“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.
Parallel Translations
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“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.
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Ivdge not that ye be not iudged.
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Judge not, that ye be not iudged.
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Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Matthew 7:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Luke 6:37 Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.
- Romans 2:1-2 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
- James 4:11-12 Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
- Luke 6:41 Why do you see the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?
- Romans 14:10-13 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, “ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’ ” So then each one of us will give account of himself to God. Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.
- Matthew 7:5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.
- 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man’s judgment. Yes, I don’t judge my own self. For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.
- Romans 14:3-4 Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.
- Matthew 7:2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
- Ezekiel 16:52-56 You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous than you. Yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters. “ ‘ “I will reverse their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives among them; that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them. Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate; and you and your daughters will return to your former estate. For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,
- James 3:1 Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.
- Isaiah 66:5 Hear Yahweh’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain We ought to find fault one with another, but…
We ought to find fault one with another, but we must beware we do it not without cause, or to seem holier than they, or in hatred of them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Ver. 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged] Hoc verbum quandam indaginem involvit. The word {a} imports a kind of curious inquiry into other men’s faults, that we may the more severely censure and subject them to a sinister interpretation. It signifies sometimes no more, I grant, than to reprehend, as Rom 2:1. But this, so it were wisely done, our Saviour would never have reprehended. "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart:" but (for prevention of such a mischief) thou shalt plainly (not perfunctorily, or in jest, bravery, form, derision) rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him, as some read it; lest thou suffer for his sin: or, as others, lift not up his sin over him as an ensign, {b} blaze it not abroad to his just grief and disgrace; but clap a plaister on the sore, and then cover it with thy hand, as surgeons, use to do, that the world may be never the wiser. This were charity, which hides with her mantle a multitude of sins; yea, prepares covers and cures for the infirmities of others as fast as they breed them, 1Pe 4:8. And the neglect hereof, the not giving vent to our hearts, by a wise and plain reproof, causeth estrangement of affection, dwelling suspicions, blind censures, a very habit of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of all things, till men grow rusty with rancour and malice, the poison whereof would be soon drawn out by a seasonable reproof: this, well and wisely done, were far better than judging and grudging one against another, since it is, "judge not, that ye be not judged," and "grudge not, that ye be not condemned," Jas 5:9. The sins of others we should hear of with indignation, fearfully and unwillingly believe, acknowledge with grief, never speak of them but in an ordinance, rather hide them, as much as may be, with honest excuses, and make apology; as, that there are infirmities in the best, though we know them not; that, as good gold, they are haply of the lightest, may want a grain or two of their just weight; but give them their allowance, and they may pass for current, &c. Be not rash in rejecting or sour in censuring your fellow servant. {c} That saying is true, Three things are not subject to our judgments, the counsels of God, the Holy Scriptures, and the persons of men, Rom 14:10. It is a good rule of the schoolmen concerning the judgment of our neighbour, Ut bona eius certa, meliora; certa mala, minora; dubia bona, certa; dubia mala nulla iudicemus: that we make the best of everything that we can with truth, and not aggravate small faults; exclaiming, with Momus, against the creaking of Venus’s pantofle.
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That ye be not judged] Judge we must ourselves, and God will not judge us. Step from the bar, where thou hast arraigned, accused, witnessed, and pleaded guilty against thyself, to the bench, and there pass sentence of condemnation, judging thyself worthy to be turned into hell torments. Thus judge yourselves and spare not. But judge not others; namely, rashly, sinisterly, finally, and peremptorily, "lest ye be judged;" both first of God, into whose chair ye leap, and whose children ye condemn, even the generation of the just; as David once did, and befooled himself well favouredly for it, when he had done. And secondly of men: good men must suspect you, bad men scorn you, and all men shun you, and desire to be rid of you, as unfit to live in a civil society. {d} Therefore judge nothing before the time, behold, the Judge standeth at the door. It is the office of angels to sever the sheep from the goats, the tares from the wheat, the elect from the reprobate. Those that undertake positively to determine of men’s final estate, they know not of what spirit they are, with those sons of Zebedee; they take too much upon them, with those sons of Levi; they understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, with those impostors in Timothy, Num 16:7; 1Ti 1:7. Neither may they escape here uncensured, that for particular acts or petty failings take upon them rashly and harshly to censure their betters many times. Job and Jeremiah met with such as watched for their halting, and made them offenders for a word. These pry into every particular more narrowly than Laban did into Jacob’s stuff, waiting as a dog for a bone, for anything less beseeming the saints, that they may fasten upon with their fangs, that they may tear with their teeth, and swallow down with those open sepulchres, their throats, the good names of others; censuring them deeply for human frailties, unchurching and unbrothering them for unavoidable infirmities, {e} It is hard measuring of a man by his state and behaviour in a pelt, in a passion, which are violent, and have made the holiest, in their heat, little less than bestial, 1Sa 25:22; Psa 116:9. The like may be said of sins strengthened by ancient custom, or natural inclination, or hereditary, the sins of our parents, or furthered by a multitude of temptations and enticements. Handle these gently in the judgment of charity, and joint them again in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself; lest thou also be tempted. {f} It is not to be liked, when men leap from the cradle of profession into the chair of censure, blinder than beetles at home, sharper than eagles abroad. Charity and humility would teach them to wink at small faults, as God doth, and to pitch upon that in another that is praiseworthy. Our Saviour is said to have loved the rich young Pharisee, for that little good he found in him; and Bucer never rejected any, though different in opinion, in whom he discerned aliquid Christi, anything of Christ. St Paul bids us consider one another, to whet on to love, Heb 10:24, to pitch upon such good parts and properties as may engender love and sway us to a good opinion of our brethren. The wisdom from above is full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, &c. But they shall have judgment without mercy that use no mercy in their judgings, Jas 3:17. God shall bring home their own dealings to their own doors. "For with what judgment ye judge," &c. Only our Saviour is to be understood here of private and corrupt judgment passed upon others, out of sinful curiosity and ill-will, for Nemo curiosus quin malevolus, either to set up ourselves above them, or by condemning them to countenance our own evil courses. Magistrates may and must judge between the righteous and the wicked. Ministers must take out the precious from the vile, and say to the wicked, "It shall be ill with them, the reward of their hands shall be given unto them," Isa 3:11; "Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? yea, thou shalt show them all their abominations," Eze 22:2. How often doth our Saviour call the Pharisees hypocrites, serpents, vipers, &c. And how roundly dealt St Paul with the sorcerer, Act 13:10: and with the incestuous person, 1Co 5:13. Lastly, though we may not be many masters, Jas 3:1, supercilious and censorious, &c., yet we may all judge the tree by the fruit, call spade a spade, a drunkard a drunkard, &c., and leaving his final doom to the searcher of all hearts, judge and censure him, for the present to be God’s enemy, and in a most wretched estate. We both may and must condemn all six in ourselves and others. But it is a fault to be itchingly inquisitive after other men’s misdemeanours, to be an eavesdropper, Ecc 7:21, or to censure them, when they come to our knowledge, unmerciflfily and above the royal law. Let your επιεικεια, moderation of utmost right, be known to all men: the Lord is at hand Php 4:5.
{a} κρινειν etiam significat interpretari, et plerunque de somniis dicitur. Novarin.
{b} Lev 19:17. Ne eius peccatum luas. Ne tamen super cum peccatum tollas tanquam vexillum.
{c} Noli esse alienae vitae aut temerarius iudex, aut curiosus explorator. Bernard. The Hebrew word for prayer hath the first signification of judging, because thereto we must judge ourselves.
{d} Iupiter hunc coeli dignatus honore fuisset;
Censorem linguae sed timet ipse suae.
Sic. in Laur. Vallam, severum censorem scriptorum, quidam lusit. Trithem.
{e} Sunt quidem in Eccelesia Catholica plurimi mali, sed haereticis nullus est bonus. Bellarm. de not. Ecc 4:13
{f} καταρτιζετε, Gal 6:1. Aut sumus, aut fuimus, aut possumus esse quod hic est.
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 Our Saviour must not be understood here prohibiting any…
Our Saviour must not be understood here prohibiting any judgment, which is elsewhere in holy writ allowed, for the Holy Spirit doth not command and prohibit the same thing; whence it if evident, that it is not to be understood of political or ecclesiastical judgments, nor was our Saviour here speaking to any such persons: it is therefore to be understood of private judgments, nor of them absolutely, for it is lawful for us to judge ourselves, yea, it is our duty, 1Co 11:31; Nor is that judgment of our neighbour’s opinions or actions here forbidden which terminates in ourselves, in our satisfaction as to the truth or falsehood of the former, or the goodness or badness of the latter; we ought so to prove all things in order to our holding fast that which is good. Nor is all judgment of our neighbour’s actions with reference to him forbidden: how can we reprove him for his errors, or restore him that is fallen, without a previous judgment of his actions? But that which is here forbidden, is either,
1. A rash judgment of his state, or a judging him for doing his duty: such was Simon’s judging the woman, or the disciples’ judgment of that woman, Mat 26:8,9. Or:
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2. A judging of others for things which they judge to be indifferent, forbidden Rom 14:1-3. Or:
3. A judging them for secret things, such as inward habits of grace, when no apparent fruits to the contrary are seen. Or,
4. Condemning others for single acts, of a public censuring and condemning others for private failings. Or:
5. Finally, Any open and public censuring the actions of others, when and where it cannot conduce either to God’s glory or our brother’s good.
That ye be not judged: this is expounded in the next verse, telling us either the ordinary temper of men, or the just judgment of God, repaying such uncharitable actions per legem talionis, with suffering others to do the like to us, Luk 6:37.
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 Observe here, The prohibition, and the reason of that…
Observe here, The prohibition, and the reason of that prohibition. Judge not, this is not meant of ourselves, but of our neighbour.
Self-judging is a great duty; judging others a grievous sin; yet is not all judging of others condemned, but a judging of our neighbour’s state or person rashly and rigidly, censoriously and uncharitably: especially unrighteously and unjustly. And the reason of the prohibition is added; if we judge others rashly, God will judge us righteously.
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Learn thence, That a rash and censorious judging of others, renders a person liable and obnoxious to the righteous judgment of God.
Note farther, That Christ doth not here forbid judicial judging by the civil magistrate, nor ecclesiastical judging by the church governors, whose office gives them authority so to do. Nor does he forbid one Christian to pass a judgment on the notorious actions of another, seeing the duty of reproof cannot be performed without it; but it is such a rash and censorious judging our brother, as is void of charity towards him, as is accompanied with contempt of him, especially if we have been guilty of the same or greater sins before him.
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 Our Saviour is here directing us how to conduct…
Our Saviour is here directing us how to conduct ourselves in reference to the faults of others; and his expressions seem intended as a reproof to the scribes and Pharisees, who were very rigid and severe, very magisterial and supercilious, in condemning all about them, as those commonly are, that are proud and conceited in justifying themselves. We have here,
I. A caution against judging Mat 7:1, Mat 7:2. There are those whose office it is to judge - magistrates and ministers. Christ, though he made not himself a Judge, yet came not to unmake them, for by him princes decree justice; but this is directed to private persons, to his disciples, who shall hereafter sit on thrones judging, but not now. Now observe,
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1. The prohibition; Judge not. We must judge ourselves, and judge our own acts, but we must not judge our brother, not magisterially assume such an authority over others, as we allow not them over us: since our rule is, to be subject to one another. Be not many masters, Jam 3:1. We must not sit in the judgment-seat, to make our word a law to every body. We must not judge our brother, that is, we must not speak evil of him, so it is explained, Jam 4:11. We must not despise him, nor set him at nought, Rom 14:10. We must not judge rashly, nor pass such a judgment upon our brother as has no ground, but is only the product of our own jealousy and ill nature. We must not make the worst of people, nor infer such invidious things from their words and actions as they will not bear. We must not judge uncharitably, unmercifully, nor with a spirit of revenge, and a desire to do mischief. We must not judge of a man's state by a single act, nor of what he is in himself by what he is to us, because in our own cause we are apt to be partial. We must not judge the hearts of others, nor their intentions, for it is God's prerogative to try the heart, and we must not step into his throne; nor must we judge of their eternal state, nor call them hypocrites, reprobates, and castaways; that is stretching beyond our line; what have we to do, thus to judge another man's servant? Counsel him, and help him, but do not judge him.
2. The reason to enforce this prohibition. That ye be not judged. This intimates, (1.) That if we presume to judge others, we may expect to be ourselves judged. He who usurps the bench, shall be called to the bar; he shall be judged of men; commonly none are more censured, than those who are most censorious; every one will have a stone to throw at them; he who, like Ishmael, has his hand, his tongue, against every man, shall, like him, have every man's hand and tongue against him (Gen 16:12); and no mercy shall be shown to the reputation of those that show no mercy to the reputation of others. Yet that is not the worst of it; they shall be judged of God; from him they shall receive the greater condemnation, Jam 3:1. Both parties must appear before him (Rom 14:10), who, as he will relieve the humble sufferer, will also resist the haughty scorner, and give him enough of judging. (2.) That if we be modest and charitable in our censures of others, and decline judging them, and judge ourselves rather, we shall not be judged of the Lord. As God will forgive those that forgive their brethren; so he will not judge those that will not judge their brethren; the merciful shall find mercy. It is an evidence of humility, charity, and deference to God, and shall be owned and rewarded by him accordingly. See Rom 14:10.
The judging of those that judge others is according to the law of retaliation; With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, Mat 7:2. The righteous God, in his judgments, often observes a rule of proportion, as in the case of Adonibezek, Jdg 1:7. See also Rev 13:10; Rev 18:6. Thus will he be both justified and magnified in his judgments, and all flesh will be silenced before him. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again; perhaps in this world, so that men may read their sin in their punishment. Let this deter us from all severity in dealing with our brother. What shall we do when God rises up? Job 31:14. What would become of us, if God should be as exact and severe in judging us, as we are in judging our brethren; if he should weigh us in the same balance? We may justly expect it, if we be extreme to mark what our brethren do amiss. In this, as in other things, the violent dealings of men return upon their own heads.
II. Some cautions about reproving. Because we must not judge others, which is a great sin, it does not therefore follow that we must not reprove others, which is a great duty, and may be a means of saving a soul from death; however, it will be a means of saving our souls from sharing in their guilt. Now observe here,
1. It is not every one who is fit to reprove. Those who are themselves guilty of the same faults of which they accuse others, or of worse, bring shame upon themselves, and are not likely to do good to those whom they reprove, Mat 7:3-5. Here is,
(1.) A just reproof to the censorious, who quarrel with their brother for small faults, while they allow themselves in great ones; who are quick-sighted to spy a mote in his eye, but are not sensible of a beam in their own; nay, and will be very officious to pull out the mote out of his eye, when they are as unfit to do it as if they were themselves quite blind. Note, [1.] There are degrees in sin: some sins are comparatively but as motes, others as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel: not that there is any sin little, for there is no little God to sin against; if it be a mote (or splinter, for so it might better be read), it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both painful and perilous, and we cannot be easy or well till they are got out. [2.] Our own sins ought to appear greater to us than the same sins in others: that which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in our brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our own; for the sins of others must be extenuated, but our own aggravated. [3.] There are many that have beams in their own eyes, and yet do not consider it. They are under the guilt and dominion of very great sins, and yet are not aware of it, but justify themselves, as if they needed no repentance nor reformation; it is as strange that a man can be in such a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a beam in him eye, and not consider it; but the god of this world so artfully blinds their minds, that notwithstanding, with great assurance, they say, We see. [4.] It is common for those who are most sinful themselves, and least sensible of it, to be most forward and free in judging and censuring others: the Pharisees, who were most haughty in justifying themselves, were most scornful in condemning others. They were severe upon Christ's disciples for eating with unwashen hands, which was scarcely a mote, while they encouraged men in a contempt of their parents, which was a beam. Pride and uncharitableness are commonly beams in the eyes of those that pretend to be critical and nice in their censures of others. Nay, many are guilty of that secret, which they have the face to punish in others when it is discovered. Cogita tecum, fortasse vitium de quo quereris, si te diligenter excusseris, in sinu invenies; inique publico irasceris crimini tuo - Reflect that perhaps the fault of which you complain, might, on a strict examination, be discovered in yourself; and that it would be unjust publicly to express indignation against your own crime. Seneca, de Beneficiis. But, [5.] Men's being so severe upon the faults of others, while they are indulgent of their own, is a mark of hypocrisy. Thou hypocrite, Mat 7:5. Whatever such a one may pretend, it is certain that he is no enemy to sin (if he were, he would be an enemy to his own sin), and therefore he is not worthy of praise; nay, it appears that he is an enemy to his brother, and therefore worthy of blame. This spiritual charity must begin at home; "For how canst thou say, how canst thou for shame say, to thy brother, Let me help to reform thee, when thou takest no care to reform thyself? Thy own heart will upbraid thee with the absurdity of it; thou wilt do it with an ill grace, and thou wilt expect every one to tell thee, that vice corrects sin: physician, heal thyself;" I prae, sequar - Go you before, I will follow. See Rom 2:21. [6.] The consideration of what is amiss in ourselves, though it ought not to keep us from administering friendly reproof, ought to keep us from magisterial censuring, and to make us very candid and charitable in judging others. "Therefore restore with the spirit of meekness, considering thyself (Gal 6:1); what thou has been, what thou art, and what thou wouldst be, if God should leave thee to thyself."
(2.) Here is a good rule for reprovers, Mat 7:5. Go in the right method, first cast the beam out of thine own eye. Our own badness is so far from excusing us in not reproving, that our being by it rendered unfit to reprove is an aggravation of our badness; I must not say, "I have a beam in my own eye, and therefore I will not help my brother with the mote out of his." A man's offence will never be his defence: but I must first reform myself, that I may thereby help to reform my brother, and may qualify myself to reprove him. Note, Those who blame others, ought to be blameless and harmless themselves. Those who are reprovers in the gate, reprovers by office, magistrates and ministers, are concerned to walk circumspectly, and to be very regular in their conversation: an elder must have a good report, Ti1 3:2, Ti1 3:7. The snuffers of the sanctuary were to be of pure gold.
