externally visible.
III. Actions viewed in a moral light are to the soul what
(1) streams are to the fountain;
(2) branches are to the root.
Branches have no existence but what they derive from the root. Streams have no existence but what they derive from the fountain. Actions have no moral existence but that which they derive from the heart.
When God judges man, the heart is the rule of judgment.
1. The heart, the source of these actions, is to Him uncovered
2. The heart, having the principle of religion so strong as to prevent an unlawful enjoyment, will likewise be sufficiently strong to prevent an unlawful resolution.
3. The depraved heart is before God of the same criminality as the depraved life, and exposes us to the same punishment from God. Let us therefore eternally renounce every inclination inconsistent with religion and reproachful to humanity. Let us cultivate purity of heart. (David Lamont, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 27, 28. Thou shalt not commit adultery. The Jewish…
27, 28. Thou shalt not commit adultery. The Jewish rabbins held that a man was guiltless who did not commit the act. Christ, as he always did, lays the laws upon the heart. If it is impure, full of unholy desires, one is guilty. It is our duty to keep the heart pure.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v38 The aim and contents of the “Sermon.”—No mere sermon…
CRITICAL NOTES
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Read full note →
The aim and contents of the “Sermon.”—No mere sermon is this, only distinguished from others of its class by its reach and sweep and power; it stands alone as the grand charter of the commonwealth of heaven; or, to keep the simple title the Evangelist himself suggests (Mat_4:23), it is “the gospel (or good news) of the kingdom.” To understand it aright we must keep this in mind, avoiding the easy method of treating it as a mere series of lessons on different subjects, and endeavouring to grasp the unity of thought and purpose which binds its different parts into one grand whole. It may help us to do this if we first ask ourselves what questions would naturally arise in the minds of the more thoughtful of the people, when they heard the announcement, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It was evidently to such persons the Lord addressed Himself.… In their minds they would, in all probability, be revolving such questions as these:
1. “What is this kingdom, what advantages does it offer, and who are the people that belong to it?”
2. “What is required of those that belong to it? What are its laws and obligations?” And if these two questions were answered satisfactorily, a third would naturally follow.
3. “How may those who desire to share its privileges and assume its obligations become citizens of it?” These, accordingly, are the three great questions dealt with in succession (J. M. Gibson, D.D.).
The originality of the Sermon.—We are not careful to deny, we are eager to admit, that many even of the most admirable sayings in the Sermon on the Mount had been anticipated by heathen moralists and poets (S. Cox, D.D.). To affirm that Christ was not in the world, nor in the thoughts of men, until He took flesh and dwelt among us, is no more to honour Him than it is to affirm that, when He came into the world, He showed Himself to be no wiser than the men whose thoughts He had previously guided and inspired.… His teaching, we may be sure, will not be new in the sense of having no connection with the truths He had already taught by them; but it will be new in this sense, that it will perfect that which in them was imperfect; that it will gather up their scattered thoughts, free them from the errors with which they had blended them, and harmonise, develop, and complete them (S. Cox, D D.).
Is the Sermon on the Mount evangelical?—You have heard, as I have, that there is no “Cross” in this Sermon on the Mount; that we are at the foot of Sinai listening to Moses, and not at Calvary “beholding the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” Let us not be deceived. You might as well say there is no sun in a coal-pit or a geyser because you do not see his form there. Your British coalfields are as truly the-children of the sun as is the ray of light that last fell upon our eyes, and the high-pitched morality of this sermon is as really the offspring of the death and resurrection of Christ as the first pulse-beat of joy on the reception of the forgiveness of sins. Will you say that the writer of Todhunter’s Trigonometry is unfamiliar with the first four rules of arithmetic because he assumes instead of stating and proving them? No more should we conclude that salvation by the sacrifice of the Son of God for men is absent from the Sermon on the Mount, because it is not expressly stated and argued as it is in the third of the Romans. There is not a benediction that does not take us to Calvary. There is not a warning that may not urge us to Christ. There is not a mountain elevation of holiness that will not force from us the cry, “Lord, help me, or I perish.” The Sermon is full of the great principles we have to preach, and those principles are all embodied in the Speaker Himself. Teaching Him we teach the principles of this Sermon, and it is of little use teaching the ideas of this Sermon without also teaching Him (J. Clifford, D.D.). The Lord Jesus did not give the world His best wine in this cup, marvellous and precious though it be. The best thing in the Gospels is the gospel itself—that manifestation of the righteousness and love of God in the person, the life, and the death of His Son by which He wins our love and makes us righteous (S. Cox, D.D.).