2. It is not every one that is fit to be reproved; Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, Mat 7:6. This may be considered, either, (1.) As a rule to the disciples in preaching the gospel; not that they must not preach it to any one who were wicked and profane (Christ himself preached to publicans and sinners), but the reference is to such as they found obstinate after the gospel was preached to them, such as blasphemed it, and persecuted the preachers of it; let them not spend much time among such, for it would be lost labour, but let them turn to others, Act 13:41. So Dr. Whitby. Or, (2.) As a rule to all in giving reproof. Our zeal against sin must be guided by discretion, and we must not go about to give instructions, counsels, and rebukes, much less comforts, to hardened scorners, to whom it will certainly do no good, but who will be exasperated and enraged at us. Throw a pearl to a swine, and he will resent it, as if you threw a stone at him; reproofs will be called reproaches, as they were (Luk 11:45; Jer 6:10), therefore give not to dogs and swine (unclean creatures) holy things. Note, [1.] Good counsel and reproof are a holy thing, and a pearl: they are ordinances of God, they are precious; as an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is the wise reprover (Pro 25:12), and a wise reproof is like an excellent oil (Psa 141:5); it is a tree of life (Pro 3:18). [2.] Among the generation of the wicked, there are some that have arrived at such a pitch of wickedness, that they are looked upon as dogs and swine; they are impudently and notoriously vile; they have so long walked in the way of sinners, that they have sat down in the seat of the scornful; they professedly hate and despise instruction, and set it at defiance, so that they are irrecoverably and irreclaimably wicked; they return with the dog to his vomit, and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire. [3.] Reproofs of instruction are ill bestowed upon such, and expose the reprover to all the contempt and mischief that may be expected from dogs and swine. One can expect no other than that they will trample the reproofs under their feet, in scorn of them, and rage against them; for they are impatient of control and contradiction; and they will turn again and rend the reprovers; rend their good names with their revilings, return them wounding words for their healing ones; rend them with persecution; Herod rent John Baptist for his faithfulness. See here what is the evidence of men's being dogs and swine. Those are to be reckoned such, who hate reproofs and reprovers, and fly in the face of those who, in kindness to their souls, show them their sin and danger. These sin against the remedy; who shall heal and help those that will not be healed and helped? It is plain that God has determined to destroy such. Ch2 25:16. The rule here given is applicable to the distinguishing, sealing ordinances of the gospel; which must not be prostituted to those who are openly wicked and profane, lest holy things be thereby rendered contemptible, and unholy persons be thereby hardened. It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it to the dogs. Yet we must be very cautious whom we condemn as dogs and swine, and not do it till after trial, and upon full evidence. Many a patient is lost, by being thought to be so, who, if means had been used, might have been saved. As we must take heed of calling the good, bad, by judging all professors to be hypocrites; so we must take heed of calling the bad, desperate, by judging all the wicked to be dogs and swine. [4.] Our Lord Jesus is very tender of the safety of his people, and would not have them needlessly to expose themselves to the fury of those that will turn again and rend them. Let them not be righteous over much, so as to destroy themselves. Christ makes the law of self-preservation one of his own laws, and precious is the blood of his subjects to him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Our Lord now proceeds to warn us against the…
Our Lord now proceeds to warn us against the chief hindrances of holiness. And how wisely does he begin with judging? wherein all young converts are so apt to spend that zeal which is given them for better purposes.
Judge not - any man without full, clear, certain knowledge, without absolute necessity, without tender love. Luke vi, 37.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Our Lord warns men against rash judgment and uncharitable
CHAPTER VII.
Our Lord warns men against rash judgment and uncharitable
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censures, 1-5.
Shows that holy things must not be profaned, 6;
gives encouragement to fervent persevering prayer, 7-11.
Shows how men should deal with each other, 12.
Exhorts the people to enter in at the strait gate, 13, 14;
to beware of false teachers, who are to be known by their
fruits, 15-20.
Shows that no man shall be saved by his mere profession of
Christianity, however specious, 22, 23.
The parable of the wise man who built his house upon a rock,
24, 25.
Of the foolish man who built his house, without a foundation,
on the sand, 26, 27.
Christ concludes his sermon, and the people are astonished at
his doctrine, 28, 29.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII.
Verse 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.] These exhortations are pointed against rash, harsh, and uncharitable judgments, the thinking evil, where no evil seems, and speaking of it accordingly. The Jews were highly criminal here, and yet had very excellent maxims against it, as may be seen in Schoettgen. This is one of the most important exhortations in the whole of this excellent sermon. By a secret and criminal disposition of nature, man endeavours to elevate himself above others, and, to do it more effectually, depresses them. His jealous and envious heart wishes that there may be no good quality found but in himself, that he alone may be esteemed. Such is the state of every unconverted man; and it is from this criminal disposition, that evil surmises, rash judgments, precipitate decisions, and all other unjust procedures against our neighbour, flow.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mat 7:1-2. Judge not — Our Lord now proceeds…
Mat 7:1-2. Judge not — Our Lord now proceeds to warn us against the chief hinderances of holiness. And how wisely does he begin with judging! Wherein all young converts are so apt to spend that zeal which is given them for better purposes. He must be understood as forbidding all rash and unfavourable judgments, whether of the characters of others in general, or of their actions in particular, glancing, probably, in these as also in some other expressions in this chapter, on the character of the Pharisees, who were very culpable on this head, as appears from divers passages in the gospels, such as Luk 18:9-14; Luk 16:14-15; Joh 7:47-49, (compare also Isa 65:5,) and their unjust censures of Christ. Our Lord’s words imply, Judge not those about you in a rigorous and severe manner; nor pass unnecessary or uncharitable censures upon them, as many of your countrymen are in the habit of doing: nay, judge not any man, without full, clear, and certain knowledge of the blameableness of his conduct, nor without absolute necessity, and a spirit of tender love. That ye be not judged — Yourselves with the like severity. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged — Of God and man. “If you judge charitably, making proper allowances for the frailties of your brethren, and are ready to pity and pardon their faults, God and man will deal with you in the same kind manner; but if you always put the worst construction on every thing that it will bear, and are not touched with the feeling of your brother’s infirmities, and show no mercy in the opinions you form of his character and actions, no mercy will be shown to you from any quarter; God will treat you as you deserve, in the just judgment he shall pass upon your actions, and the world will be sure to retaliate the injury.” — Macknight. And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again — Awful words! So we may, as it were, choose for ourselves, whether God shall be severe or merciful to us. God and man will favour the candid and benevolent: but they must expect judgment without mercy, who have showed no mercy.
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 Judge not ... - This command refers to rash,…
Judge not ... - This command refers to rash, censorious, and unjust judgment. See Rom 2:1. Luke Luk 6:37 explains it in the sense of “condemning.” Christ does not condemn judging as a magistrate, for that, when according to justice, is lawful and necessary. Nor does he condemn our “forming an opinion” of the conduct of others, for it is impossible “not” to form an opinion of conduct that we know to be evil. But what he refers to is a habit of forming a judgment hastily, harshly, and without an allowance for every palliating circumstance, and a habit of “expressing” such an opinion harshly and unnecessarily when formed. It rather refers to private judgment than “judicial,” and perhaps primarily to the customs of the scribes and Pharisees.
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 Judge not,[1] or condemn not others rashly, that you…
Judge not,[1] or condemn not others rashly, that you may not be judged or condemned. (Witham) --- St. Jerome observes, Christ does not altogether forbid judging, but directs us how to judge. Where the thing does not regard us, we should not undertake to judge. Where it well bear a favourable interpretation, we should not condemn. Magistrates and superiors, whose office and duty require them to judge faults, and for their prevention to condemn and punish them, must be guided by evidence, and always lean towards the side of mercy, where there are mitigating circumstances. Barefaced vice and notorious sinners should be condemned and reprobated by all. (Haydock) --- In this place, nothing more is meant than that we should always interpret our neighbor’s actions in the most favourable light. God permits us to judge of such actions as cannot be done with a right intention, as murder. As to indifferent actions, we must always judge in the most favourable sense. There are two things in which we must be particularly on our guard: 1. With what intention such an action was done. 2. Whether the person who appears wicked will not become good. (St. Jerome)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Nolite judicare, Greek: krinein, which signifies either to judge, or to condemn.
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).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain Matthew Chapter 7
Matthew Chapter 7
There are two things connected with the presence of the multitude, Mat 7:1. First, the time required that the Lord should give a true idea of the character of His kingdom, since already He drew the multitude after Him. His power making itself felt, it was important to make His character known. On the other hand, this multitude who were following Jesus were a snare to His disciples; and He makes them understand what an entire contrast there was between the effect which this multitude might have upon them, and the right spirit which ought to govern them. Thus, full Himself of what was really good, He immediately brings forward that which filled His own heart. This was the true character of the remnant, who in the main resembled Christ in it. It is often thus in the Psalms.
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The salt of the earth is a different thing from the light of the world. The earth, it appears to me, expresses that which already professed to have received light from God-that which was in relationship with Him by virtue of the light-having assumed a definite shape before Him. The disciples of Christ were the preservative principle in the earth. They were the light of the world, which did not possess that light. This was their position, whether they would or no. It was the purpose of God that they should be the light of the world. A candle is not lighted in order to be hidden.
All this supposes the case of the possibility of the kingdom being established in the world, but the opposition of the greater part of men to its establishment. It is not a question of the sinner’s redemption, but of the realisation of the character proper to a place in the kingdom of God; that which the sinner ought to seek while he is in the way with his adversary, lest he should be delivered to the judge-which indeed has happened to the Jews.
At the same time the disciples are brought into relationship with the Father individually-the second great principle of the discourse, the consequence of the Son being there-and a yet more excellent thing is set before them than their position of testimony for the kingdom. They were to act in grace, even as their Father acted, and their prayer should be for an order of things in which all would correspond morally to the character and the will of their Father. "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come," [22] is, that all should answer to the character of the Father, that all should be the effect of His power. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is perfect obedience. Universal subjection to God in heaven and on earth will be, to a certain point, accomplished by the intervention of Christ in the millennium, and absolutely so when God shall be all in all. Meanwhile the prayer expresses daily dependence, the need of pardon, the need of being kept from the power of the enemy, the desire of not being sifted by him, as a dispensation of God, like Job or Peter, and of being preserved from evil.
This prayer also is adapted to the position of the remnant; it passes over the dispensation of the Spirit, and even that which is proper to the millennium as an earthly kingdom, in order to express the right desires, and speak of the condition and the dangers of the remnant until the Father’s kingdom should come. Many of these principles are always true, for we are in the kingdom, and in spirit we ought to manifest its features; but the special and literal application is that which I have given. They are brought into relationship with the Father in the realisation of His character, which was to be displayed in them by virtue of this relationship, causing them to desire the establishment of His kingdom, to overcome the difficulties of an opposing world, to keep themselves from the snares of the enemy, and to do the Father’s will. It was Jesus who could impart this to them. He thus passes from the law, [23] recognised as coming from God, to its fulfilment, when it shall be as it were absorbed in the will of Him who gave it, or accomplished in its purposes by Him who alone could do so in any sense whatever.
Footnotes for Matthew Chapter 5
16 It is striking that the whole ministry of the Lord is recounted in one verse (Mat 5:23). All the subsequent statements are facts, having a special moral import, shewing what was passing amongst the people in grace onward to His rejection, not a proper consecutive history. It stamps the character of Matthew very clearly.
17: In the text I have given a division which may assist in a practical application of the sermon on the Mount. With respect to the subjects contained in it, it might perhaps, though the difference is not very great, be still better divided thus:- Mat 5:1-16 contains the complete picture of the character and position of the remnant who received His instructions-their position, as it should be, according to the mind of God. This is complete in itself.
Mat 5:17-48 establish the authority of the law, which should have regulated the conduct of the faithful until the introduction of the kingdom; the law which they ought to have fulfilled, as well as the words of the prophets, in order that they (the remnant) should be placed on this new ground; and the despisal of which would exclude whoever was guilty of it from the kingdom; for Christ is speaking, not as in the kingdom, but as announcing it as near to come. But, while thus establishing the authority of the law, He takes up the two great elements of evil, treated of only in outward acts in the law, violence and corruption, and judges the evil in the heart (Mat 5:22; Mat 5:28), and at all cost to get rid of it and every occasion of it, thus shewing what was to be the conduct of His disciples, and their state of soul-that which was to characterise them as such. The Lord then takes up certain things borne with by God in Israel, and ordered according to what they could bear. Thus was now brought into the light of a true moral estimate, divorce-marriage being the divinely given basis of all human relationships-and swearing or vowing, the action of man’s will in relationship to God; then patience of evil, and fulness of grace, His own blessed character, and carrying with it the moral title to what was His living place-sons of their Father who was in heaven. Instead of weakening that which God required under the law, He would not only have it observed until its fulfilment, but that His disciples should be perfect even as their Father in heaven was perfect. This adds the revelation of the Father, to the moral walk and state which suited the character of sons as it was revealed in Christ.
Chapter 6. We have the motives, the object, which should govern the heart in doing good deeds, in living a religious life. Their eye should be on their Father. This is individual.
Chapter 7. This chapter is essentially occupied with the intercourse that would be suitable between His own people and others-not to judge their brethren and to beware of the profane. He then exhorts them to confidence in asking their Father for what they needed, and instructs them to act towards others with the same grace that they would wish shewn to themselves. This is founded on the knowledge of the goodness of the Father. Finally, He exhorts them to the energy that will enter in at the strait gate, and choose the way of God, cost what it may (for many would like to enter into the kingdom, but not by that gate); and He warns them with respect to those who would seek to deceive them by pretending to have the word of God. It is not only our own hearts that we have to fear, and positive evil, when we would follow the Lord, but also the devices of the enemy and his agents. But their fruits will betray them.
18: It is important however to remark that there is no general spiritualisation of the law, as is often stated. The two great principles of immorality amongst men are treated of (violence and corrupt lust), to which are added voluntary oaths. In these the exigencies of the law and what Christ required are contrasted.
19: We must always remember that, while dispensationally Israel has great importance, as the centre of God’s government of this world, morally Israel was just man where all the ways and dealings of God had been carried out so as to bring to light what he was. The Gentile was man left to himself as regards. God’s special ways, and so unrevealed. Christ was a light, to reveal the Gentiles, Luk 2:32.
20: The characters pronounced blessed may be briefly noted. They suppose evil in the world, and amongst God’s people. The first is not seeking great things for self, but accepting a despised place in a scene contrary to God. Hence mourning characterises them there, and meekness, a will not lifting up itself against God, or to maintain its position or right. Then positive good in desire, for it is not yet found; hungering hence and thirsting after it, such is the inward state and activity of the mind. Then grace towards others. Then purity of heart, the absence of what would shut out God; and, what is always connected with it, peacefulness and peace-making. I think there is moral progress in the verses, one leading to the next as an effect of it. The two last are the consequences of maintaining a good conscience and connection with Christ in a world of evil. There are two principles of suffering, as in 1 Peter, for righteousness’ and Christ’s sake.
21: Those who are put to death will go up to heaven, as Mat 5:12 testifies, and the Apocalypse also. The others, who are thus conformed to Christ, as a suffering Jew, will be with Him on Mount Sion; they will learn the song which is sung in heaven, and will follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth (on earth). We may also remark here, that in the beatitudes there is the promise of the earth to the meek, which will be literally fulfilled in the last days. In Mat 5:12 a reward in heaven is promised to those who suffer for Christ, true for us now, and in some sort for those who shall be slain for His sake in the last days, who will have their place in heaven, although they were a part of the Jewish remnant and not the assembly. The same are found in Dan 7:1-28: only, remark, it is the times and laws which are delivered into the beast’s hands, not
the saints.
22: That is, the Father’s. Compare Mat 13:43.
23: The law is the perfect rule for a child of Adam, the rule or measure of what he ought to be, but not of the manifestation of God in grace as Christ was, who in this is our pattern-a just call to love God and walk in the fulfilment of duty in relationship, but not an imitating of God, walking in love, as Christ has loved us and given Himself for us.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 5. Issue and characteristic manifestations of Pharisœism, as wicked…
5. Issue and characteristic manifestations of Pharisœism, as wicked harshness and abuse of what is holy. (Inquisitions and Indulgences)
Mat_7:1-6
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1Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.1 3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother,s eye. 6Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before [the]2 swine, lest they trample them under [with, Gr. ἐν] their feet, and turn again and rend you.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Connection.—De Wette and Tholuck—as formerly Calvin and Bucer—miss the connection between this and the preceding section. Olshausen suggests, that it lies in the idea that the character of the disciples is in direct opposition to prevailing views. Stier: Transition from a view of the inner man to what was around. Ewald: How the Christian ought to deal kindly and charitably toward those who are without. Heubner: However earnestly and zealously you strive after perfection, be gentle and mild toward others. Our own explanation has been given in another place, and is substantially this. The spirit of anxious, corroding care, in opposition to cheerful confidence in God, marks the final stage of religious perversion, which manifests itself, on the one hand, by fanaticism and harsh condemnation of our neighbor, and on the other, by carnal and callous trifling with what is holy. For, these two extremes of fanaticism and profanity meet, just as spurious asceticism is generally connected with love of the world (Leben Jesu, ii. 2, 623). A passage analogous to that under consideration may serve to throw light both on the connection and the meaning of what otherwise would present some difficulty. In Mat_24:48 we read, “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming (worldly-mindedness and worldly care); and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants (fanatical judging), and to eat and drink with the drunken (misspending and profaning of what is holy), etc.” Both these passages evidently bear reference to the judgment to come. Accordingly, we have the following antithesis: Be not surcharged with worldly cares for the morrow, but rather be filled with spiritual anxiety for the day of judgment. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Mat_7:1. Judge not.—The word κρίνειν here undoubtedly implies unkind, condemnatory judgment (Theophylact, Kuinoel, Tholuck, and others), as appears from the opposite clause, ἵνα μὴκρι θῆτε. Meyer denies this without reason, although the simile about the mote and the beam, proves that the expression cannot simply mean condemnation. It is general. Meyer is right in controverting the idea, that the word κριθῆτε refers exclusively to the judgment of other men (Erasmus, etc.). He applies it to the judgment to come; but Mat_7:6 proves that judgment on earth precedes the judgment of the last day. Uncharitable judgment receives its meed here as well as there. Comp. Mat_5:22; Mat_6:14; the parable in Mat_18:23; Jam_2:13. Heubner: “Judge not. This neither refers (unconditionally) to our private judgment, nor to the official expression of our opinion which we may be bound in duty to give (which, however, may run into the sinful extreme here condemned). Least of all does it apply to the sentence pronounced by a judge (who should always bear in mind that he is under the holy law of God), but to those uncalled-for judgments which are neither dictated by duty, nor prompted by love. Κρίνειν therefore is here equivalent to κατακρίνειν.” Comp. Luke 3
Mat_7:2. For with what judgment ye judge; i. e., the strict measure of your judgment will be made the standard according to which ye shall be judged (the ἐν is used instrumentally). As professedly you consider it right, you shall experience in your own case whether your standard be true or false. “God in His righteousness exercises the jus talionis. Truth and equity are, so to speak, elastic; and in the moral order of things, an unjust blow will recoil on him who has dealt it.—And with what measure ye mete.—Μέτρον, comp. Luk_6:38.—Μετρήσεται, according to the majority of witnesses; in Luke, ἀντιμετρηθήσεται. A wider application of the idea of our relation toward our neighbor. The simile expresses the general principle, that according to our conduct toward our neighbors shall we receive at the hand of God, whether directly or through the instrumentality of men. In general, the figure, however, applies to harsh and uncharitable judgment.
Mat_7:3. The mote, the splinter, κάρφος, festuca. “Thus in a Talmudical proverb, the word קִיסֶם, for a small fault (Buxtorf, Lexicon Talm. p. 2080).” Δοκός, trabs, קוֹרָה, hyperbolically for a great fault. “As in Matthew 6, the eye of the body here represents that of the mind; our own sinfulness deprives us of the capacity to judge the moral perversion of others.” De Wette and Meyer deny this reference. But although it is true that the person who has the beam in his eye is characterized as, in a certain sense, seeing clearly, yet his vision is morbid. It also deserves notice, that the text refers to faults which are outwardly apparent. Fanaticism is specially bent on discovering and condemning errors of knowledge, or heresies. Viewed in this light, the mote in the eye might indicate a comparatively trifling dogmatical error, while the beam would refer to the destroying of the whole system and bearing of truth.
Mat_7:4. Let me pull out the mote. Ἄφε ς, ἐκβάλω (the conjunctive of encouragement). His hypocrisy consists not merely in his refusing to see the beam in his own eye, but also in his disguising his want of charity for his brother under the garb of compassionate zeal.
Mat_7:5. Thou hypocrite.—He is a hypocrite not merely in the judgment of God, but also in a subjective sense, since he applies not unto himself the measure by which he judges his brother.—Διαβλέψεις. We must not overlook the meaning of the compound verb. Then shalt thou be able to look into it (properly), and really to aid thy brother. But so long as the beam remains in thine own eye, thou art ill fitted to perform the operation upon the eye of another.
Mat_7:6. Give not that which is holy.—Maldonatus, de Wette, Tholuck, deny that there is any connection between this and the preceding context. Kuinoel, Neander, Bengel, and Olshausen maintain that Mat_7:6-11 are not in their proper place. Stier suggests that Christ now proceeds to censure the opposite extreme of excessive laxity. Erasmus and Meyer hold that the expression, διαβλέψεις, leads to the idea, that it must still be our endeavor to improve our neighbor, and not to give that which is holy to the dogs. But, as in former cases, the internal connection between this and the preceding passage is, evidently, that the extremes of excessive harshness and of moral laxity generally meet. The outward connection lies in the contrast between the brother whose benefit is apparently the object of the harsh judgments pronounced against him, and the dogs and swine, to whom that which is holy is at the same time prostituted. Indeed, such conduct falls under the injunction, μὴ κρίνετε, since the judgment of sinners is hastened and increased when what is holy is cast before, or even forced upon them (Mat_13:10). Hence to withhold that which is holy from the dogs, and pearls from swine, is the opposite of judging them, and only what is right and proper in the circumstances.—That which is holy, τὸ ἃγιον.—Von der Hardt, Paulus, and Tholuck refer it to the sacrificial meat, or to the provision of the priests. Meyer controverts this view without adequate grounds. The difference between δὼτε and the βάλητε, which follows, deserves notice. The word διδόναι seems to imply—however horrible it may seem—that the dogs receive it. The expression is evidently symbolical not only of Gospel truth (the provision of the priests), but also of Christian fellowship, and the privileges of the Church, such as the sacraments. But if this διδόναι betokened a most iniquitous laxity, the βάλλειν of pearls before swine is the result of a laxity which almost amounts to madness. Such, then, is the upshot of Pharisaism—profanation of what is holy and good beyond rational belief.—The pearls, an image of what is most precious. According to Gesenius (in Rosenmüller’s Repertorium, i. 128), the figure is applied by the Arabs to well-chosen words or apt sayings. De Wette: A figure of pure conviction, and of the noblest disposition. But if by what is holy we understand the highest religious possessions, the term, pearls, may be applied to the highest moral possessions, which were specially prostituted by the Pharisees. It has been suggested, that the figure alludes to the resemblance of pearls with peas and acorns. Certain it is, that the swine touch with their snouts everything resembling food. As this casting of pearls before swine—however foolish—must have had some show of reason, it may perhaps represent an attempt to satisfy their cravings. And such indeed is the true character of laxity; it prostitutes what is highest and holiest, to satisfy the animal and the devilish propensities in man. Both dogs and swine were unclean animals, according to the law of Moses (see Sept. 1Ki_21:19; 1Ki_22:38; 2Sa_3:8; 2Sa_9:8; 2Ki_8:13; Mat_15:26; Rev_22:15, etc.); and, indeed, throughout antiquity generally (Horat. Epist. i. 2, Matthew 22 : vixisset canis immundus vel amica luto sus). The expression refers to what is impure and wild in our nature; more particularly, the word dogs, alludes to that which is low, unclean, heretical; and swine, to the hostile element, and to stubborn resistance. Augustine regarded the dogs as oppugnatores, or hostile persecutors, and the swine as contemtores veritatis, or unholy persons who were incapable of being impressed by what was spiritual. But the context does not bear out this distinction, as the swine are represented as ultimately the oppugnatores. “St. Bernard was wont to quote this verse, in order to incite the Christian knights to the Crusades. Schröckh, Church Hist. xxv. 114.” Heubner.
Lest they trample them with their feet, etc.—Of course the pearls could not be broken, but only trampled in the mire.—As this refers only to the swine, Theophylact, Hammond, and others, apply the στραφέντες ῥήξωσιν to the dogs. But it applies likewise to the swine. Although nothing is said about the conduct of the dogs, the horrible sin of giving that which is holy to the dogs sufficiently condemns itself, even without mentioning ulterior consequences. Besides, the dogs ultimately become swine, just as that which is holy is further designated as pearls, and the iniquity of the first action passes into the madness of the second. At last the full consequences appear, when the swine turn from the gift to the giver, and rend the profane sinners. It is need less to inquire whether swine can literally rend; at all events, they may tear off the flesh. (Besides, the word ῥήξωσιν, like the dirumpere in the Vulgate, may allude to the disruption and destruction of the communion of the disciples.) Στραφέντες, turning [the again of the E. V. is superfluous], evidently denotes the enmity (Chrysostom) and the fury of the swine, on account of the deception practised upon them. Such, then, are the twofold consequences: that which is holy, with all its treasures, is lost in iniquity and mire; while its unfaithful and vile administrators also perish in their sin.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The passage is evidently intended to describe the judgment awaiting the false spiritualism of those worldly-minded Pharisees and scribes. Hence the passage contains no reference to the proper conduct of the disciples, in opposition to that of the synagogue. They are merely warned against imitating those sinners; the Lord in His mercy concealing under a simile the fearful judgment that awaits all who are guilty of such profanity.
2. It is a historical fact, meeting us both during the Old Testament dispensation (at the destruction of Jerusalem) and in the annals of the Church, that carnal zealots, while pronouncing harsh judgment against their brethren, gave that which is holy to the dogs. Fanaticism and indifferentism were combined in the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and we meet them but too frequently at later periods; as, for example, in the Inquisition and the traffic in indulgences, and under many other, though perhaps more subtle, forms.
3. We may connect with this passage the prophecy in Revelation, which represents the beast out of the sea as ultimately bearing rule over the external sanctuary (Rev_13:14).
4. From this disclosure of the lowest depth to which the righteousness of the Pharisees descends, we may profitably look to the opposite path, by which the disciples of Jesus ascend into the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is a gradual progress through suffering to the glorious height of purity and of love, to fellowship with the prophets, and to that final reward which awaits them in the kingdom of God; while the Pharisees, with their spurious sanctimoniousness, are at last degraded to the level of those who are compared to impure beasts, and who become the instruments of judgment upon them.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” For, 1. with your own judgment (according to your own judicial procedure) shall ye be judged; 2. with your measure (of punishment) shall it be measured to you; 3. by your own judgment the beam will be found in your own eye—the greater guilt will attach to you.—By anticipating the judgment of God by our own judgment, we call down judgment upon ourselves. For, 1. we take the place of the Judge (anticipate Him); 2. of the last day (anticipate it); 3. of inexorable justice (anticipate it).—A tendency to judge others is legalism in its full development as hypocrisy.—To take pleasure in judging, is to take no pleasure in saving. Hence it is opposed, 1. to the Gospel; 2. to the Spirit of Christ; 3. to the mercy of God; 4. to our calling as Christians.—Difference between judgment in the way of duty, and in contravention of duty: 1. The former is done in the prosecution of our calling, and accompanied by pity; 2. the latter is done contrary to our calling as Christians, and accompanied by pleasure in condemning.—Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, Rom_2:1.—Needless judgment: 1. Its origin (self-righteousness and want of love, self-exaltation and pride, self-satisfaction and hypocrisy); 2. its various forms (speaking evil, casting suspicion, detracting, putting the worst construction upon matters, calumniating, accusing of heresy); 3. its poisonous fruit (injury of evangelical truth, injury to our neighbor whom we judge, injury to ourselves).—He who judges without mercy, converts both heaven and earth into a place of judgment. To look upon the world with the eye of a judge, is to see it enveloped in the flames of judgment. The consequence is, that we lose, 1. our faith; 2. our love; 3. our hope.—As we measure to our neighbor, we mete out to ourselves.—As we measure to our neighbor, it shall be measured to us, 1. by God; 2. by man.—When tempted to judge, let us remember that everything around may rise up in judgment against us.—The mote and the beam. The judgment about the mote, sinful, 1. because it is an assumption on the part of one who himself needs to be cured; 2. because it is a hypocritical offer of aid, on the part of one who is destitute of love; 3. because it is a lying pretence of ability to help, on the part of one who himself is helpless.—The hypocrite derives his own spiritual greatness from detraction of his brother. 1. His aggrandisement springs from the littleness of his brother; 2. his glory from tarnishing him; 3. his adorning from stripping him; 4. his vindication from condemning him.—If our justification flow from looking to Christ, we shall be owned and exalted; but if from an uncharitable and harsh estimate of our neighbor, we shall only descend lower and lower.—A Pharisee with the beam in his eye attempting to relieve the eye of his neighbor, the most ridiculous, were it not the saddest sight.—“He shall have judgment without mercy who has shown no mercy” (Jam_2:13).—“Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine;” or, the sin of prostituting what is holy in faith and life: 1. How it is done; 2. how it brings its own condemnation.—Harsh judgment and sinful prostitution of what is holy springing from the same root: 1. as exemplified by the spirit of traditionalism; 3. from history (Pharisaism, Mediævalism, seventeenth century); 4. as apparent from the temptations of our inner life.—The end of false spirituality in profligacy.—The Pharisees at last the prey of dogs and swine.—The goal of the disciples of Jesus, and that of zealots for tradition.
Starke:—Judge not from partiality, Jam_2:1; nor from suspiciousness or want of love, 1Co_13:7; nor from self-love or censoriousness, Mat_7:3-4; nor from envy and malice, Job_31:29; Pro_24:17; Sir_8:6.—That ye be not judged, or incur Divine judgment, Rom_14:10.—To judge is the prerogative of God. Hence, to assume this function without special authority, were to deprive God of His glory, or to have the beam in our own eye.—The Lord here warns young converts of a danger to which they are peculiarly liable: that of judging others, and forgetting themselves. Then He adverts to dangers to which His disciples generally are liable, Luk_9:48. Such passages as 2Ti_3:6-10; 1Ti_5:1; 1Ti_5:13; 1Ti_5:19; Gal_6:1; Rom_14:4, refer to this zeal without knowledge.—God has reserved to Himself alone to judge the human heart. Learn to know thyself, Gal_6:1; Luk_18:11.—The best remedy against speaking evil of others, is to look attentively at our own heart and conduct before censuring others.—He who is unspiritual, being under the power of great sins, is incapable of showing to others their transgressions, Rom_2:19; Joh_8:4-9.—He who only delights in self, and looks down upon others, is blinded and condemned.—Majus: Rom_14:1; Pro_5:21-22.—Difficilius est, prœstare, quam exigere, melius exemplo docere, quam dictis. Hilarius in h. 1. Hab_3:15.—Let our reformation commence within, Psa_50:19.—Dogs, swine; Pro_9:8; 1Co_10:21; Php_3:2. Sanctity of the Lord’s table, Rev_22:15; 2Pe_2:20-22.
Gossner:—Self-love makes blind toward ourselves, and sharp-sighted toward the actions of our neighbor.
Gerlach:—The passage refers to the disposition to judge, and the assumption of superiority over our neighbor.
Lisco:—It is a fundamental principle of the kingdom of God, that no indulgence shall be shown to those who have shown no indulgence to others ( Mat_18:23), but that strict retribution shall be awarded them.—Aspire not to be the spiritual adviser of another, if thine own conscience is not clear, Luk_6:41-42.—But, on the other hand, prudence and a proper judgment of others are indispensable, if our spiritual welfare is not to be recklessly exposed to danger.—Beware of communicating the gracious experiences of your heart to daring, vicious, or hardened persons.—Brief notes: The word of God is the sanctuary by which all other things are hallowed. The dogs are those who persecute the word, upon whom we may not force what is holy; the swine, those who despise the word, having surrendered themselves to carnal lusts.
Heubner:—Our conduct toward others will be the measure by which God will judge us.—Cast out, or pull out; i. e., do not spare thyself, however painful it maybe; after that, see how thou canst take the mote, etc., i. e., deal gently and cautiously with thy neighbor.—It is a very difficult and delicate matter to improve others, and requires great carefulness.—You do not cast away your pearls to be trodden down by beasts; neither are you to prostitute to unholy persons that which is holy,—the glorious truths of Christianity, the sacraments, and your spiritual experiences.—This, however, does not imply that we are not to seek the spiritual good even of such unholy persons.—Christianity must remain a mystery from the profane world—and yet be publicly proclaimed.
Footnotes:
[1] Mat_7:2.—[The E. V. reads with the textus rec. ἀντι μετρηθήσεται; hence again. But the oldest MSS., including Cod. B or Vaticanus (as published by Angelo Mai, and by Buttmann), and all the modern critical editors (Griesb., Scholz, Lachm., Tischend., Tregelles, Alf., Wordsw.) read μετρηοήσεται. So also Dr. Lange who omits again in his G. version. The reading ἀντιμετο. was no doubt inserted from Luk_6:38.—P. S.]
[2] Mat_7:6. [The definite article in the Gr., as before dogs].
[3][Dr. Dav. Brown, in his Com. on the Gospels (Glasgow, 1863), ad loc.: “To ‘judge’ here (κρίνειν) does not exactly mean to pronounce condemnatory judgment (κατακρίνειν); nor does it refer to simple judging at all, whether favorable or the reverse. The context makes it clear that the thing here condemned is that disposition to look unfavorably on the character and actions of others, which leads invariably to the pronouncing of rash, unjust, and unlovely judgments upon them. … What the Lord aims at is the spirit out of which they spring. Provided we eschew this unlovely spirit, we are not only warranted to sit in judgment upon a brother’s character and actions, but in the exercise of a necessary discrimination, are often constrained to do so for our own guidance. It is the violation of the law of love involved in the exercise of a censorious disposition which alone is here condemned. And the argument against it—that ye be not judged’—confirms this: ‘that your own character and actions be not pronounced upon with the like severity;’ that is, at the great day.”—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. Supreme reverence for our heavenly Father as judge.
2. Supreme reverence for our heavenly Father as judge.
In that kingdom which we are thus invited to seek first (Mat_6:32) and enter, (Mat_7:13,) we must never sit as judge, knowing that all our decisions will be rejudged, (Mat_7:1-6.)
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(1.) Usurp not God’s place as Judges , vv1-6.
1. Judge not — This command not to judge does not forbid us to estimate the characters of others, in order to regulate our own conduct. We are required so to estimate in Mat_7:6; Mat_7:16, and a rule how to estimate is given. To judge is to estimate a man with a temper or in a mode in which we should think it unjust to be estimated ourselves. It is by this test that our Lord declares that all our estimates of others will be judged. We must make, then, precisely the application of the Golden Rule to the act and temper of our estimating the character of others. That ye be not judged — That is, by God, not by others. If God judge us for judging, we shall be condemned, as the next clause shows.
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 1. Judge not, &c.] This is the form which…
1. Judge not, &c.] This is the form which the “lex talionis,” or law of reciprocity, takes in the kingdom of heaven.
The censorious spirit is condemned, it is opposed to the ἐπιείκεια, “forbearance,” “fairness in judgment,” that allows for faults, a characteristic ascribed to Jesus Christ Himself, 2Co_10:1; cp. also Rom_14:3 foll.
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that ye be not judged] by Christ on the Last Day.
(a) Judgment on others, Mat_7:1-6.
The passage occurs in St Luke’s report of the Sermon on the Mount (ch. Luk_6:37-38), with a different context, and a further illustration of “full measure.”
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 (1) The plan and sequence of the discourse is,…
VII.
(1) The plan and sequence of the discourse is, as has been said, less apparent in this last portion. Whether this be the result of omission or of insertion, thus much at least seems clear, that while Matthew 5 is mainly a protest against the teaching of the scribes, and Matthew 6 mainly a protest against their corruption of the three great elements of the religious life—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting—and the worldliness out of which that corruption grew, this deals chiefly with the temptations incident to the more advanced stages of that life when lower forms of evil have been overcome—with the temper that judges others, the self-deceit of unconscious hypocrisy, the danger of unreality.
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Judge not, that ye be not judged.—The words point to a tendency inherent in human nature, and are therefore universally applicable; but they had, we must remember, a special bearing on the Jews. They, as really in the van of the religious progress of mankind, took on themselves to judge other nations. All true teachers of Israel, even though they represented different aspects of the truth, felt the danger, and warned their countrymen against it. St. Paul (Rom_2:3; 1Co_4:5) and St. James (Jas_4:11) alike, in this matter, echo the teaching of their Master. And the temptation still continues. In proportion as any nation, any church, any society, any individual man rises above the common forms of evil that surround them, they are disposed to sit in judgment on those who are still in the evil.