The relation between the Sermon on the Mount as reported by St. Matthew and the account of it in St. Luke 6—Commentators are divided in opinion as to whether or not these are two versions of the same discourse. Augustine suggests a solution of the difficulty by saying that the two discourses are entirely distinct, though delivered on the same occasion—that reported by St. Matthew, on the mountain to the disciples; that of St. Luke, delivered on the plain just below to the multitude. Dean Vaughan concurs in this view, and says: “Men have doubted whether the discourse in St. Matthew is to be regarded as an ampler account of that which is reported by St. Luke. The general scope and purport is the same. Yet, as St. Matthew says expressly that Jesus spake ‘sitting on the mountain,’ and St. Luke says that He spake ‘standing on the plain,’ it seems not very unnatural to suppose that the one (that given by St. Matthew) was a discourse delivered, as it were, to the inner circle of His disciples, apart from the crowd outside; the other (preserved by St. Luke), a briefer and more popular rehearsal of the chief topics of the former, addressed, immediately afterwards, in descending the hill, to the promiscuous multitude.” Lange also favours this view. Carr (Cambridge Bible for Schools) states the arguments in favour of the identity of the “Sermon on the Mount” with the “Sermon on the Plain,” thus:
1. The beginning and end are identical as well as much of the intervening matter.
2. The portions omitted—a comparison between the old and the new legislation—are such as would be less adapted for St. Luke’s readers than for St. Matthew’s.
3. The “mount” and the “plain” are not necessarily distinct localities. The plain is more accurately translated “a level place,” a platform on the high land.
4. The place in the order of events differs in St. Luke, but it is probable that here as well as elsewhere St. Matthew does not observe the order of time.
Mat_5:38. An eye for an eye, etc.—(See Exo_21:24). The scribes drew a false inference from the letter of the law. As a legal remedy the lex talionis was probably the best possible in a rude state of society (Carr). The aim of the law, as Jerome remarks, was not to sacrifice a second eye, but to save both. When a man in a passion understands that he is liable to lose an eye if he take one, he is likely, in the great majority of cases, to be so far controlled as to save both (Morison).
Mat_5:40. Coat.—The inner garment. Cloke.—The outer and more costly garment. Not allowed to be retained over night as a pledge from the poor, because used for a bed-covering (Exo_22:26-27). “Be ready to give up even that which by law cannot be taken” (Mansel).
Mat_5:41. Mile.—The influence of Rome is shown by the use of the Latin word (slightly altered) for the mille passuum, the thousand paces which made up a Roman mile—about one hundred and forty-two yards short of an English statute mile (Plumptre).
Mat_5:43. Love thy neighbour (Lev_19:18). Hate thine enemy.—Lightfoot quotes some of the cursed maxims inculcated by those traditionists regarding the proper treatment of all Gentiles. No wonder that the Romans charged the Jews with hatred of the human race (Brown).
Mat_5:46. Publicans.—The Roman name publicani, which our translators have employed in this and other places, properly denoted, not the collectors, but the farmers, of the customs; wealthy men of the equestrian order, who paid a rent to the State for the public revenues, and collected them for their own profit. The proper name for the actual collectors was portitores. These latter were sometimes freedmen or slaves, sometimes natives of the province in which the tax was collected (Mansel). The same?—Christianity is more than humanity (M. Henry).
Mat_5:47. Salute.—The prominence of salutation in the social life of the East gives a special vividness to this precept. To utter the formal “Peace be with you,” to follow that up by manifold compliments and wishes, was to recognise those whom men saluted as friends and brothers (Plumptre). Publicans.—Gentiles (R.V.).