The question, how far we can obey the precept, is not without its difficulties. Must we not, even as a matter of duty, be judging others every day of our lives? The juryman giving his verdict, the master who discharges a dishonest servant, the bishop who puts in force the discipline of the Church—are these acting against our Lord’s commands? And if not, where are we to draw the line? The answer to these questions is not found in the distinctions of a formal casuistry. We have rather to remember that our Lord here, as elsewhere, gives principles rather than rules, and embodies the principle in a rule which, because it cannot be kept in the letter, forces us back upon the spirit. What is forbidden is the censorious judging temper, eager to find faults and condemn men for them, suspicious of motives, detecting, let us say, for example, in controversy, and denouncing, the faintest shade of heresy. No mere rules can guide us as to the limits of our judgments. What we need is to have “our senses exercised to discern between good and evil,” to cultivate the sensitiveness of conscience and the clearness of self-knowledge. Briefly, we may say:—(1.) Judge no man unless it be a duty to do so. (2.) As far as may be, judge the offence, and not the offender. (3.) Confine your judgment to the earthly side of faults, and leave their relation to God, to Him who sees the heart. (4.) Never judge at all without remembering your own sinfulness, and the ignorance and infirmities which may extenuate the sinfulness of others.
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 Vers. 1-12. (2) As anxiety about the things of…
Vers. 1-12. (2) As anxiety about the things of this life hinders us Godwards, (Mat_6:19-34) so does censoriousness manwards (vers. 1-12), our Lord thus tacitly opposing two typically Jewish faults. Censoriousness the personal danger of having it (vers. 1, 2), its seriousness as a sign of ignorance and as a hindrance to spiritual vision (vers. 3-5), even though there must be a recognition of great moral differences (ver. 6). Grace to overcome it and to exercise judgment rightly can be obtained by prayer (vers. 7-11), the secret of overcoming being found in treating others as one would like to be treated one"s self (ver. 12).
Parallel passage: Luk_6:37. Judge not. Not merely "do not condemn," for this would leave too much latitude; nor, on the other hand, "do not ever judge," for this is sometimes our duty; but "do not be always judging" (mh krinete). Our Lord opposes the censorious spirit. "Let us therefore be lowly minded, brethren, laying aside all arrogance, and conceit, and folly, and anger, and let us do that which is written... most of all remembering the words of the Lord Jesus which he spake, teaching forbearance and brag-suffering; for thus he spake... "As ye judge, so shall ye be judged, Clem. Romans, (where see Bishop Lightfoot"s note; el. also Resch, "Agrapha," pp. 96, 136 ft.); cf. "Ab.," 1:7 (Taylor), "Judge every man in the scale of.merit;" i.e. let the scale incline towards the side of merit or acquittal. That ye be not judged; i.e. by God, with special reference to the last day. (cf. Jam_2:12, 13 5:9 Rom_2:3) Hardly of judgment by men, as Barrow (serm. 20.): "Men take it for allowable to retaliate in this way to the height, and stoutly to load the censorious man with censure.
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Vers. 1-20. Various practical rules issuing out of the central duty of self-consecration.
I CONDUCT TOWARDS OTHERS.
1. Gentleness in our estimate of the lives of others. The hypocrites trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others; they made an ostentatious display of their own supposed good deeds, and passed stern judgments on their neighbours. The righteousness of Christ"s disciples must exceed that of the Pharisees in both respects. Indeed, Christ"s words must not be understood in that literalness which was one of the characteristic errors of the Pharisees. The judge must pass sentence upon criminals; it is his duty to God, to society. The minister of God must "reprove, rebuke, exhort,": when God saith unto the wicked, "Thou wicked man, thou shalt surely die," he must warn the wicked of his sin; for otherwise (God himself hath said it) "that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand." All Christians must hate sin, and show that they hate it. "Woe unto them," saith the Prophet Isaiah, "that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Sometimes it is our duty to judge others. When it is our duty, we are safe, if we do it with pity for the sinner and with grief for the dishonour done to God. (see Psa_119:136) It is a duty full of danger and temptation; there is need of prayer and self-examination and careful scrutiny of our own thoughts and motives. When it is not our duty, it is never free from the danger of sin against the law of love. Censoriousness is one of the great blots of social intercourse. People who have nothing else to talk about, talk about their neighbours; they discuss their conduct; they impute unworthy motives; they repeat slanders, they exaggerate them; they take a sinful pleasure in condemning others; they often sin against the ninth, continually against the new, commandment. And these unchristian judgments imply self-righteousness, pride, hypocrisy; they usurp the prerogative of the great Judge, who alone can search the thoughts of the heart; they bring the uncharitable into exceeding great danger, for the commandment of the Judge is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" and surely those who judge their brethren harshly take part (awful as it seems) rather with Satan, the accuser of the brethren, who accuses them before our God night and day, than with the Lord Jesus Christ, the most loving Saviour, who dearly loved the souls of men, who wept over impenitent Jerusalem, and said, "Father, forgive them," as they nailed him on the cross. Therefore "judge not, that ye be not judged." Men will judge harshly those who judge others harshly, and the human judgment passed upon the censorious is but a shadow of the more dreadful judgment that is to come.
2. Strictness in judging ourselves. We extenuate our own faults; we always have excuses ready. We magnify the faults of others; we have no excuse for them. Our faults seem to us as motes, theirs as beams; our judgment is often reversed by the just judgment of God. Consider your own faults, concentrate your attention upon them that is your duty; not, as a rule, to pass judgment upon your neighbours. "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. " Of himself; then let him take heed to his own soul, let him look into its state narrowly and jealously, let him carefully remove every mote and every defilement, let him wash it white in the blood of the Lamb. This diligent self-examination will prepare us for the difficult and delicate task of helping others. He who would take heed to the flock must take heed first unto himself; (Act_20:28) it needs a clean heart, and a close fellowship with Christ, and a purified spiritual vision, to see clearly to cast out the mote out of our brother"s eye. There is need of true humility and heavenly wisdom and deep spiritual experience, if we are to deal successfully with the souls of others. If we are to restore others, it must be in the spirit of meekness, by the help of the good Spirit of God, always considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted.
3. Holy caution in dealing with the worldly and the wicked. "Holy things for the holy," is a well-known direction in the ancient liturgies; it expresses the lesson which the Lord would teach us here. Judge not, but yet be careful. The deep things of spiritual experience are not for all men. The mysteries of the soul"s converse with God are not to be lightly divulged in common talk. "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." The intercourse of the converted soul with the heavenly Bridegroom is a thing too sacred for ordinary conversation. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him... They that feared the Lord spake often one to another." The Christian can tell what God hath done for his soul only to the like-minded the holy with the holy; and there are hidden things of which he speaks only to God in the silence of his heart. The deepest thoughts of that life which is hid with Christ in God, the blessed truths on which the soul leeds in loving faith, are far too sacred to be offered to the contentious, the unbelieving, the mere controversialist; far too precious to be thrown down to the gross and sensual, who despise the pearl of great price in comparison with their low and coarse enjoyments, who will turn angrily and scornfully upon him who introduces such subjects. Confessions of past sin, histories of conversions, spiritual experiences, are very sacred; but they are not for all men. They will do harm to the worldly; they wilt provoke them to scorn and derision.
II OUR RELATIONS WITH GOD.
1. The duty and blessedness of prayer. "Ask... seek... knock." He bids us pray through whom all prayer is offered, in whose Name every knee must bow; he will hear us, we know. He has just taught us the blessed words of his own most holy prayer; he bids us use them, not as mere words uttered by the lips, but as true prayer prayed out of the depths of the heart. "Ask," he says, "and it shall be given you; ... everyone that asketh receiveth." It is not asking, to repeat a few words without real desire. The heart must ask; the heart asks by its longings, yearning after God with groanings that cannot be uttered. Ask thus, and surely ye shall have. "Seek," he says, "and ye shall find." You ask for that which you need; you seek that which has been lost, that which is hidden. Original innocence has been lost; the true treasure of the soul is a hidden treasure. Seek after righteousness, seek the kingdom of God, seek Christ. Seeking implies perseverance, careful, watchful effort. The Lord came to seek and to save that which was lost. He sought on and fainted not through the thirty years of his quiet life at Nazareth, through the three years of his ministry those years of unwearying labour, self-forgetting love. He sought on even as he hung dying in agony on the cross: "Father, forgive." He sought and he found: "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." He sought, and we must seek; we must seek him who is seeking us. If we seek as he sought, in patience, perseverance, in love, we shall surely find him; for he is still seeking, still calling, "Come unto me." "Knock," he says, "and it shall be opened unto you." But knock now, while it is the day of grace. There are some who will stand without, and knock at the door, saying, "Lord, Lord, open unto us;" and he shall answer, "I know you not." Knock now. Knocking implies importunity. It is not enough to be "not far from the kingdom of God;" we need to enter in, into the presence of the most holy One. He will open if we knock in faith and strong desire; for he himself, in the wondrous condescension of his infinite love, deigns to knock at the door of our poor unworthy heart. "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof." But he desires to enter, in his gracious mercy. "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Then we know that he will open if we continue knocking; he will not keep the door shut against those souls of men whom he loved so very dearly. He will admit us, if we persevere in faithful prayer, into his most gracious presence now, into the joy of our Lord hereafter.
2. Our Father hears the prayer of his children. Earthly fathers give their children what they need; they will not give a stone for bread, a scorpion for fish. They are sinful; the inherited corruption of sin cleaves to them all; yet they love their children and care for them. How much more does our Father which is in heaven, our Father who is Love, care for us, his children! Our Father listens to our voice, but he listens in wisdom and true holy love. We ask him sometimes for stones or scorpions, for earthly things which will only be a weight and hindrance in our heavenward journey, or perhaps may even tempt us to fall into sin, which is the sting of death. He will not give the evil things which we blindly ask; but it is in love that he refuses. "My grace is sufficient for thee." He gives the true bread the bread which, if a man take, he shall live for ever. He gives good things to them that ask him; not always the good things of this world, which are not reckoned good in the world to come Son, thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things but things really good, things that the souls of the blessed can take with them when the world passeth away. He gives, in answer to the prayer of the heart, the best of all good things the Holy Spirit of God.
3. We must imitate him. "Be perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." To be like unto God is not to be strong and beautiful and brave, like Homer"s godlike heroes, but to imitate God in that which, his apostle tells us, enters into his very nature. "God is Love." If we would have him give good things to us, we must give good things to our neighbours according to our power. Our Lord lays down a plain, simple rule to guide us in our daily walk: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." We must ask ourselves how we would have our neighbour act towards us if our circumstances were reversed. Thus our own heart becomes our guide; it tells us just how we ought to act. Only let us be sincere, truthful with ourselves, and we cannot he deceived. The rule is wide in its range. It is not, "Do not to others what you would not they should do to you;" others before our Lord had said that much. The Lord"s rule is far wider, far more stringent. It strikes hard at that selfishness which is the parent of so many sins; it extends over all the circumstances of life; it substitutes for the minute rules of the Pharisees one comprehensive principle; it implies the energy of holy love in the heart, for only true Christian love can enable a man to apply this commandment of the Lord to the government of his own life and actions. This is the Law and the Prophets. All the commandments of the second table are briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And it implies the commandments of the first table; for Christian love, that charity which is the greatest of all graces, flows out of the love of God. "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his command-merits." Then this is the Law and the Prophets. All the practical teaching of Holy Scripture is contained in the one law of love; and one Teacher only can write that law upon our selfish hearts, and teach us to apply it to the details of our daily lives the Holy Spirit of God, whom our Father which is in heaven will give (his blessed Son has promised it) to them that ask him.
III THE OBSTACLES WHICH IMPEDE OUR OBSERVANCE OF THE SAVIOUR"S RULES.
1. Their difficulty.
(1) The Lord does not hide from us the difficulty of persevering obedience. Our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. They seek the praise of men; they please themselves. There are many forms of the self-pleasing life, varying with the character, the surroundings, the early influences; they all meet in one way. That way is broad, the Lord says. There is no difficulty in finding it; "many there be which go in thereat;" you have but to go with the multitude, to live as others live, to swim with the stream. There is no need of a guide to find the broad way; we have but to follow the devices and desires of our own hearts, to live without self-denial, without the fear of God, without the restraining, solemnizing thoughts of death and judgment, and the awful world beyond the grave. The way is broad, the Lord says spacious in its wide extent; it covers the whole world, the whole range of human life, save only one narrow path. Many ways converge into it ways coming from many different quarters, far apart at their outset, very unlike in their circumstances, in the country through which they pass; but all meeting in the one broad way. Many travellers pass along it, differing widely from one another old and young, rich and poor, learned and ignorant; but all alike in this: they have forgotten the prayer which the Lord himself had taught them. They never say, "Thy will be (lone;" or, if they say it, certainly they never think of it; it never enters into their hearts; it does not exert the least influence upon their lives. "Our will be done," they say in their hearts our will, weak it may be, wavering, ill-directed, ignorant of the true end of life; but to follow one"s own will needs no painful effort, and so men prefer it to the holy will of God. And they pass on, heedless and thoughtless for the most part; some of them now and then hesitating, wondering what the end will be, half inclined to try the one narrow path, but driven back again by the press of the crowd; a few here and there drawn by some constraining power, tearing themselves away, faltering at first, then resolutely choosing the narrow way; but the most still moving onwards, all in the same direction, till the gate is reached at last the gate that is set across the road at the journey"s end. That gate is wide; it can receive a multitude. They reach it, they pass through it; a few are drawn violently back, plucked, as it were, out of the fire at the very last; others are full of trembling anxiety, disturbed by many doubts and fears, but yet they pass on. The most end their journey as they began it, moving on with the crowd, thinking nothing of the future. They pass through that wide gate; and oh! what lies beyond it? Death, the Bible tells us eternal destruction from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his might; the great outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
(2) Therefore the Lord bids us enter in at the strait gate; in his tender love for our souls he condescends to show us the way, entering there himself. Few find it, but the Lord Jesus is with those few. He is their Guide; his cross goeth before them; they follow him in trustful faith, though often with much fear and trembling, sometimes with many anxious doubts. For the path is very narrow; it is hemmed in on each side with difficulties and dangers. Many side-paths open out from it; they seem sometimes to follow the same general direction, but a slight divergence at first often leads very far astray. They are sometimes very tempting; they look smoother, easier, pleasanter, than the one narrow way. There is need of much careful thought, much self-restraint, to keep the right path; it is steep, sometimes very rugged, leading ever upwards. Few find it. Sometimes, in moments of depression, they seem to us very few indeed; but we remember that when Elijah thought himself alone, God could tell him that there were seven thousand faithful men in Israel. And if they are but few, they are the followers of the Lamb, "called, chosen, faithful." He himself is with them, cheering, comforting, strengthening them. The narrow path is often a vale of weeping there is much sorrow, many trials; but there is much comfort. The Lord is with his followers; therefore "they go on from strength to strength, and at the last unto the God of gods appeareth every one of them in Zion." For at the end of the narrow path lies the strait gate. It is strait; there is need of self-denial, diligence, holy thoughtfulness, even to the last. It is strait; but there is room for all to enter in who have chosen the service of Christ; for he has passed through that strait gate himself, and he will open it wide to his followers. It is strait; but it leadeth unto life to that life which is indeed worth living; the everlasting life with God in heaven. For the strait gate of the parable is, indeed, the pearly gate of the golden city; there shall enter the saints of God, ten thousand times ten thousand, when the fight with sin and death is over, and the redeemed of the Lord, more than conquerors through the precious blood, go up with singing to Zion into the city of the living God.
2. The influence of false teachers.
(1) Their description. Few find the narrow way. There is one true Guide; there are many false guides; there is need of thought and prayer. We must not be led about by divers and strange doctrines; we must not believe every spirit; we must try the spirits. False teachers come in sheep"s clothing; they put on the prophet"s dress; they are fair-speaking; they ensnare simple souls. There have been false teachers in every age; blind guides, like the scribes and Pharisees in our Lord"s time. There was one false apostle among the chosen twelve one who was a thief; who cared not for the poor, but only for his own selfish gains. There are false teachers now, who care not for the sheep, but only for themselves; they are wolves in heart, "grievous wolves, not sparing the flock.
(2) How to distinguish between the false teachers and the true. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Grapes and figs are among the good gifts of God; thorns and thistles tell of Adam"s sin. (Gen_3:18) The good fruit springeth not from the evil tree; a tree is known by its fruit. The outward life is the evidence of the inward. Indeed, the hypocrite acts the part of the righteous, and sometimes succeeds in deceiving the world; his almsgivings, his prayers, his seeming self-denials, impose upon men for a time. But in the long run even the world can discern the difference between the real and the unreal; there is an undefinable something, in look, voice, and manner, which betrays unreality a something which is felt even by the irreligious. And he that is spiritual judgeth all things. A man who knows what it is to deny himself for Christ"s sake, to pray out of the depths of his heart, who knows something of the deep experiences of the spiritual life, its sorrows and its joys, such a man will distinguish by intuition, by a feeling which is rarely wrong, between the real and the unreal, the Christian and the hypocrite. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit; it may have a show of goodness, but when you test it, it is worthless. An unbeliever cannot live a holy life; he may assume the appearance of piety, but there will be something forced, something unnatural, which betrays him; he will fail in the distinctive Christian grace of humility that grace which our Lord puts in the forefront of the Beatitudes. His actions may seem good, but the goodness is only outward; the root is evil; the inner life of thought and motive is corrupt in the sight of him who searcheth the heart. The corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit, but it may by the grace of God become a good tree; the wild olive may be grafted in upon the good olive tree, and partake of its root and fatness. Thus only can it bring forth good fruit by union with the root of the good tree. This change is possible as long as the tree remains in life; it is necessary, if it is to be saved from death; for "every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." The fruit of the Spirit is the test of reality, the evidence of spiritual life, the earnest of a blessed immortality. Without it there is no salvation. The Lord who died for us warns us in the plain words of that true love which will not gloss over sin or hide the danger that is impending. He tells us of that hell which threatens the unloving and the hypocrite, of the prison from which there is no escape, of the destruction to which the broad way inevitably leadeth, of the fire into which the corrupt tree must be cast. Let the awful thought sink deep into our souls. Enter in at the strait gate; beware of false prophets; a tremendous alternative awaits us. The loving words of Christ our Lord call us to the way of holiness; may he give us ears to hear!
LESSONS.
1. The Lord teaches the great danger of idle and slanderous gossip; take heed, listen, and obey.
2. Pray earnestly for grace to see your own faults, examine yourselves; be real, hate unreality, and hypocrisy.
3. Pray always, in trustful faith, m persevering earnestness.
4. Deny yourselves; only the way of the cross leadeth to the crown of life.
5. Seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit; beware of false teachers.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Vers. 1-5. The mote and the beam.
As we read the Gospel narratives we cannot fail to be impressed with a singular mingling of severity and kindness in the teachings of our Lord. His standard is lofty and he admits of no compromise, yet he deals gently with the erring, and he urges a similar line of conduct on his disciples. He came not to judge the world, but to save it. He bids us not judge one another, while we are to be severe in judging ourselves. Let us consider the evil of censoriousness.
I IT IS DANGEROUS. In judging others we court judgment ourselves.