Mat_5:48. Be … perfect.—Ye therefore shall be perfect (R.V.). The future for the imperative, as in the Decalogue: “Thou shalt not kill” (Webster and Wilkinson).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_5:38-48
Counsels of perfection.—The subject discussed here is at once general and restricted. It is general because, instead of taking up individual commandments, as in Mat_5:21-37, it rather deals with the whole question of the second table of the law. It is restricted because it takes up nothing beside. The duty of man towards his neighbour! All that, and only that, is spoken of here. This one subject seems treated here in two different ways. On the one hand, we find more demanded in our Saviour’s teaching about the matter in hand; on the other hand we find more imparted, than ever before.
I. More demanded.—More demanded, in the first place, as to the way of dealing with wrong. The natural tendency of men, on this point, is to return evil for evil; and to return it, so to speak, with interest, too. Natural justice, where wrong has been done, approves of its being returned. Natural anger goes further, and wishes it returned in excess. “I gave him more than I got;” so we wish, naturally, to be able to say. But the law of old stepped in here, and said emphatically that that was too much. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” (Mat_5:38). So far, but no farther, it allowed men to say; and, in so allowing, it placed, of course, a certain amount of restriction—of clear restriction and definite, also, if not very close—upon the wishes of men. What the teaching of Christ does here is both to take up and extend this idea. Instead of saying only when evil has been done us, that we are not to return it in excess; instead of saying even in such a case, that we are not to pay back as much; it teaches us rather, in the plainest language, not to return any at all. “Resist not evil;” resent not injuries; almost reward them, in fact (Mat_5:39-41). Do not even turn aside from the man (whoever he is) to whom you can do any good (Mat_5:42). On the other side, we find more demanded also in the way of dealing with good. On this point also, the attitude of human nature, where wholly untaught, is of a most unsatisfactory kind. It has been said, and is true, of certain wild beasts, that they regard every other wild beast of the same kind as a natural foe; and always, therefore, in catching sight of such, begin preparations for war. There is something not wholly unlike this in the wholly natural man. He naturally mistrusts, and therefore dislikes, and therefore “bristles” against whatever is similar to himself. Therefore it was that the law of old—God’s earlier message—began at this point. It teaches us not to hate, but to love those with whom we are brought into contact. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour” (Mat_5:43) and think well of him until he has proved himself the reverse. Thou shalt love thy neighbour and return his kindness if he shows kindness to thee. On this advance—for such we see it is—Christ advances still mora “Thou shalt love” all those, He teaches, whoever they are, with whom thou dost come into contact. Thou shalt love them even when they prove themselves no true “neighbours” to thee; “blessing” them always, and “doing them good,” and “praying” for their welfare; even as though, all the time, they were not in fact doing the very opposite about thee. So clear is it on this side, as on the other, that Christ asks us to “advance.” Let that half-emptied cup of bitterness be by you emptied entirely. Let that half-filled cup of kindness be by you filled to the brim. Yea, over it also!
II. More imparted.—If there was an advance in demanding, there is advance in this too. An advance in regard to the amount of light vouchsafed in this case. The mission of Christ was not the first step in the revelation of God to mankind. It was rather the third. That precious but dim revelation made to the Gentiles (Mat_5:47 R. V.), by means of God’s works (Rom_1:20; Psa_19:1-3) may be looked on as the first. That fuller but still only limited declaration of the nature of God contained in those “sayings” of “old”—those messages and ordinances of Moses and the prophets—to which the Saviour has referred in this chapter so often, may be considered the second. That still fuller—but still not exhaustive—setting forth of God’s character and attributes which the Saviour Himself had come to exhibit, is the third (see Joh_1:17-18; 2Pe_1:19). Of this the Saviour Himself afterwards said, that it was greater than any before (Mat_13:17). To this, as being such, in this Sermon on the Mount, He is pointing all through. According to Him in fact—according therefore to truth—according to all also that we have quoted just now—His teaching conveyed both far fuller light and far clearer light than before. The Gentiles, in a word, had walked in the twilight; Israel, in that of the morning; Christ brought that of the noon. An advance, also, in regard to the nature of its light. What the Saviour taught was of a more gracious character than any before. The book of nature is a lesson to all about God as our King. His exceeding “glory”—His “power and Godhead”—are the things it sets forth. The “book of the law” was a lesson to Israel about God as a lawgiver. His awful justice, His stainless holiness, are the chief things it enforces (Lev_11:44, etc.). The teaching of Christ is especially a manifestation of Almighty God as our Father (Mat_5:45; Mat_5:48; Mat_6:1; Mat_6:4; Mat_6:6; Mat_6:8-9; Mat_6:15, etc.; also especially Joh_14:6-9). Evidently, therefore, the special light which it gives us is that which is most important to us. Most important to us, on the one hand, as being the works of His hands; and because what it shows us is, that, besides being such, we are the special objects of His care. We are not only, as it were, part of the furniture—we are the “children”—of the house. Most important to us, on the other, as being children who have forfeited their right to that name. Here is that which is proclaimed to us by the very coming of “Christ.” This is what God signifies to us by sending us His own Son—viz. that He is able and willing to restore us to our former standing as sons (Joh_1:12). A light this, therefore, which, being the Light of Love, is the most precious of all.