1. From men. The critic becomes unpopular. By his irritating conduct he excites animosity, and induces people to be on the look out for his offences. They will be ready to use the tu quoque argument in sheer self-defence. None of us is so perfect as to be able to stand the fire of adverse criticism without a defect being revealed. The fierce light that beats upon a critic should quiet his censoriousness.
2. From God. It is unpleasant for our faults to be exposed by men; it is far worse, it is fatal, for them to bring down upon us the judgment of God. Yet it is the repeated teaching of Christ that God will deal with us as we deal with our neighbours. If we do not forgive them, God will not forgive us. With the unmerciful he will show himself unmerciful. So long as we make it our business to point out the sins of other people there is no hope that our sins will be blotted out. (Mat_6:15)
II IT IS HYPOCRITICAL. The censorious person is the last to perceive his own sin. It may be huge as a beam, yet he is quite unable to see it while he is busy in hunting for the speck of dust in his brother"s eye. There is nothing which so hinders a person from heart-searching self-examination, nothing which so hardens him in self-complacent pride, as the habit of finding fault with other people. The prophet may be a greater sinner than the people whom he is denouncing; yet the very act of denunciation blinds him to his own great wickedness. The English bear a reputation of hypocrisy on the Continent, and are not popular there as a nation, because they are constantly denouncing "continental vices," while dishonesty in trade, self-seeking in politics, and immorality in life belie their exalted pretensions. It is a common habit of Churches to thunder against the heresies and wrong-doings of sister-communions; they would do better to look at home first. Religious people are horrified at the sight of publicans and sinners; but have they nothing to be ashamed of? Comparing their advantages with the temptations of the miserable drunkards and harlots whom they denounce, they might well ask whether their pride, uncharitableness, and covetousness may not be veritable beams in the eyes of God.
III IT IS FUTILE. While there is a beam in his own eye the critic cannot remove the mote from his brother"s eye. To do so is to perform a very delicate operation. Any obscurity of vision will allow only of a bungling attempt, that will give much pain and yet will not effect its purpose. The beam must go first. While a man is blinded to his sin, he cannot save his neighbour. Christ, the Saviour of the world, was sinless. Christians must seek deliverance from their own sins before they undertake a crusade for the saving of their brethren. The humility that confesses personal unworthiness is the spirit best fitted for seeking to save lost and degraded fellow-men and women. W.F.A.
HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER Vers. 1, 2. The warning in judging.
Thus, at the early beginning of the new generations of the earth, did the Author of them, foreseeing their long and ever-broadening tumultuous streams, declare this among the essential conditions of a true inheritance in them, that men fear and avoid rather than rush into the seat of the judge. It is a great condition of membership in the new society. To the soundness and health of this society many an element must contribute; and to exist it must be healthy. No fencing of it from without, no careful tending of it from without, but only its innermost sound constitution can secure this. As we now survey the complex conditions of human society, we admire that prevision of the Organizer and ultimate Lord of it. And we wonder at the sanitary provision marked so clearly by the exhortation and argument contained in these two verses. Their injunction is indeed one that easily courts superficial lip-objection, but it is also one that does not fail to draw forth a deep "Amen!" from the "good and honest" heart, warned by the disasters, unnumbered and innumerable, consequent on the neglect of it, informed by careful observation of life, and matured by experience. When we ask what it really is that is contained in it, we may at once without hesitation reply that its purport is certainly not to affront reason and common sense; it does not bid us blind our eyes, either by disuse of them, or worse, by blank contradiction of their testimony; it does not forbid or put some dread ban on our sober use of our faculty of judgment. But, plainly, it is a great direction of life, essentially practical in its significance, and not better for others and the peace of the life of the community than safe for self. Just as those most emphatic and repeated directions of Scripture to guard the use of tongue and lips with all diligence do not ban the use of them, so the words of perfect wisdom now before us guard a dangerous power, and restrain a disposition ever too willing to assert itself against the fatal abuse of it. For
I To UNDERTAKE TO JUDGE IS TO USURP A POSITION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, NOT ONLY UNAUTHORIZED, BUT BOTH ELSEWHERE AND HERE IN THE MOST IMPORTANT CONNECTION ESPECIALLY FENCED OFF.
II AMONG A THRONG OF NECESSARY AND INEVITABLE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITIES, IT IS TO COURT AND EVEN CHALLENGE A GRATUITOUS AND VERY DANGEROUS ADDITIONAL ONE.
III IT HAS IT IN ITS VERY GENIUS, AND ALSO AS A NOTORIOUS FACT TO ENGENDER AN INSTINCTIVE RESENTMENT ON THE PART OF THOSE WHO ARE THE OBJECTS OF IT, AND TO PROVOKE RETORT.
IV IT BREEDS INTRINSIC DANGER TO THE DISPOSITION OF THOSE WHO EXERCISE IT, AND OFFERS INCENTIVE, WHERE DISCOURAGEMENT IS WHAT IS SPECIALLY NEEDED.
V IT DARES CONSEQUENTIAL VERY PRACTICAL RISKS, FOR THOSE WHO INTRUDE, STIRRING FOR THEM JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE THAT MIGHT SLEEP, AND DANGEROUSLY SUGGESTING THE SELF-ASSIGNED MEASURE OF IT. If anything might be expected to operate as a deterrent upon the habit that has proved itself to have so strong a hold on men, it might well be this dread thought. B.
HOMILIES BY MARCUS DODS Vers. 1-12. Sermon on the mount: 6. Against judging others.
This "Judge not, that ye be not judged," comes in unexpectedly, and seems out of its place. But the superficial, ostentatious righteousness which our Lord has been exposing betrays itself in nothing more certainly than in censoriousness. To sigh and shake the head over a sinful world is one of the easiest roads to a reputation for sanctity. The reasons our Lord gives for refraining from judging others are two.
1. If we judge harshly and unmercifully, we shall ourselves receive similarjudgment. The person who uses false weights cannot complain if, in buying as well as in selling, false weights are used. If we judge without knowing all the circumstances, if we have no patience to give weight to explanations, no sympathy to put ourselves in the offender"s place, we shall receive the same summary treatment. And this, not by the action of a mere arbitrary retribution, but by a law deeply laid in the nature of things. For at the root of such judging lies hatred of our neighbour; and if not hatred, indifference to righteousness; and where these exist in the heart, the very foundations of a godly character are yet to be laid. The man who is sincerely grieved at the sin of men has no heart to expose it unless this is clearly for the benefit of all concerned. In fact, this is a department of conduct in which the great law laid down by our Lord is our best grade: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." We continually see that in judging our conduct men are entirely at fault, imputing motives, perhaps no worse than, but certainly different from, our actual motives, so that it is the part of wisdom, no less than of charity, to be slow to judge.
2. The second reason our Lord assigns is that our own faults so disturb ourmoral perception that we are not fit to eradicate those of our neighbour. It is proposing to pick a mote from our brother"s eye while a beam is in our own. How can we understand the methods by which a man can be delivered from sin if we have made no practical acquaintance with these methods by seeking deliverance from our own sin? Two things are suggested by our Lord"s words.
I TO RID A MAN OF A FAULT IS AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT OPERATION. It requires the same absolute accuracy of vision and delicacy of touch which an operation on the eye requires. The blemishes you would remove are so closely connected with virtues or qualities essential to the character, that the vision must be purged by integrity and humility, and the band steadied by sincere affection.
II AGAIN, TO OUR LORD, BEFORE WHOM THE MORAL WORLD ALL LAY as glaringly visible as the natural world lies to us, it seemed grotesque that a censorious, faultfinding person should try to rid men of their faults. In his judgment the uncharitableness which lies at the root of so many of the apparently pious criticisms we hear and make is a beam far more damnatory than the mote we find fault with. Yet judgment of a kind we must pass on those who come under our observation. If we are not to cast what is holy to the dogs, we must, of course, determine who the dogs are. There are vile, fierce, snarling people in the world; and if we are not to give them the chance of showing their contempt for sacred things, we must distinguish between man and man. And in other cases of daily occurrence we are compelled both to form and to pronounce our judgment. The law, therefore, is levelled against all uncalled for malicious judgments. It is not enough that our judgments be true, we must not utter them until compelled. The law of the land recognizes the distinction, and punishes uncalled-for defamation. This sermon on the mount is a sermon describing righteousness and distinguishing it from current imitations rather than telling us how we may attain it. That is a true fulfilment of the Law and the prophets which our Lord has described no one can doubt, and yet the very copiousness of illustration dazzles and confuses. It is true we have the Law of God marking out for us the great lines on which human conduct is to move, and we have the prophets a series of supernaturally enlightened spiritual teachers who have indicated how it is to be applied, and enforced, it by stirring appeals. But what we still desiderate is that all the teaching of the Law and all the enlightening and moving power of the prophets be condensed into a summary which the frailest memory can carry, and which a child can apply. We instinctively feel that for righteous living all men should have guidance sufficient, that there should be a light like the sun, common to educated and uneducated; and this we have in the words, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: this is the Law and the prophets this is the sum and this the substance of all that has ever been said to guide men to right conduct. Our own experience, aided by our imagination, will enable us to understand the treatment a man desires in the different positions in life. And by the observance of this rule you get both your own view of the case and your neighbour"s; so that you shall neither on the one hand refuse a lawful and fair demand, nor on the other yield to an exorbitant, imprudent, or wicked one. In proclaiming this practical rule, our Lord had in view the achievement of that righteousness which constitutes the kingdom of God. Evidently it is sufficient for this purpose. Almost the whole of life is in one form or other of the dealing or commercial kind; none of us being sufficient for ourselves, but each contributing for the good of the whole that which it is his calling to supply. This frame of society, if animated by Christian principle, by a genuine desire to be as helpful as possible to the common good, is as heavenly a state of things as need be; but empty it of this, and leave only the desire to advance our own interests, and then you have not heaven but hell upon earth a grasping, struggling, hard-hearted, cruel competition. Yet to this latter state we are always tempted. We are throughout life under pressure to make too much of our own interests. It is obvious that nothing so effectually counteracts this pressure as the. expedient we are considering. That fineness of character and delicacy of feeling which every one admires and respects is formed, consciously or unconsciously, by obedience to this rule, by consideration of the feelings of other people, and a ready adjustment of our conduct to these feelings even in the smallest matters. Beyond the assurances given in the memorable words beginning, "Ask, and it shall be given you," very little answer is given in this sermon to the inquiry, "What must I do to be saved?" But a man can walk, although he cannot name the muscles he uses. Believe Christ when he tells you that if you seek righteousness you shall find it; go on seeking it, assured that God is helping and will help you; and what further directions are essential to salvation? Our Lord here tells us God has a kingdom; he tells us what that righteousness is which constitutes his kingdom; and he assures us that he that knocks shall be admitted. These promises put the future in your own hand. The waiting, striving, seeking spirit will not ultimately be disappointed. The weak and sin-tossed creature, whose efforts to attain have only proved his weakness more clearly, is assured that if he asks he shall have all that he needs for purity, for righteousness, for love. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him?" If we, who are ourselves entangled in much sin, can yet devise substantial benefits for others, how much more may we expect such substantial aid from our Father, whose title it is that he is "heavenly," above all the influences that narrow the heart! It is God"s life to communicate, his delight to see his children grow in likeness to himself. There is no mystery about entrance into God"s kingdom and attainment of righteousness. If you wish to enter, you can. Begin where Christ teaches you, and abide always in the assurance of the Father"s love. "If the life be careless, bring back the mind to that; if the heart be unhappy or discontented, compel the thoughts to that; if the habits of our daily walk cause us many a conflict between conscience and inclination, anchor the will on that. D.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-3Judging.
In warning against hindrances to holiness, our Lord begins with judging; for in this young converts too often expend the zeal which is given them for better uses. The text admonishes us
I THAT THERE IS A JUDGMENT TO COME.
1. This life is under judicial rule.
a. There is a Divine providence in human affairs.
b. The sense of justice in human nature expresses this.
c. Sin returns upon the head of the sinner.
2. But the judgments of this life are not final.
(1) They are incomplete. Virtue is often rewarded. But it is often trampled. Vice is often punished. But it often prospers.
(2) A future judgment is therefore necessary. Moral discrepancies and contradictions must be compensated and adjusted.
3. Revelation makes this clear.
(1) It sets before us the pomp and circumstance of a great assize. The Divine Judge. His throne of white light. tits myriad retinue. The assembled universe.
(2) It sets before us the final awards. The rewards of the righteous in heaven. The punishment of the wicked in hell.
II THAT DIVINE JUSTICE IS RETRIBUTIVE.
1. In its principles.
(1) "With what judgment ye judge," etc. "He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shown no mercy.
(2) "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
2. In its sanctions.
(1) "With what measure ye mete," etc. The severity of our dealings with our fellows will react upon us.
(2) History abounds with illustrations of this principle. Witness Ishmael. (Gen_16:12) Adonibezek. (see Jud_1:7) Witness the crucifixion, at the destruction of Jerusalem, of the children of those who crucified Christ and imprecated his blood upon themselves and their children. (See Alison"s "Europe" for many remarkable examples of punctual retribution.) Witness the prophetic doom of the mystical Babylon. (see Rev_13:10 Rev_16:6)
(3) But there is the "greater measure" of an eternal retribution.
III THESE FACTS SHOULD INFLUENCE OUR CONDUCT.
1. The injunction judge not" is conditional.
(1) It cannot be construed to teach tolerance to falsehood or wrong. Scripture cannot contradict itself. (cf. Isa_5:20 Eze 13) Our Lord cannot contradict himself. He clearly authorizes" righteous judgment" (see also Mat_23:14, Mat_23:33).
(2) It cannot be interpreted to condemn judicial decisions in courts civil or ecclesiastical.
2. We must not judge rashly.
(1) To pro-judge is to judge rashly.
(2) We are quick to see the failings of others (the mote), while we overlook formidable evils of our own (the beam). The way to righteousness is the reverse of this.
(3) We judge rashly by indulging evil surmises.
(4) We judge rashly in precipitate decisions.
3. We must not judge harshly.
(1) To pre-judge is harsh as well as rash. By such judgment we become so interested in the success of our prediction as perhaps to procure or facilitate its fulfilment. We should evermore hope for the best.
(2) To condemn severely is to judge harshly. (cf. Luk_6:37 Rom_2:1-3)
4. There is a sphere in which we must not judge.
(1) We have no jurisdiction over the consciences of our fellows. Here the words "judge not" express a direct and positive prohibition.
(2) We must not denounce to perdition as heretics those who differ from us.
(3) Nothing provokes more surely the judgment of God than the sufferings of his martyrs.
(4) We nave no magisterial authority over our brother. J.A.M. (see Jam_3:1 Jam_4:11)
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. The sin of unloving criticism.
This part of the sermon deals with the life of relationships and mutual obligations which the disciple of Christ has to live. The second part of the sermon dealt with his personal life of piety. Here our Lord shows how the new regenerate life will put a new tone and character on all the ordinary and everyday human relations. True piety must gain expression; if it be true piety it will be ever seeking to gain worthy expression. A characteristic fault in human society is the disposition to judge others in a suspicious temper, and that is misjudging, which hurts the man who misjudges quite as much as him who is misjudged. Never was the spirit of criticism, and even of unfriendly criticism, so rife as it is to-day; and never was the warning of Jesus more needed. It may be our duty to criticize things done; but we need to take great pains to find out whether we are really called on to criticize the doers. What our Lord condemns is the censorious spirit, which is opposed to the "forbearance," the "fairness in judgment," which duty allows for faults. Criticizing habits become a snare, in which even good men are often entangled.
I WE MAY CRITICIZE THINGS DONE. These are fair subjects of mental exercise. We cannot be active-minded without forming a personal judgment on every incident and event of family, social, and public life. The man who has no views on anything is a tiresome man, and altogether below his manhood. He will be easily led by others. Thought is really criticism, estimate, judgment on things.
II WE MAY CRITICIZE OPINIONS HELD. And these are distinctly separable from the persons holding them. This represents the higher range of human knowledge. In it man transcends the sphere of the material, and works in the range of the immaterial, the range of thoughts. Men"s opinions are fair grounds of discussion; and we plead for absolute and unlimited freedom in dealing with opinions.
III WE HAD BETTER NOT JUDGE PERSONS.
1. Because we can never be sure of doing that fairly. There are prejudices which blind our vision. There is imperfection of knowledge, which destroys the value of our judgments. There is inability precisely to appraise motives.
2. Because he who is unfair and severe in his judgments of others establishes a testing standard for himself. He can never complain if he is judged as he judged others. Judging our erring brother may come to be our public duty. Our Lord does not refer to this case. But then Christian judgment should be toned by "heavenly, Divine charity." And for us all the advice is good, "Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. R.T.
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 Mat 7:1-12.
Mat 7:1-12.
Rebuke Of Censoriousness; Encouragement To Prayer; And The Golden Rule
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It has been thought by some writers that there is no connection between the early part of this chapter and the preceding topics. But as we have found connection throughout all the previous portion of the discourse, and as Mat 7:13-27 obviously form a conclusion to the whole, it seems most probable that Mat 7:1-12 also stand in some natural relation to the remainder. That such a relation does exist, would appear to be shown by the following view: In the whole discussion of Mat 5:20-48 and Mat 6:1-18, our Lord is contrasting the morality he enjoins upon the subjects of the Messianic reign with the teachings and practice of the Scribes and Pharisees. Various errors and evils common among the Jews, and conspicuous in their sanctimonious teachers, are there noticed and rebuked, not with the formal order of a methodical discourse, but still with the same general design manifestly pursued throughout. But the great principle stated and applied in Mat 6:1-18, viz., that good works should be performed (not ostentatiously, as the hypocrites did, but) out of regard for God only, admitted of a more extensive and varied application, which he proceeds to make in Mat 6:19-34. From this partial digression, he now returns to rebuke another fault often committed among the Jews, particularly the formalistic Pharisees, (Luk 18:11) and to which all men are sadly liable, viz., that of passing harsh judgment upon others. (Mat 7:1-5) As it is hypocrisy (Mat 6:2, Mat 6:5, Mat 6:16) to make a display of righteousness, so (Weiss) it is hypocrisy (Mat 7:5) to assume the right to judge others, and correct their faults. Then in Mat 7:6 our Lord adds caution against the opposite extreme. Now to avoid both extremes in this respect, and in all respects to conform to those genuine and spiritual principles of morality which have been laid down throughout the discourse, is a task more difficult than we can in our own strength perform. Accordingly, with reference not only to the immediately preceding injunctions, but to the whole discourse, he adds an encouragement to pray to God. At the same time the expressions are put into the most general form, so as not to be confined to the idea of praying for strength to perform the duties enjoined in this discourse, but to encourage to prayer in general. (Compare the relation, of Jas 1:5 to what precedes it.) Finally, he sums up all that he had been teaching throughout the discourse concerning duties to other men, compressing all into the one general precept of Mat 7:12, which is declared to embody the essence of the entire Scriptures (Old Testament).
If this view be correct, it is not strange that we find no conjunction at the beginning of Mat 7:1 and Mat 7:7, since in each case, while there is an internal connection between the topic introduced and the previous portions of the discourse, there is no strong external connection with what immediately precedes, such as would require to be stated by a conjunction. See similar cases at Mat 5:13, Mat 5:17, Mat 6:19, Mat 7:13. In Mat 7:6 we might expect a conjunction, because of its close relation to the preceding verses; but observe that the expressions here assume the form of apophthegms, which arc usually stated (e. g., in the Book of Proverbs) without connectives, leaving it to the reader to discern their internal relation. So at Mat 6:22, Mat 6:24. As to ’therefore’ in Mat 6:12,see below.
Mat 7:1-2. The word rendered judge has sometimes the stronger meaning of ’condemn,’ and many would so translate here. But that clearly does not suit Mat 7:2, and we must retain the rendering ’judge,’ while at the same time perceiving that the connection and the nature of the case suggest the idea of harsh, censorious judgment. Men are not likely to err in judging too favourably, nor to be restrained by the prospect of being too favourably judged themselves. In the report of the discourse given by Luke (Luk 6:37) the idea of condemnation is distinctly stated, but by an additional word.
The judging thus forbidden manifestly does not refer to official judgments in courts, any more than ’swear not’ prohibits oaths in court (see on "Mat 5:34"); nor to the formation of opinions concerning the character and conduct of others, which is always a right, where we have the means of judging, and commonly a duty, provided we strive to "judge righteous judgment." (Joh 7:24) To understand that we are never, under any circumstances, to express or to form an opinion concerning others, would conflict with Mat 7:16, Mat 7:20 below, and numerous other passages (e. g., 1Th 5:21), and with the example of our Saviour and the apostles, in continually exposing and reproving error and evil. The application often made of this saying, by persons who do not wish their ruinous heresies or flagrant crimes to be condemned, is thus seen to be unwarranted. The reference is to the sadly common practice of officiously and presumptuously undertaking to pass judgment upon others, a judgment so often unfounded, unjust, or unkind. Persons most inclined to hypocritical display, like the Pharisees, would be most likely to judge others severely, (Luk 18:9-11) but all mankind are greatly given to censoriousness, and so there is no need for the supposition of some writers that our Lord here addressed himself directly to certain Pharisees, supposed to have attracted attention at this point of the discourse by their expressions or looks of derision (as in Luk 16:14).
Some explain that ye be not judged (Mat 7:1), and ye shall be Judged (Mat 7:2), as referring to the judgment which our fellow-men will pass upon us, if we are censorious. But if so, we might with impunity (Achelis) judge very pious people, who would not judge us in the same way. To understand it of God’s judgment agrees with the view of the whole discourse, which teaches us in everything to have regard to that requital of reward or punishment which we are to expect from God; and the idea that God will deal with us as we deal with others, accords with the sentiment of Mat 5:7, B. U. Ver., "Happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," and of Mat 6:15, "But if ye forgive not," etc. (Compare Mat 18:35) The impersonal form of the expression, not telling who will thus judge, but leaving it to the conscience to say for itself who that Judge will be, heightens the solemnity of the passage. Of course it is not meant that She mere absence of judging will of itself alone prevent our being judged by God on other grounds (comp on Mat 6:12). This passage seems to be alluded to by James, (Jas 2:13, Jas 4:12) who repeatedly makes allusion to this discourse. The phrases, with what judgment, and with what measure, are literally ’in what judgment’ and ’in what measure,’ see on "Mat 3:11". The ’again’ of Com. Ver. represents a feebly-supported reading of the Greek. The saying, ’With what measure ye measure it shall be measured to you,’ is also found in Mar 4:24, as used on a different occasion. It must have been a proverbial saying at that time, for it occurs very often in the Talmud. As to our Lord’s use of current sayings, see on "Mat 7:3-5". For other passages which forbid harsh judging, see Gal 6:1-5 Rom 2:1-3, Rom 14:3 f; 1Co 13:7. This sin grows in evil times, for instance, during a war or a pestilence, as rapidly as selfishness does. Everybody is busy finding fault, and few take time to notice the deeds that are praiseworthy. The practice is not only sinful in itself, but promotes other sins; for many a man will expend so much conscientiousness upon the severe condemnation of others’ faults, that he has not enough left for his own; nay, will even think that having passed merited condemnation upon wrongdoing in others, he is thereby more at liberty to do wrong himself. We ought to judge ourselves strictly, and judge others leniently. A Roman writer states it well: "I think him best and most faultless, who pardons others as if he himself sinned every day, yet abstains from sins as if he pardoned no one."
Luke (Luk 6:38-40) gives some additional sayings here, which Matthew omits; each has given only a sketch of the discourse. See Introduction to Matthew 5.
Mat 7:3-5. Another instance of that change to the singular number by which the address is made more personal and pointed, see on "Mat 5:23"and see on "Mat 6:6". The word rendered mote denotes any dry twig, splinter, bit of straw, or other trash, being applied by a classic writer to the materials of which birds build their nests. This, which is the sort of thing likely to get into the eye, naturally suggested a beam as the contrasted term. The latter expression is of course eminently hyperbolical, resembling those in Mat 19:24, Mat 23:24 Joh 21:25 Rom 9:3, etc. In the present case, no one has any difficulty; but in some others, many stumble at the hyperbole, from the failure to consider that such expressions are constantly and naturally employed in the language of common life, especially among the Orientals. Considerest not, does not set the mind on, think about. The ground of censure is not that one sees another’s fault, however small, but that while seeing that, he does not think about his own fault, even though great. Or how wilt thou say, viz., with what sort of face will you say it, how feel at liberty to say it? Compare Joh 6:42, Joh 8:33. In Luk 6:42 it is a still stronger expression, "Or how canst thou say," etc. Brother was used by Jews as it is by Christians, in addressing one another; this is a seemingly kind, fraternal proposal. Pull—or cast—out represents the same Greek word throughout Luk 6:4 and Luk 6:5. The Com. Version has here indulged its passion for varying the translation. See on "Mat 25:46". The beam, the definite beam that is assumed to be in his eye.[1] The word hypocrite, (Mat 7:5) has been explained on Mat 6:2. Its use here indicates that the person thus acting is esteemed as not simply self-deceived, really unaware of the beam in his own eye, but as pretending to be free from fault; and with this accords the ’considerest not’ in Mat 6:3. Indeed, self-deception rarely, if ever, exists, without some measure of hypocrisy, and vice versa. See clearly, is in the Greek a compound of the verb rendered ’beholdest’ in Mat 6:3. The idea is that correcting our own faults will not only render it less unsuitable for us to correct those of others, but will put us in better condition to do so. Ministers are by their calling especially required to "reprove and rebuke," and hence a special reason why they should seek to be blameless themselves. But of course it is not meant that no man must ever point out another’s fault, or attempt to aid him in correcting it, until he has fully succeeded in correcting every similar fault of his own. This would prevent all efforts of the kind, since the truly humble Christian will never make sure that he is wholly free from any one fault whatsoever.
[1] The Greek text followed in the Com. Version ought to have been translated ’from’ in Mat 7:4, the preposition being apo in Mat 7:4, while it is ek both times in Mat 7:5. Compare on Mat 3:16. Recent critics read ek in Mat 3:4, on the authority of à and several cursives. But it is very likely that apo was changed to ek by way of assimilation to Mat 3:5. Of course there is no substantial difference.
A remarkable instance of condemning the misconduct of others, while ignoring similar and far greater misconduct of our own, is seen in the history of David. (2 Samuel 12) This tendency of human nature is so obvious, that it must have attracted attention in all ages and nations. Horace: "While you see your own faults with eyes bleared and unanointed, why is it that in the faults of your friends, your vision is as sharp as an eagle’s?" Seneca : "You observe the pimples of others, when yourselves overgrown with a vast number of ulcers." The illustration our Lord uses is found several times in the Talmud; e.g.,"I wonder whether there is any one in this generation who is willing to receive reproof. Nay, if one says to another, ’Cast out the splinter from thine eye,’ he will reply, ’Cast out the beam from thine eye.’" The same image occurs (Gesen.) in Arabic poetry. It is therefore probable that this was a proverb already current among the Jews when our Saviour used it. The same thing he appears to have done in Mat 7:2, Mat 7:6, Mat 7:12; in Mat 13:57,; (compare Joh 4:44) Act 26:14; and avowedly in Luk 4:23. (Compare as to the use of parables, on Mat 13:3) The admirable wisdom with which he derived his beautiful illustrations from the most familiar objects in nature and relations of life, is here further seen in his using current popular sayings, which all would understand and feel the force of. So Paul quoted Greek poets. (Act 17:28, 1Co 15:33 Tit 1:12) Our Lord was thus acting out his own subsequent direction, bringing forth out of his treasure things new and old. (Mat 13:52) Originality is often a great source of power but more good can sometimes be done, a deeper practical impression produced, by adopting ideas and expressions which are already familiar.(Compare on Mat 6:9)
Mat 7:6. This presents, in the form of an apophthegm, and so without any external mark of connection with what precedes (see at the beginning of this chapter), a caution against the opposite extreme to what he has just been rebuking. We must not judge others, but we must not heedlessly expose sacred things to persons wholly wanting in appreciation, and sure to reject them. These two extremes of unwise action often meet (Schaff); those who judge most harshly are often most easily imposed on. Dogs have always been regarded in the East with great abhorrence, not being usually kept at home, and so not evincing the strong attachment to owners which so interests us, but running wild in. troops about the streets, where they devour carcasses and offal. Howling and fighting over their horrid food, they inspire intense disgust; and so they are generally associated in Scripture with ideas of reproach, contempt, or loathing. (1Sa 17:43, 1Sa 24:14; 1Ki 14:11, 1Ki 21:19; 2Ki 8:13; Job 30:1; Pro 26:11; Ecc 9:4; Isa 66:3; Mat 15:27; Php 3:2; Rev 22:15) So the Mohammedans now call Christians dogs. That which is holy, correctly renders the general and abstract expression of the original. This would include the shew-bread, or any form of food which had been offered on the altar, but especially suggests the flesh of sacrifices (called "holy flesh" in Hag 2:12 Jer 11:15), which it would have been a great profanation to throw to the dogs, like flesh torn by wild beasts. (Exo 22:31) Neither cast your pearls. In the Talmud (Wünsche) a good thought is often called a pearl. (Compare Mat 13:45 f.) Before swine, or, the swine, with the article, like ’the dogs,’ meaning the class of creatures. As the two kinds of animals were regarded with like feelings, (compare 2Pe 2:22) it is best to understand here a mere repetition under another image, after the manner of the Hebrew parallelism. (See on "Mat 4:15".) The distinction some make between the dogs and the swine, as representing essentially different kinds of persons, is scarcely warranted. And so the notion of some (even Achelis) that the trampling applies to the swine, and the turning and rending to the dogs, is now commonly rejected, as making the sentence excessively artificial, and as requiring ’or turn.’ Better take both as referring to the swine, conceived as wild and savage. It was not necessary to explain to Jews that giving any sacred thing to the dogs would be a horrid profanation.
What, then, do we learn from this saying? It is a warning against mistaken zeal in trying to make converts, or to correct men’s faults. We must not judge (Mat 7:1-5), but we must deal with men according to their character. Efforts to convert a drunken man, or one who has just been pouring out foul obscenity, would come under this head. Some persons do harm by expressing, in mixed society, those intimate feelings of personal Christian experience with which only the devout can sympathize. Perhaps this last is intimated by the expression your pearls, those precious truths which have become yours. But especially may we connect this verse with Mat 7:5, and learn that in undertaking to correct men’s faults, we must exercise discretion, lest we do harm rather than good. (compare Pro 9:8) Yet this precept, like those which precede, must not be pushed too far. Persons from whom a hasty judgment might least expect it, sometimes welcome gospel truth, as did publicans and sinners, and the robber on the cross. Often our only means of deciding wisely is to make the trial, and then continue our labours or not, according to the results and prospects. (Mat 10:12-14 Act 13:46) Ryle: "We are most of us far more likely to err on the side of over-caution than of over-zeal. We are generally far more disposed to remember the ’time to be silent’ than the ’time to speak.’" Especially must we not be too solicitous to avoid injury to ourselves, which is a matter of minor importance compared with insult to the sacred and precious truth we present. Here again (see on "Mat 7:3"), our Lord has probably adopted a proverbial saying, since we find in the Talmud, "Do not cast pearls to swine, nor deliver wisdom to him who does not know its worth." Still, there can be little doubt that the Rabbis of later centuries borrowed striking sayings from the New Testament, as they had long done from the Greeks, and afterwards did from the Arabians.
Mat 7:7-8. To avoid both the extremes pointed out in Mat 7:1-5 and Mat 7:6, is a difficult task. We must all find it very hard to be at once charitable and watchful, hoping for the best, yet on our guard against the worst, judging no one, yet knowing men’s characters and dealing with them accordingly. Well may we rejoice to find that the next words are a most affecting encouragement to prayer. Thus may we be enabled to perform these difficult duties and all the others enjoined in the discourse. Indeed, the language is so general as to hold good of prayer under all circumstances and for all objects. Similar examples of a passage specifically applying to what precedes, but having also a much wider general application, may be found in Mat 5:48, Mat 6:9, Mat 7:12; in Jas 1:5, where he means especially wisdom to bear trials, but not that exclusively; also in Gal 6:7, and many other passages of Paul’s Epistles.
Knowing that men find it hard to pray in reality and with faith, Jesus condescends to encourage us by much repetition. Asks seek, knock, are here practically equivalent, the repetition being made for the sake of impressiveness; all refined distinctions between them are out of place. Afterwards (Mat 7:8) the threefold promise is repeated by thrice asserting the general fact that so it always is. And still further encouragement is given in the succeeding verses. What pains the Saviour takes to make us pray. And his word is crowded with gracious invitations and precious promises, such as ought to conquer all our unbelief, and fill us with joyful trust in coming to God. Of course these unqualified promises are subject to conditions, such as are elsewhere laid down; we must ask for proper purposes, (Jas 4:3) according to God’s will; (1Jn 5:14) see below on "Mat 7:9". In Mat 7:8, it shall be opened, is in some of the oldest authorities ’it is opened.’ We cannot easily decide, since the present may have been changed into the future to be like Mat 7:7, or the future into the present to be like the other verbs in Mat 7:8; fortunately there is no substantial difference of meaning. The same thoughts here given in Mat 7:7-11 are found in Luk 11:9-13, as repeated on another occasion.
Mat 7:9-11. For the connection, see on Luk 11:7, Luk 11:8. Or proposes to regard the matter in another way, to introduce a different argument. Or, if the preceding considerations do not fully convince, look at it thus. (Compare in Mat 12:29 and Mat 20:15) Or what man is there of you, which does not mean, as some explain, if he is so much as a man, and not a brute; but, though he is only a man. With all the imperfection and evil which belong to human nature, even a man will be willing to give to his son, and will have some judgment in giving. The expression thus tends to prepare the mind for the application made in Luk 11:11. Will he give, is in the Greek introduced by a particle denoting that the answer must necessarily be negative; and the broken construction of the sentence renders the expression more striking. "Who is there of you, a man, of whom his son will ask a loaf—will he give him a stone? Or also he will ask a fish-will he give him a serpent "? Bread. The word means either ’bread’(so all the early English versions here), or ’a loaf,’ according to the demands of each particular connection; and the latter seems to fit best here. (Compare on Mat 26:26) The round, flat cakes of bread, then and now common in Palestine, resembled flat stones (compare on Mat 4:3). So a serpent somewhat resembles a fish. Bread and fish were the ordinary food of those who dwelt by the Lake of Galilee. On the subsequent occasion, (Luk 11:12) an egg is added, to which a scorpion coiled might not be greatly dissimilar. Now the question is not whether the father will refuse his son’s request, but whether, instead of the thing asked he will give him something similar that is useless (a stone), or hurtful (a serpent). In Luk 11:11, the expression is distinctly, "Will, instead of a fish, give him a serpent?" (Bib. Un. Ver.) Even an earthly parent will not be ignorant enough to make such a mistake, will not be cruel enough thus to mock his child’s request. Being evil, in contrast with the holy God. Know how to give, does not simply mean are willing to give, but understand how to give judiciously and kindly, so that the gifts are really good gifts. Compare such expressions as, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation"; (2Pe 2:9) "I know both how to be abased,—or in humble circumstances,—and I know how to abound," i. e., without being unduly depressed or elated; (Php 4:12) "If a man (any one) know not how to rule his own house."; (1Ti 3:5) also Luk 12:55, etc.[1] The statement involves a disposition to give, and the term denotes judgment in giving; and in both respects the argument from the less to the greater holds good, how much more will the Father on high, who is "too wise to err, too good to be unkind," give what is really good. It is a natural extension of the same argument to say, that if we ask for something which we think to be good, but which he knows to be evil, he will withhold it, even as any judicious human parent must often do. It is really a part of the privilege of prayer, that God will withhold, if he sees best. Were this not the case, the wisest and best persons might often be slowest to ask, for they know how often their judgment as to what was best has proved erroneous. But as it is, we may ask without apprehension for whatever we think is best, and our perfectly wise and perfectly kind Father will give that, or something which he sees to be better. On the second occasion, (Luk 11:13) our Lord substitutes for the general expression ’good things,’ the specific blessing ’the Holy Spirit,’ which is the best of all good gifts. "In this change we may see evidence, not, as has been said, of ’a later form of Christian tradition,’ but probably of a later and more spiritual teaching, addressed to more advanced disciples." (Bib. Comm.) As to the frequency with which Jesus speaks of God as our Father, see on "Mat 6:9".
[1] Tyndale and the succeeding English versions render ’can give.’ doubtless following Luther. The Com. Ver. wisely follows Rheims in rendering ’know how to give.’