We see, therefore, on the whole, the perfect reasonableness of the demands made in this passage. They are “counsels of perfection,” it is undoubtedly true. But they are counsels, also, which befit the atmosphere in which they are found. We expect the literal Israel to be nearer God than the Gentiles. We expect the spiritual Israel to be still nearer than they. Fuller light, clearer guidance, greater strength, more powerful motives ought to excel, if anything does. Those who are privileged to know such a Father ought on every ground to be like Him. What is the object of a perfect example except that, as it were, of giving birth to similar copies? Copies as “perfect” themselves as the material they are made of permits them to be. Do we not see, also, the perfect harmony of these demands with those going before? For do we not see, if we may so express ourselves, that they are such as grow cut of those? The restrictions of Moses prepare naturally for the closer restrictions of Jesus. The first ascent brings us to the foot of the second. Something in the same way, in earlier times, Joshua had completed what Moses had begun. Something so, also, out of the tabernacle the temple had grown. It is true, in this latter case, that the “curtains” of the one had become the stones of the other; and that some things which were comparatively small in the one were larger in the other. But it is equally true that this only displayed their harmony in almost every other respect. The same glorious idea, the same God, shone the more visibly in them both!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES.
Mat_5:38-41. Retaliation.—
I. The doctrine of the scribes and Pharisees.—
1. Though Moses is very express that it was the judges and magistrates who were to inflict this punishment of retaliation, they allowed the injured parties either to avenge themselves or to sell off the punishment by accepting a pecuniary mulct, or some other reward and compensation, to the great discouragement of public justice.
2. They allowed of retaliation for the smallest injury, leaving no room for the virtue of patience.
3. They took no care to teach with what spirit this reparation was to be sought, not distinguishing between a just defence or reparation and a spirit of revenge.
II. Our Saviour’s teaching.—
1. That we are to abstain from all private revenge, let the affront and injury be ever so great; there are public persons whose office it is to be the avengers of wrong, and these are to be applied to if we will needs right ourselves.
2. Our Saviour teaches the way of patience and forgiveness.
3. He obviates an objection, which is very natural to be started—namely, that this way of patience will expose us to be abused and affronted still more and more, when men know they can do it unpunished. Mat_5:39-41. I take the meaning of these expressions to be that we should rather venture receiving a second injury than revenge the first. The words are not to be interpreted literally, the turning of the cheek being a proverbial phrase for exposing oneself to an injury and patiently bearing it. Lam_3:30 means, he patiently beareth injuries and affronts. Our Saviour and St. Paul did not turn the other cheek when they were smitten. That we had better venture the suffering a second injury than revenge the first will appear if we consider:
1. That the evil of suffering is not to be compared with the evil of sin.
2. That not revenging pacifies the wrath of the adversary, whereas retaliating perpetuates strife.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_5:39. Principle or rule?—It is said that many years ago an eminent minister of the gospel, who had been a great athlete in his youth, on returning to his native town soon after he had been ordained, encountered in the High Street an old companion whom he had often fought and thrashed in his godless days. “So you’ve turned Christian, they tell me, Charley?” said the man. “Yes,” replied the minister. “Well, then, you know the Book says, If you’re struck on one cheek you’re to turn the other. Take that!” and with that hit him a stinging blow. “There, then,” replied the minister quietly, turning the other side of his face toward him. The man was brute enough to strike him heavily again. Whereupon the minister said, “And there my commission ends,” pulled off his coat, and gave his antagonist a severe thrashing, which, no doubt, he richly deserved. But did the minister keep the command of Christ? He obeyed the letter of the rule; but did he not violate the principle, the spirit, of it? Hear [another] story and judge. It is told of a celebrated officer in the army that, as he stood leaning over a wall in the barrack-yard, one of his military servants, mistaking him for a comrade, came softly up behind him and suddenly struck him a hard blow. When the officer looked round, his servant, covered with confusion, stammered out, “I beg your pardon, sir; I thought it was George.” His master gently replied, “And if it were George, why strike so hard?” Which, now, of these two really obeyed the command of Christ? The minister who made a rule of it and kept to the letter of the rule, or the officer who made a principle of it and, acting on the spirit of it, neglected the letter?—S. Cox. D.D.
Mat_5:41. The historical allusion.—The word that is translated “shall compel to go” is of Persian origin, and has reference to a postal arrangement that was much admired by the Greek historians. On the great lines of road stations were established where horses and riders were kept for the purpose of carrying forward the royal mails, on the principle of relays. The carriers were empowered in cases of emergency to press into their service any available persons, or beasts of burden, or other means of transport. The same kind of postal arrangement was adopted by the later Greeks and by the Romans, and has descended, in fuller development, to our own time, and is now interlacing the whole civilized world. The power of empressment that constituted part of the original system is what is referred to in the word which is employed by our Lord. It would sometimes be exceedingly annoying to private individuals; and, no doubt, petty private tyrants would, in their own petty dominions or demesnes, put in operation the same principle when they had some express to forward on their own account. The empressment of such individuals and their officials would be apt to be vexatious. But, says Jesus, do more in such circumstances than is asked of thee; of course, provided it would be of avail to the carrier, and consistent with other and perhaps more imperious or important obligations. Let there be no stint in your efforts to help others, even when your help is ungraciously asked.—J. Morison, D.D.
Christ and Epictetus.—It is interesting to note a like illustration of the temper that yields to compulsion of this kind, rather than struggle or resist, in the teaching of the Stoic Epictetus—“Should there be a forced service, and a soldier should lay hold on thee, let him work his will; do not resist or murmur (Diss., IV. i. 79).—E. H. Plumptre, D.D.
Mat_5:42. Doing good for evil.—I. It is the duty of Christians to do good for evil.—This is to be gathered chiefly from the connection and purport of this discourse.
II. If our adversary is in want we ought to bestow our bounty upon him, as upon other objects of charity and beneficence.
III. If he is not in such want as to need our bounty by way of charity, yet if he wants our help out of any straits and difficulties, by lending, or any other favour and courtesy, we ought readily to afford it, and not show ourselves hard-hearted, difficult, or morose. Exhortation:—
1. From the example of Almighty God (Mat_5:45).
2. The efficacy of this method towards the reconciling of an adversary.
3. This kind treating of an adversary in his want or distress is reconcileable with the customs and maxims of the more generous sort of combatants in the world.
4. This is one of the best signs of the good temper of our own souls.
5. We have the greatest assurance that all actions of that nature shall be amply rewarded; and the contrary uncharitableness punished (Mat_6:14-15).
6. It will be found that the contrary practices proceed always from some base principle, such as pride, frowardness, cruelty, jealousy, cowardice, ingratitude, moroseness, and the want of generosity.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_5:44. The love of enemies.—
I. To say that this precept is romantic and unpractical is to condemn the gospel of Christ.—The Incarnation and coming into the world of our blessed Lord had the object of making us now, here, at once, better men, women, and children. Our Lord does not teach us that we are to like our enemies, but to love them.
II. Our blessed Lord perfectly fulfilled His own law of loving enemies.—Love is a tree known by its fruits; and these are justice, truth, purity, mercy, patience, liberality, honour, meekness, sympathy. The first step in love, to friend or enemy, is respect.