Mat 7:12. Our Lord now gives one single precept for the regulation of our conduct, a simple working rule, which is not merely a summary statement of all that he has been teaching on that subject throughout the discourse, but is expressly declared to cover the entire ground of what is required by "the law and the prophets," i. e., the whole of the then existing revelation (see on "Mat 5:17"). This precept is an application of the principle, ’Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,’ and on that, in conjunction with ’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,’ Jesus afterwards declares that the whole law and the prophets hang. (Mat 22:40) It is plain therefore that he does not here mean to say that the whole requirements of the Scriptures as to all duties are summed up in this rule, but their whole requirements as to duties to our fellow-men. (Compare Gal 5:14) It is a great mistake to suppose that nothing is involved in love to God beyond love to our neighbour. Therefore, as an inference from what precedes. The word itself does not determine how far back its reference goes. The rule that follows is apparently given as a sort of general consequence, or recapitulatory inference, from all that he has been teaching concerning the righteousness required of his people, (Mat 5:20, Mat 6:1, Mat 6:33) so far, of course, as pertained to their treatment of their fellow-men. He did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to develop and deepen and broaden them (see on "Mat 5:17"); and so (Weiss) he has here given one simple rule, which carries their whole contents in a compact form, ready for prompt and varied application. Luther: "With these words he closes up the teachings of these three chapters, and ties them all up in a little bundle." See a somewhat similar use of ’therefore’ in Mat 6:34, and as to the connection here, see at the beginning of Matthew 7.[1]
[1] ’Would wish that men should do’ is in Greek one of the non-final uses of hina, explained on Mat 5:29.
This simple and beautiful precept is now commonly called, from its excellence, the "Golden Rule," just as James (Jas 2:8) calls the precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," the ’royal law.’ The Jewish teachers endeavoured to have a special rule for every exigency of life, and have filled the Talmud with nice distinctions and wearisome details, without at last touching half the questions which must arise. The Great Teacher has furnished many particulars by way of illustration and example, but he delights to give comprehensive rules. Harris: "Like the few imaginary circles by which geography circumscribes the earth, he has, by a few sentences, described and distributed into sections the whole globe of duty; so that wherever we may he on it, we find ourselves encompassed by some comprehensive maxim; and in whatever direction we may move, we have only to reflect, in order to perceive that we are receding from, or approaching to, some line of morality." It is here taken for granted, that what one wishes others to do to him is something right, such a thing as he ought to wish. Otherwise the rule would lead to folly and crime. If a man should become a criminal, he would probably wish the judge to acquit him, though guilty; it does not follow that if the same man is a judge, he ought to let the guilty go free. When a child, one did not wish his father to restrain him; it does not follow that he must now let his own son go unrestrained. Has, then, the Saviour’s rule failed here? No, it is taken for granted that the wish of our own to which he bids us conform in our treatment of others, is, or would be, a right wish under all the circumstances. I do not wish now to be treated as a child, for mine is not the character or condition of a child; but if I were a child, and had just views and right feelings, I should wish my father not to make me my own master when unfit for it, but to restrain and discipline me, in the way that would be for my real good; and thus I ought to act towards my child.
Here again, as in Mat 7:2-3, Mat 7:6, we find that our Lord has employed a form of statement quite similar to some sayings then already in existence. Confucius said (Legge’s "Chinese Classics," vol. 1), "Do not unto others that which you would not they should do unto you." Isocrates said,"What you are angry at when inflicted on you by others, this do not do to others." A Greek biographer of Aristotle relates that, being asked how we should behave towards our friends, he answered, "As we should wish them to behave toward us." The apocryphal book of Tobit (Mat 4:15) has "What thou hatest, do to no one." Of the great Rabbi Hillel, who was probably still living at the birth of Christ, the Talmud relates, as showing that he was kind, and not irrefutable and headlong like Shammai, "There is a story of a certain Gentile, who came to Shammai and said, ’Make a proselyte of me on this condition, that you teach me the whole law while I stand on one foot.’ He drove him away with a long staff which he held in his hand. The man came to Hillel, and he made a proselyte of him, saying, ’What is hateful to thee, do not do to another. This is the whole law; the rest is explanation of it.’" Philo, who was an old man in AD. 40, says, "One must not himself do what he hates to have done to him." Seneca, who died AD. 65, says that the best way to confer a benefit is "to give as we should wish to receive."[2] It will be observed that the sayings of Confucius, Isocrates, and the three Jewish teachers are merely negative; that of Seneca is confined to giving, and that of Aristotle to the treatment of friends. Our Lord makes it a rule for positive action, and towards all men; and declares, as Hillelhad done, that it is a summary of the entire Scriptures. It is a part of his wisdom that he frequently adopts modes of thought and expressions already well known among men, or which had occurred to some thoughtful mind; while in many cases, as here, he gives them a new or a wider application. (Compare on Mat 7:5, and especially on Mat 6:9) The real novelty of Christian Ethics lies in the fact that Christianity offers not only instruction in moral duty, but spiritual help in acting accordingly.—In (Luk 6:31), this precept is given in a different part of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke’s brief sketch omits very much of the discourse, and to prevent what he gives from being a mere collection of fragments, he must of necessity connect passages which have some natural relation. Accordingly, this saying there follows the injunction,"Give to every one that asketh thee," etc. The phrase, for this is the law and the prophets, is omitted by Luke, precisely as he omits the extensive portion from Mat 5:13 to Mat 6:18, because it was suited especially for Jews, whom Matthew had peculiarly in view, but Luke had not.(See Int. to Matthew 5.)
[2] In Act 15:20 and Act 15:29, the negative precept, "and whatever you do not wish to happen to yon, do not do to another," is interpolated by D, several cursives, Thebaic, Æthiopic, Irenæus (Latin), and in the second ease also by the Harklean Syriac and Cyprian, a "Western" interpolation. The so-called "Teaching of the Apostles" gives the same (ch. 1), followed by the called "Constitutions of the Apostles" ii. 2.
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 7:1 f. Mutual misjudgments: (1) Between new converts and old disciples. (2) Between church officers and church members. (3) Between representatives of rival societies, journals, or institutions of learning. (4) Between professed Christians and non-professors. (5) Between all persons who judge each other at all.—We are apt to be very severe in judging faults to which we are not specially exposed. The drunkard is harshly condemned by a man who is too cold-blooded or too stingy to become a drunkard; stinginess is harshly condemned by one who finds it easier to be lavish than economical.—
Compound for sins they are inclined to,
By damning these they have no mind to.
A preacher is apt to illustrate only by accounts of wrong-doing elsewhere.—Mishna: "Do not judge your neighbour till you have put yourself in his place." Braune (in Stier): "Judging others is the foul stain of social life." Achelis: "This judging rests upon two evil factors, the want of love to others, and the assumption of God’s prerogative." Henry: "He who usurps the bench, shall be called to the bar." Chrys.: "’That is,’ saith Christ, ’it is not the other that thou condemnest, but thyself, and thou art making the judgment-seat dreadful to thyself, and the account strict.’.... He is not overthrowing reproof nor correction, but forbidding men to neglect their own faults, and exult over those of other men." Dykes: "To take one’s self for a Christian., and yet be ignorant of the extent of one’s own guilt and evil-heartedness, is to he exactly in that state of blind conceit which qualifies a man for the role of a heartless and reckless, and utterly unrighteous judge..... We have to live with one another; and the kindly thoughts of others about ourselves is as the breath of life to us..... There are some people who always suspect base reasons for whatever looks generous, and exult in exposing them to view; but we are not apt to conclude that such men’s own motives are the purest, or their own life the sweetest in the world." Plumptre: "Briefly we may say, (1) Judge no man unless it be a duty to do so. (2) As far as may be, judge the offence, and not the offender. (3) Confine your judgment to the earthly side of faults, and leave their relation to God, to him who sees the heart. (4) Never judge at all without remembering your own sinfulness, and the ignorance and infirmities which may extenuate the sinfulness of others."
Mat 7:3-5. The mote and the beam. (1) We must by no means let both remain. (2) We cannot really cast out either, if wholly careless about the other. (3) Casting out the beam will make us more clear-sighted, more sympathetic, and more skilful, in casting out the mote, (not simply seeing the mote, Mat 7:3; but seeing to cast it out, Mat 7:5). (4) For help in casting out both, ask, and it shall be given you, Mat 7:7.
Mat 7:1-5. Efforts to correct the faults of our brethren. (1) With no harsh, undiscriminating judgment of their faults. (2) With no real or apparent assumption of being without fault ourselves. (3) With clear perception, heightened by experience in correcting our own faults. (4) With sympathetic and fraternal kindness.
Mat 7:3. What we need here is not "to see ourselves as others see us," but to see ourselves as we see others.—Mat 7:4. Cicero: "It is the part of folly to see other people’s faults and forget our own." Euthym: "The healer ought to be healthy."—Proposing to cast out the mote without thinking of the beam, is (Dykes), (1) a blunder, (2) a hypocrisy, rader (in Cor. a Lap.): "A crooked measuring-rule makes even straight things appear crooked."
Mat 7:6. New converts are especially prone, in their inexperienced zeal, to cast pearls before swine. In religious teaching we must avoid those who (1) will despise the holy and precious truth, and (2) will damage the teachers. Such are pretended converts, who "join the church " in order to get trade or to impose on charity; cases often encountered in foreign and home missions, and in all large cities. Weiss: "Gospel truth is (1) ’holy,’ as coming from God, (2) precious (pearls, compare Mat 13:45)." Dykes: "We often stultify our attempts to reform the vicious and brutal by plans which look charitable, but are simply childish, winking at the darker facts of human character... To select the fit occasion and discover the wise method; to adapt truth to the evil state of the hearer, and win for it a willing ear; to be cautious without being timid, and faithful but not indiscreet; this asks for a certain nice tact.... a wisdom into which there enter several elements, but of which one element usually is a spiritual gift from the Father of lights."—We have frequent occasion to remember the proverb, "Speech is silver, but silence is golden."
Mat 7:7-11. To avoid censoriousness, and yet not cast pearls before swine, ask, and it shall be given you. To refrain from worldly anxieties, because trusting in God, (Mat 6:19-34) ask, and it shall be given you. To eschew ostentation and all self-seeking in good works, (Mat 6:1-18) ask, and it shall be given you. To attain the profound spiritual righteousness which Jesus teaches and requires, (Mat 5:17-48) ask, and it shall be given you. To be indeed the salt of the earth and the light of the world, (Mat 5:13-16) ask, and it shall be given you. To find blessing in the trials of life, (Mat 5:5-12) ask, and it shall be given you. If we do not possess God’s spiritual blessings, it must be because we do not ask. One may be a truly industrious man, and yet poor in temporal things; but one cannot be a truly praying man, and yet poor in spiritual things. Chrys.: "And if thou dost not receive straightway, do not even thus despair. For to this end he said, knock, to signify that even if he should not straightway open the door, we are to continue there." Luther: "Hast thou here the consoling promise and rich assurance he gives, as showing that prayer has something in it, and is precious in God’s sight, since Jesus so earnestly exhorts to it, so kindly invites, and assures us that we shall not ask in vain; even if we had no other ground or inducement than this rich and loving word, it ought to be enough to draw us and drive us to prayer."
Mat 7:9-11. Euthym: "He that asks must both be a son, and must ask what it becomes the father to give, and is profitable for the son to receive." Aug.: "The Lord is good, and often does not give what we should wish, in order that he may give what we should wish still more." Achelis: "If the son asks for a stone or serpent, thinking it to be a loaf or fish, the father’s love will give the real good. Paul asked thrice that the thorn might be removed, and afterwards learned that the Master had done for him something far better." (1Co 12:8, 1Co 12:10) Dykes: "Here, in these simple, homely, human words of Jesus, we have surely all the philosophy of prayer which Christian hearts require.... all genuine intercourse betwixt child and parent must have two sides: while it is on the child’s side, the freest and most unlimited expression of such things as a child’ s heart can long for, or a child’ s judgment discern to be good, it is on the parent’s side the freest and most voluntary determination to give only what a riper judgment knows to be best, and all that a larger heart yearns to bestow."
Mat 7:12. How to treat others. (1) Worldly pride and honour will say, Treat them as they have treated us—return a kindness, revenge an injury. (2) Jesus says, Treat them as we should wish them to treat us—forgive, forbear, make the best of the past, hope for the best in future.—To carry out this rule requires imagination, sympathy, unselfishness.—Ryle: "The Golden Rule settles a hundred difficult points, which in a world like this are continually arising between man and man. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for our conduct in specific cases. It sweeps the whole debatable ground with one mighty principle."—Luther: "All the teachings of these chapters he here ties up in a little bit of a bundle, that every one may place in his bosom. And certainly it is a fine thing that Christ sets before us precisely ourselves for an example. Thou thyself art thy master, doctor, and preacher."
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 Judge not.
Mat_7:1
Judge not.
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Against censoriousness
I. The prohibition. It refers to the conduct of private individuals, not to men in a public capacity; nor to hinder private persons from forming any opinion upon the misconduct of others. It forbids the indulgence of a censorious temper.
II. The methods by which he reproves and condemns it.
1. He refers to the common principle of retribution.
2. As another corrective we are reminded of our own imperfections.
(1) Men of this description have no right to sit in judgment on others, who are themselves guilty of the same crimes.
(2) They have no moral qualification for its discharge.
3. Our Saviour directs us to reform our own conduct before we undertake to sit in judgment on that of others.
III. The caution which we must observe in its discharge-Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, etc. (J. E. Good.)
Judgments and retributive judgments
I. Judgments.
1. We are warned against judgments that are prejudiced. Not to judge others by a sort of hasty inspiration, by their manner, or by their class or locality.
2. We are warned against judgments that are uncalled for. Sometimes our duty; but often not required of us to judge our neighbours character.
3. We are warned against judgments that are one-sided. Must hear both sides.
4. We are warned against unmerciful judgments. Danger arises from attributing motives. We must beware lest we ignore the possibilities of good even in a bad man. Be as merciful as you can be to the sinner.
5. We are warned against blind judgment-Why beholdest thou, etc. Evil men more suspicious of others.
II. Retributive judgments-who will inflict them (Luk_6:37-38).
1. The first solution is that they are the judgments of men. This not practically true.
2. Consider the interpretation which attributes the retributive judgments to angels. It is not our Lords wont to attribute judgment, forgiveness, etc., to angels.
3. God will inflict them. He judges men according to the state of mind in which they live. (J. E. Rust, M. A.)
The evil of judging rashly
I. The duty-Judge not.
1. From the context it is evident that the Saviour here speaks only of those judgments that we form concerning our neighbour. Favourable judgments are not forbidden; unfavourable judgments allowed, when our station or clear evidence require. Judges, parents, teachers, must condemn and publicly censure. Our Lord condemns-
1. The inward disposition of the mind which inclines persons to judge the actions of their neighbours with
(1) precipitance,
(2) malignity,
(3) rigour.
2. He condemns the habit of communicating to others the rash and severe judgments we have formed, when no necessity requires it. We multiply the injury in proportion to the number of persons to whom we communicate our unfavourable opinions.
II. The motive. If we thus judge our brethren, there is more than one tribunal at which we shall be condemned.
1. We shall find for ourselves in society judges without pity.
2. The rigour at the last judgment. God will punish those who have encroached upon His rights, and who have trampled down the rules of justice and charity. (H. Kollock, D. D.)
Reasons against a censorious spirit
1. Such judgment provokes retaliation.
2. Such judgment is not becoming in us. Such a sinner has no right to sit in the judgment seat.
3. Such judgment shows incapacity for true judgment. (Sermons by Monday Climb.)
Against rash censuring and judging
There are divers sorts of judging which it is requisite to distinguish from the judging prohibited:-
1. That exercising public judgment, or administering justice, is not here prohibited.
2. The trial and censure, although out of court, which any kind of superiors do exercise on their inferiors, committed to their care, such as masters and servants.
3. Neither is friendly reproof proceeding out of charitable design, on clear ground, in fit season, within reasonable compass, concerned in this prohibition.
4. All observing and reflecting on our neighbours actions, all framing an opinion about them, and expressing our minds concerning them, are not forbidden.
5. We are not hence obliged to think so well of all men as without competent knowledge always to rely on their pretences, or to entrust our interests in their hands.
6. We are not obliged, in contradiction to plain sense, to judge all men well.
We observe:
1. No judge should intrude himself into the office, or assume a judicial power, without competent authority, either by delegation from superior powers, or by voluntary reference to the parties concerned.
2. A judge should be free from all prejudices and all partial affections.
3. A judge should never proceed in judgment without careful examination of the cause, so as well to understand it.
4. A judge should never pronounce final sentence, but after certain proof and on full conviction.
5. Hence there are divers causes wholly exempt from our judgment, such as the secret thoughts of men.
6. Hence we should not judge the state of our neighbour in regard to God.
7. A judge should not proceed against any man without warning, and affording him opportunity to defend himself.
8. Moreover a judge is obliged to conform all his determinations to the settled rules of judgment.
9. He must be a person of good knowledge and ability.
10. It is proper for a judge not to make himself an accuser.
11. He should himself be innocent.
12. He should proceed with great moderation.
Again:
1. Censuring is an impious practice in regard to God.
2. In respect to our neighbour it is an unjust practice.
3. It is an uncharitable practice.
4. It is a foolish and vain practice.
5. It will produce many inconveniences and mischiefs.
(1) We provoke others to requite us in the same kind.
(2) We pass censure on ourselves, as we are seldom clear.
(3) We aggravate our own faults and deprive them of excuse.
(4) We forget to what a dreadful judgment we stand obnoxious to.
(5) It causes us to leave our own faults uncorrected.
(6) The best men are the most candid and gentle.
(7) It signifies bad conscience; a vulturous nature smelleth out carrion. (Dr. Barrow.)
Social self-echoes.
A
little boy once went home to his mother and said, Mother, sister and I went out into the garden, and we were calling about, and there was some boy mocking us. How do you mean, Johnny? said his mother. Why, said the child, I was calling out, He! and this boy said, He! So I said to him, Who are you? and he answered, Who are you? I said, What is your name? he said, What is your name? And I said to him, Why dont you show yourself? he said, Show yourself? And I jumped over the ditch, and I went into the woods, and I could not find him, and I came back, and said, If you dont come out I will punch your head! and he said, I will punch your head! So his mother said, Ah, Johnny I if you had said, I love you, he would have said, I love You. If you had said, Your voice is sweet, he would have said, Your voice is sweet. Whatever you said to him, he would have said back to you. And the mother also said, Now, Johnny, when you grow and get to be a man, whatever you say to others they will, by and by, say back to you. And his mother took him to that old text in the Scripture, With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Censoriousness a compound of the worst passions
Censoriousness is a compound of many of the worst passions; latent pride, which discovers the mote in our brothers eye, but hides the beam in our own; malignant envy, which, wounded at the noble talents and superior prosperity of others, transforms them into the objects and food of its malice-if possible, obscuring the splendour it is too base to emulate; disguised hatred, which diffuses, in its perpetual mutterings, the irritable venom of the heart; servile duplicity, which fulsomely praises to the face and blackens behind the back; shameless levity, which sacrifices the peace and reputation of the absent, merely to give barbarous stings to a jocular conversation; altogether forming an aggregate the most desolating on earth, and nearest in character to the malice of hell. (E. L. Magoon.)