III. Our blessed Lord here, as everywhere, is our Pattern.
IV. The test of love is not mere fondness or fancy, but the trouble you are willing to take and the sacrifice you are prepared to make for the person loved. Instead of the precept, “Love your enemies,” being a mere lovely theory, it is to the last degree practical, because the principle which underlies the whole matter is simply this—and it admits of very wide application indeed—wherever a person finds himself in a position in any way whatever antagonistic to that of another, then there arises at once a special call and reminder to be just, patient, scrupulously fair, to do as one would be done by; for who can fail to see that, when something draws towards one and not towards another, the two are judged by totally different standards? A weak leniency, a caricature of charity, sees nothing wrong in one, while in another faults are magnified and perhaps nothing is right.—H. Percy Smith, M.A.
Loving enemies.—I remember as a boy sitting by the fireside of a little country inn, up near Dead River in Maine, and hearing some men discuss the Sermon on the Mount. Rough fellows they were; and one of them, scoffing at Christianity, said, “Thou shalt love thine enemy—nonsense! It is not in human nature.” He was right. It is not in human nature; qut it was in Christ’s nature, and it is in the Divine nature. And it is in the Divine nature to impart it through Christ to those who claim it.—L. Abbott, D.D.
Subduing enemies.—It is recorded of a Chinese emperor that, on being apprised of his enemies having raised an insurrection in a distant province, he said to his officers, “Come, follow me, and we shall quickly destroy them.” He marched forward, and the rebels submitted upon his approach. All now thought he would take the most signal revenge, but were surprised to see the captives treated with mildness and humanity. “How!” cried the first minister, “is this the manner in which your promise is fulfilled? Your royal word was given that your enemies should be destroyed, and behold, you have pardoned them all, and even caressed some of them.” “I promised,” replied the emperor, with a generous air, “to destroy my enemies. I have fulfilled my word; for see, they are enemies no longer. I have made friends of them.”—Tools for Teachers.
Kindness to enemies.—A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men are to their friends.—Bishop Hall.
Mat_5:44-45. Christ’s law ignored.—“Either these sayings are not Christ’s, or we are not Christians,” was the exclamation of a great man after reading these words.—R. W. Dale, LL.D.
Mat_5:47.What do ye more than others?—
I. Disciples have to do more than others.—
1. Maintain the Christian life.
2. Extend the cause of Christ.
II. They are able to do more than others.—
1. They are in alliance with God.
2. They have more light and knowledge.
3. They have more moral power.
III. More is expected of them than of others.—
1. By their Saviour.
2. By the world.
3. By their own consciences.—J. C. Gray.
Mat_5:48. Christian perfection.—The text sums up that portion of the Sermon on the Mount in which Christ has so lucidly developed the Christian ideal of character. Our Lord sets before us the only absolutely perfect and holy Being as the ultimate standard of character in the kingdom of God. We have in the text:—
I. A comprehensive command.—“Be ye therefore perfect.” Note:
1. The meaning of the attainment.—
(1) In general the word “perfect” signifies completeness in all its parts. The babe is a perfect human being, even though only in germ or not full grown, when its parts or limbs are complete. Creation was perfect or complete in all its adjustments when God pronounced it “very good,” though its high purpose had not been attained in the activity of providence and grace.
(2) In particular. Complete in those elements of goodness which form character, and which are found in the full-orbed goodness of our heavenly Father—not in degree, but in kind.
2. The nature of the attainment.—It is important that we should distinguish between a perfection which is absolute, and therefore unattainable by us, and a relative or evangelical perfection. Hence observe
(1) Negatively.—It helps us immensely to find out what a thing is if we have found its negative. (a) It is not the perfection of God. The perfection of God is absolute. (b) It is not the perfection of angels. The angels have never left their first estate. Their faculties and understanding have never been impaired and perverted. (c) It is not Adamic perfection. (d) It is not the perfection of knowledge. There are not any of us free from ignorance. (e) It is not freedom from error. None infallible but God. (f) It is not freedom from temptation. (g) It is not freedom from infirmities—bodily infirmities and mental eccentricities, such as weakness of body, dulness of understanding, and incoherence of thought.
(2) Affirmatively.—The word “perfect” signifies in the New Testament completion in Christian character; a desire to please God in all things; and a sincere compliance with all the Divine precepts.
II. A high standard.—“Even as your Father which is in heaven.” Perfect as God is perfect? We say, Impossible! But for our encouragement let us look into these words closely and remember:—
1. That a high standard is necessary in everything great to attain real success.—Painting, architecture, music, etc.
2. That a high standard is necessary in order to lift our thoughts above the earthly standards.—Boys at school are bidden to look at their copies.
3. That a high standard is necessary to meet the boundless desires of our spiritual being.—Our nature is kindred with that of God. Man is satisfied only in being like God.
III. A possible attainment.—That there is an evangelical or Christian perfection which is possible may be proved:
1. Because we are commanded to be perfect.—Text; Gen_17:1; 2Co_13:11. God never commands what is impossible.
2. Because prayer is offered in the New Testament for certain persons that they may be perfect (1Th_5:23; Col_4:12; 2Co_13:9).
3. Because the means to attain the blessing are sufficient.—We have a perfect rule—God’s Word—to teach us how to get it; a perfect Redeemer, in whom there is fulness of grace, whose blood is enough to cleanse the vilest; a perfect Pattern to copy.
4. Because it is the will of God that we should be perfect.—It is God’s ultimate purpose in all that He has done and is doing for us.—J. Harries.
The Christian aim and motive.—
I. The Christian aim—Perfection.
II. The Christian motive.—Because it is right and Godlike to be perfect.—F. W. Robertson, M.A.
The purpose of Christianity.—Here is Christ’s idea of His holy religion. This is what it is to do for us: It is to make us like God. What is our idea of religion? Very much, one might almost say everything, depends upon the answer.—M. G. Pearse.
The perfection of love.—It is in a small degree that we can share God’s wisdom; in a still smaller degree His power. These attributes of His nature must always be over and around us, rather than within us. But of His love it is said, “God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” It is as much ours as our home—nay, as much ours as our heart.—John Ker, D.D.
Perfection—Divine and human.—God’s is the only absolute perfection; man’s is relative, contained in the high destiny which bids him ever struggle towards the Infinite which he yet can never reach. There is no perfection so incomplete as the one which admits of no increase; that is the perfection of death, not of life.—A. M. Fairbairn, D.D.
Difficult yet practicable.—When Dr. Horace Bushnell originated the idea of a public park in Hartford, Connecticut, there were some who feared that the appropriation it called for would not be voted. It was suggested that it would be wiser to ask for half the amount. He replied, “No; sometimes a project is made practicable by being made difficult.”—J. H. Twitchell.
A sign of perfection.—There is no greater sign of your own perfection than when you find yourself all love and compassion toward them that are very weak and defective.—Wm. Law.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv33, 38, 43 Mat 5:33-37.
Matthew
‘SWEAR NOT AT ALL’
Read full note →
Mat 5:33-37.
In His treatment of the sixth and seventh commandments, Jesus deepened them by bringing the inner man of feeling and desire under their control. In His treatment of the old commandments as to oaths, He expands them by extending the prohibitions from one kind of oath to all kinds. The movement in the former case is downwards and inwards; in the latter it is outwards, the compass sweeping a wider circle. Perjury, a false oath, was all that had been forbidden. He forbids all. We may note that the forms of colloquial swearing, which our Lord specifies, are not to be taken as an exhaustive enumeration of what is forbidden. They are in the nature of a parenthesis, and the sentence runs on continuously without them-’Swear not at all . . . but let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay.’ The reason appended is equally universal, for it suggests the deep thought that ‘whatsoever is more than these’ that is to say, any form of speech that seeks to strengthen a simple, grave asseveration by such oaths as He has just quoted, ‘cometh of evil’ inasmuch as it springs from, and reveals, the melancholy fact that his bare word is not felt binding by a man, and is not accepted as conclusive by others. If lies were not so common, oaths would be needless. And oaths increase the evil from which they come, by confirming the notion that there is no sin in a lie unless it is sworn to.
The oaths specified are all colloquial, which were and are continually and offensively mingled with common speech in the East. Nowhere are there such habitual liars, and nowhere are there so many oaths. Every traveller there knows that, and sees how true is Christ’s filiation of the custom of swearing from the custom of falsehood. But these poisonous weeds of speech not only tended to degrade plain veracity in the popular mind, but were themselves parents of immoral evasions, for it was the teaching of some Rabbis, at all events, that an oath ‘by heaven’ or ‘by earth’ or ‘by Jerusalem’ or ‘by my head’ did not bind. That further relaxation of the obligation of truthfulness was grounded on the words quoted in Mat 5:33, for, said the immoral quibblers, ‘it is “thine oaths to the Lord” that thou “shalt perform,” and for these others you may do as you like’ Therefore our Lord insists that every oath, even these mutilated, colloquial ones which avoid His name, is in essence an appeal to God, and has no sense unless it is. To swear such a truncated oath, then, has the still further condemnation that it is certainly an irreverence, and probably a quibble, and meant to be broken. It must be fully admitted that there is little in common between such pieces of senseless profanity as these oaths, or the modern equivalents which pollute so many lips to-day, and the oath administered in a court of justice, and it may further be allowed weight that Jesus does not specifically prohibit the oath ‘by the Lord,’ but it is difficult to see how the principles on which He condemns are to be kept from touching even judicial oaths. For they, too, are administered on the ground of the false idea that they add to the obligation of veracity, and give a guarantee of truthfulness which a simple affirmation does not give. Nor can any one, who knows the perfunctory formality and indifference with which such oaths are administered and taken, and what a farce ‘kissing the book’ has become, doubt that even judicial oaths tend to weaken the popular conception of the sin of a lie and the reliance to be placed upon the simple ‘Yea, yea; Nay, nay.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v48 The word implies full development, growth into maturity of…
perfect
The word implies full development, growth into maturity of godliness, not sinless perfection. Eph 4:12; Eph 4:13. In this passage the Father’s kindness, not His sinlessness, is the point in question. Luk 6:35; Luk 6:36
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 31, 33, 38, 39, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48 A lesson from the Sixth Commandment:
A lesson from the Sixth Commandment:
v. 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Read full note →
v. 28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
The Sixth Commandment had indeed been given to "them of old time," Exo 20:14; Deu 5:18. But it was understood by the Jewish teachers of the sin in deed only, of the deliberate unfaithfulness of those joined in wedlock, or the carnal intercourse of the unmarried. Many rabbis expressly stated that the evil thought should not be regarded on a level with the sinful act. Christ’s explanation opens the deeper meaning of the commandment. He finds the beginning of adultery in the deliberate nourishing of the awakening lust of the heart. A woman may be seen, come within the range of vision of a man, and there is no wrong in the act. Ordinary human intercourse would be impossible without it. But when the look turned upon any woman, married or unmarried, is deliberate and intentional, conscious and persistent, as on a person of the opposite sex, and this is followed by an impure desire of coveting her for immoral purposes, then adultery has in fact been committed, although the sin is hidden deeply in the heart.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 29, 31, 33, 36, 38, 40, 43, 46 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus continues to teach about how he has come to fulfill the Old Testament law. Here he begins to speak about adultery and lust.
Read full note →
General Information:
Jesus is talking to a group of people about what they as individuals should and should not do. The "you" is plural in "you have heard" and "I say to you." The understood "you" is singular in "Do not commit adultery," but in some languages it may need to be plural. (See: Forms of You)
that it was said
This can be stated in active form. AT: "that God said" or "that Moses said" (See: Active or Passive)
commit
This word means to act out or do something.
But I say
Jesus agrees with God and his word, but he does not agree with the way the religious leaders have applied God's word. The "I" is emphatic. This indicates that what Jesus says is equally important to the original commands from God. Try to translate this phrase in a way that shows that emphasis. See how you translated this in Matthew 5:22.
everyone who looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart
This metaphor indicates that a man who lusts after a woman is as guilty of adultery as a man who actually commits the act of adultery. (See: Metaphor)
to lust after her
"and lusts after her" or "and desires to sleep with her"
in his heart
Here "heart" is a metonym for a person's thoughts. AT: "in his mind" or "in his thoughts" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
commit
adultery
lust
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47, 48 5:27-30 Jesus’ righteousness uncovers sin at a deeper level…
5:27-30 Jesus’ righteousness uncovers sin at a deeper level than the external; he reveals the true intent of the law.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.