Men self-reflected in their judgment of others
Pedley, who was a well-known natural simpleton, was wont to say, God help the fool. None are more ready to pity the folly of others than those who have a small share of wit themselves. There is no love among Christians, cries the man who is destitute of true charity. Zeal has vanished, exclaims the idle talker. O for more consistency, groans out the hypocrite. We want more vital godliness, protests the false pretender. As in the old legend, the wolf preached against sheep-stealing, so very many hunt down those sins in others, which they gladly shelter in themselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Judgment should combine moderation
Avoid forming refined and romantic notions of human perfection in anything. For these are much apter to heighten our expectations from others, and our demands upon them, than to increase our watchfulness over ourselves; and so every failure provokes us more highly than it would have done else.
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 1. Judge not, that you be not judged. The…
1. Judge not, that you be not judged. The term “judge” is used in more than one sense, but Christ's meaning is plain. 1. He does not prohibit the civil judgment of the courts upon evil doers, for this is approved throughout the whole Bible. 2. He does not prohibit the judgment of the church, through its officers, upon those who walk disorderly, for both he and the apostles have enjoined this. 3. He does not forbid those private judgments that we are compelled to form the wrong-doers, for he himself tells us that we are to judge men by their fruits. (See verses 15–20.) What he designs to prohibit is rash, uncharitable judgments, a fault-finding spirit, a disposition to condemn without examination of charges.
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 Mat_7:3. Mote.—The Greek noun so translated means a stalk,…
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_7:3. Mote.—The Greek noun so translated means a stalk, or twig. The illustration seems to have been a familiar one among the Jews, and a proverb all but verbally identical is found as a saying of Rabbi Tarphon (Plumptre). Beam.—A graphic and almost droll representation of a comparatively great fault. The word means a log, joist, or rafter (Morison).
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Mat_7:6. Give not, etc.—The connection between this verse and the preceding section is not quite obvious. It seems to be this—although evil and censorious judgment is to be avoided, discrimination is needful. The Christian must be judicious, not judicial (Carr). Dogs.—Among the Jews dogs were unclean, and, as a rule, fierce and undomesticated. They are the self-appointed scavengers of the streets; and while engaged in their scavenging operations, or while lying basking in the sun, touch-me-not is the outstanding feature of their character (Morison). Swine.—The reference is to wild swine; for the animal was undomesticated among the Jews (ibid.).
Mat_7:12. Therefore.—The practical result of what has been said both in regard to judgment and to prayer is mutual charity. The thought of the Divine judgment teaches forbearance; the thought of the Divine goodness teaches kindness (Carr).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_7:1-12
True brotherhood.—That duty towards our neighbour which is dealt with as far back as Mat_5:38-48, is again discussed here; but from a somewhat different side. There we had the general principle, that all men should be loved. Here we have a word of caution as to the exercise of that love. Not everything that seems desirable is to be attempted in that line. Not every way of attempting it is pleasing to God.
I. Not everything to be done.—This is true, on the one hand, on the score of faithfulness and plain speaking. As a general rule this is binding on us in regard to our neighbour. Even the old law recognised this (Lev_19:17). If we can in any way help it, it is not being neighbourly to let our brother ruin himself. But there are cases in which to attempt to prevent this would not be profitable to him; and in which, therefore, such an attempt is not incumbent on us. One such case is where our doing so would have the appearance of sitting in “judgment” upon him (Mat_7:1). That would have the very effect we desire to avoid. Instead of leading him to see his own sin and consequent danger, it would rather set him on looking for ours. He would “judge” us, in fact (Mat_7:1-2), instead of judging himself; and would rather, so, be encouraged by us, than discouraged, in sin. Not to say, also, that this very anxiety of ours to be “judging” him would show our incapacity for the task. To be so very keen about our brother’s fault is to be ignorant of our own. To make so much of his “mote” is to make too little—at least an equal sin—of our “beam” (Mat_7:3). Unless, therefore, you would make a double muddle of all in this matter, begin with thyself (Mat_7:4-5). Rectifying thyself is sometimes the only way—it is always the best way—of effectually rectifying thy neighbour. The same caution applies, next, in the way of kindness and love. Here also the general rule is abundantly plain. Why is that which is “holy” entrusted to us? That we may make it known in our turn (1Pe_4:10; Mat_5:16; Mat_10:8). Why are the precious “pearls” of truth placed in our hand? That we may give them—that we may “fling” (?) them—to others in turn. But there are marked exceptions, as there were before, to this general rule. There are those who, like “dogs,” do what you will, always “return” to their filth (2Pe_2:22). It is only to profane what is “holy” to offer it here. There are others, like swine, who show by their actions, by their wallowing in the mire, that they cannot appreciate what is precious. No abundance of it, therefore, can be otherwise than offensive to them. Thus to waste our love, therefore—thus to do harm by it—is not incumbent on us. Rather, in fact, it is forbidden to us by the very nature of love.
II. Not every way to be followed.—Not every way, on the one hand, when we do feel that we ought to caution and warn. This on account of our relation to God. Do we not know, on our part, what God is to us? Always ready to listen and grant? (Mat_7:7-8). More ready by far to do so, in His perfection, than we are, in our imperfection, even to those we love the best? (Mat_7:9-11). Let us seek, therefore, on our part, so to be in our turn. Not warning men, like Elijah once, in impatience, as though altogether beyond hope (1Ki_19:10). Nor yet like Jonah (Mat_4:1, etc.), in anger, as though those he preached to were, in any case, too bad to be spared. For the worst we deal with are, after all, only “dogs” and “swine” in a figure. In God’s sight they are men like ourselves (cf. Act_14:15; Jas_5:17). God, in past days, has often enlightened and converted men as brutal and as stubborn as any before us. Let Him, therefore, in this matter, be both our example and motive. In reasoning with others, let us be as full of hope and as full of love as Himself. That is to be like Him—that is to please Him as well. Also, next, when we refrain from speaking, let it be with discrimination and sympathy. Our relation to men shows this to be the only right way of so doing. Before we do thus refrain, let us be quite sure that we have sufficient ground for so doing. And, to be sure of this, let us try to put ourselves in our brother man’s case. This is the old rule about doing our duty towards our neighbour (Mat_22:39-40). This is Christ’s rule as well (Mat_7:22). No better rule can be found. No juster one. It carries its equity on its face. No handier one. It is always within reach. No simpler one. Anyone can apply it. Let it be applied then in this case as well as in others. Never refrain from speaking where such refraining—supposing you and your brother to have exchanged places—would seem a hardship to you. Stand where he stands, in short, and then do as you would have him do in that case.
Here, again, we see as before:—
1. How admirable is the wisdom of Christ.—Who else ever thought of such cautions as these? In what other teaching than His could the necessity for them arise? And who else could have seen such protection against the dangers involved in that simple rule which had been taught and studied for so many centuries past?
2. How admirable is the mercy of God.—Even this searching wisdom cannot see any blemish in it. If only man were to man what God is to man, much of the sin of the world would be gone. Also some of the worst of its griefs. So Christ teaches us here.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_7:1-6. Cautions against rash judgments.—
I. The caution given.—“Judge not.” The whole meaning of the passage depends on the meaning of the first word—“Judge” (κρίνετε), which has various renderings. Sometimes it means,
(1) to condemn (Joh_3:17);
(2) to pronounce guilty (Rom_2:1-3; Rom_14:22);
(3) to proceed against, accuse, arraign (Joh_12:48; Act_23:6; Act_24:21);
(4) to pass sentence of condemnation (Joh_7:51);
(5) but there is another meaning which doubtless is the meaning in the text—to express an unfavourable opinion of person or persons—censoriousness. Our Saviour does not forbid a righteous judgment. The judicial element is in our very nature and we cannot avoid it. Judges, preachers, teachers, parents, etc., must condemn the wrong and publicly censure it. But the great Teacher cautions earnestly against judging with a censorious or unkindly spirit—the spirit of animosity and illiberality and uncharitableness.
II. The reasons adduced.
1. It provokes retaliation.—That is, all such rash judgments will meet with due retribution (Mat_7:2). We can never escape this law of reciprocity. A man receives back what he gives. Haman was hanged on his own gallows. Ishmael’s hands were against everybody’s, and every man’s hand against him. “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it.” Every act has its consequences. This retributive principle is:
(1) In kind. Kindness begets kindness; but censoriousness begets censoriousness.
(2) In quantity. Nature gives back in proportion as we give; society gives back as we give to it.
2. It condemns ourselves (Mat_7:3).—Is not the disposition to be severe and censorious on others indicative of greater evil in ourselves? What a severe judgment David pronounced upon the man described by Nathan! But who was the man? “Thou art the man.” The Pharisee’s judgment on the publican was very severe; but who was he that went his way home justified?
III. The duty enjoined.—“Give not that which is holy,” etc. Though we are cautioned against rash and censorious judgment, yet we are urged in the passage to discriminate between what is good and evil. The lesson is one of discretion in dealing with certain classes of people—as to admission to the sacred privileges and functions of the church, and as to the reality of their Christian profession and the sincerity of their spiritual experience. Notice:—
1. The prudence required in church government.
2. The proper reserve or safeguard in the kingdom of God.—Do not admit the “dogs” and “swine” to your spiritual communion, for you will only infuriate them. The dogs will bark and snarl at everything holy and sacred, and the “swine” will only indulge in sensuality. “Dogs” and “swine” admitted into the church do more harm by far than out-and-out infidels.—J. Harries.
A twofold warning.—I. Against making too much of the evil we see, or think we see, in others (Mat_7:1-5).
II. Against making too little of it (Mat_7:6).—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
Mat_7:1. Rash judging condemned.—
I. Consider this prohibition in its relation to the scribes and Pharisees.—
1. They had a great deal of pride and self-conceit, as if it belonged to them to be dictators to all others (Luk_18:11).
2. They had in their minds a great contempt of, and a great uncharitableness towards, all other persons that were not of their own sect and party (Luk_18:9).
3. Agreeably to this inward disposition of their minds, they were very censorious of others; making faults where there were none, and aggravating them where they were.
4. When they had made this rash judgment in their own minds, they did not content themselves to contemplate it there, but took all opportunities to vent it in their words and actions; carrying themselves haughtily and superciliously to others (Isa_65:5).
5. In all companies they were the dictators, the reprovers, and monitors. It was a crime for a man to see with his own eyes and not with theirs.
6. In admonishing and reproving their neighbour, their aim was not so much his edification and amendment of life, as the gaining him over to their party; or if they could not compass that, the running him down, and exposing him.
II. The true meaning of the prohibition.—
1. Note some lawful practices which might seem to fall under this prohibition.
(1) We are not to understand that the office of judges or magistrates was intended to be prohibited by these words. Our Saviour was now preaching to a multitude of private persons, showing them their duty.
(2) Nor is the authority of any other superiors over their inferiors designed to be taken away or encroached upon. Parents may, and ought to, administer admonition to their children; masters and mistresses, and overseers, may, by authority, judge of their servants, etc.
(3) Nor is it designed that any man should not use a judgment of discretion as far as relates to the conduct of himself and his affairs (1Jn_4:1; 2Th_3:6).
(4) Far less are they guilty of the breach of this rule, who, in the execution of their office, do in ever so severe terms, exclaim against vice in general (2Ti_4:1; Tit_2:15).
(5) Nor are they guilty of the breach of this rule, who, with a spirit of meekness, and from a principle of charity, and with a design to reform, and not to expose, perform the duty of admonishing and rebuking the offending brother (Lev_19:17; Luk_17:3).
2. The evil forbidden is censoriousness, i.e. a love to find fault; and this has commonly some bitter root of vice from which it proceeds; such as pride and vanity, malice and envy, resentment and revenge, cruelty, or delighting in mischief, though often it flows from mere custom and thoughtlessness.
(1) In this censorious spirit there is always a secret joy and gladness to find fault; whereas in a good man there is always the quite contrary temper.
(2) The censorious man is forward to judge without any obligation from his office; perhaps without any clearness of evidences, upon some idle stories, or bare suspicions, surmises, and suggestions; whereas a charitable man is very unwillingly drawn into any such employ.
(3) He has a strong bias and inclination to find his neighbour guilty; accepts of very slender proof of anything that tends to his defamation, sometimes makes up what is wanting in fact, with his own malicious suggestions and fruitful invention.
(4) He usurps the ascendant in all companies.
(5) He allows himself an uncharitable sharpness in censuring other men’s faults; never reflecting on the frailty of human nature in general, nor his own errors and follies in particular.
(6) He is not contented to judge and condemn the evil actions of his neighbour; but commonly adds some aggravating remarks and aggravations of his own, with an intent to show with what an evil spirit and intention he did them. He enters upon God’s prerogative, and judges of his neighbour’s heart and thoughts.
(7) Another character of this judging, censorious temper is that the person in whom it resides never keeps it to himself; he is impatient till he sets it abroad.
(8) He endeavours to fix the crime of every single person upon his whole party, and to load any opinion which he has a mind to blacken with all the evil consequences that can be drawn from the errors and follies of any of those that maintain it.
(9) This spirit of rash and censorious judgment is near akin to schism in the church, sedition in the state, and a downright spirit of persecution.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
On judging.—If there be one thing more injurious to the harmonies and the best charm of life than another it is the habit of judging. The world is full of unjust judgments. Where is the mischief? What matter?
I. If we have any attachment to the gospel of Jesus Christ it ought to matter on this ground—that without any sufficient cause we think less kindly of a fellow-mortal.—It must be allowed, of course, that of many we are bound to think severely; though that in itself is a calamity, and by every follower of Jesus should be felt to be such. But in this case there is no certain or sufficient need. “Where’s the harm?” There’s the harm. Two children of the common Father, two travellers on the common road, two human beings, the pathos of whose life should of itself create a common regard, are unbrothered by an unnecessary and an unjust judgment. This is a habit quickly formed. You will find men, comparatively young, who can hardly indulge in any language but that of depreciation.
II. A soul of this species looks uncommonly lost.—To see meanness everywhere; to suspect and asperse everything; to detract from and to depreciate; to have no great enthusiasms, no great reverences, no admiration, no spontaneous and whole-hearted approval—the soul of a weasel is a better and larger thing than that.
III. Even if we were commanded to judge, we cannot judge.—What, beyond broadest facts, do I know of your life, or you of mine?
IV. There is something so private, so sacredly private, about every life, that this kind of thing should be felt as both irreverent and impertinent.—I am no more at liberty to pass gratuitous judgments upon another, I have no more personal right to enter those chambers, than I have to enter another man’s house.
V. Our hands are not clean enough for this kind of work.—There is a fine touch of humour in the Saviour’s saying here. A fellow with a joist—a huge rafter—in his eye, so anxious—so benevolently anxious—to extract a tiny particle of floating dust from the eye of another! It is ridiculous. It is sad too.—Jas. Thew.
Unseen Virtues.—To give an instance which the preacher knows to be an actual fact: A merchant of his acquaintance was thought to be very selfish with his money. He was known to be very rich, and lived something like a rich man; yet when asked for subscriptions he gave always a small sum—he gave £5 when his neighbours thought he ought to give £
20. He was, therefore, very selfish and miserly, and bore a nickname in consequence. Everybody was looking at this mote which seemed like a beam. This went on for years, and he was generally disliked. One of his neighbours, who respected him on all other points, was determined to bottom the matter. He learned with difficulty, and after careful inquiry, that during all these years this much-abused man was supporting handsomely a large family of poor relatives. He educated them well, and put them out in life with no niggard hand. They lived in another place; no one, not even his intimate friends, knew; he never spoke of it; but he did it for years. The same inquirer found, too, that if a real case of benevolence were put before this rich man, and he were told reasonably what he ought to give, the rich man often gave it. So here was a man whom all men were abusing, because they did not know enough about him.—R. W. Hiley, D.D.
Mat_7:1-2. Charity in thought and speech.—The meaning of our Lord becomes clear enough when we turn to St. Luke’s words, and find that our Lord there adds, as if to guard against misapprehension, “Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.” We cannot help criticising the conduct of others, but we can guard against the cruel, censorious temper which pronounces off-hand upon the misdoings of a neighbour. What are the reasons urged in the gospel for the suppression of this temper?
I. There is the motive given us in the text: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” “Condemn not, that ye be not condemned.” It is a thought, which ought to give us pause as we scatter our reckless verdicts on the doings of our fellow-men, that not only will God bring all that we ourselves do into judgment, but He makes us the authors of the very standard by which He is trying us now and will try us hereafter.
II. The second reason is to be found in those words which appear to have been so often on the lips of our Lord, and to have been, indeed, a constant refrain of His teaching, “many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”—It has been well said of those words that they must be meant to infuse a wholesome element of scepticism or diffidence into our present estimates of human character and conduct. St. Paul says: “Judge nothing before the time.” That does not mean that we are to suspend our critical faculty, to form no opinions about anything or anybody; but he warns us that all our judgments are provisional as well as fallible, and they proceed upon imperfect data. They are arrived at by observers blinded more or less by partiality or prejudice. The great tribunal before which we must all stand may reverse them.
III. I pass to a third reason for merciful treatment of our neighbours. It is that which follows the text as a searching argumentum ad hominem, applicable to us all.—“Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye,” &c. It is very certain that growth in self-knowledge is the best of all cures for self-confidence, and it is only the self-confident, the self-satisfied, who care to judge their neighbours most harshly. That man is most merciful to his neighbour who is least merciful to himself.
IV. According to St. Luke, our Lord prefaced His warning against censorious judgments by the precept: “Be ye, therefore, merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” This is, after all, the great motive for forbearance, as this is also its great reward—likeness to God.—Canon Duckworth.
Mat_7:2. The give and take of life.—Christ says, in effect, that what you take to life determines what you get from it. What you see in the universe will be the reflection of your own nature. Apply the text:—
I. To the young while under the discipline and processes of their education.—Nay, to intellectual culture generally, whether in young or old. Bring evil habits, sloth, negligence, &c., instead of diligence, patience, the desire to know the truth and to accomplish your work, and what will be the result? You brought not the key of industry. Consequently the door will not open, and you carry away no spoil.
II. To the national and social life of the people.—e.g. Let the well-to-do and the educated keep all their good things to themselves, measuring out to the poor only neglect, and insolence. What will be the result? Illustration, French Revolution.
III. To our relations with the kingdom of God.—Whether the believer is going to have a life full of spiritual triumph and satisfaction, or one only meagre and barren, depends on the measure you mete out towards God and the spiritual world.—J. Brierley, B.A.
The cynical critic.—If he chooses to fight with a tomahawk, he will be scalped some day, and the bystanders will not lament profusely.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat_7:3-5. The chip and the beam.—The case has only to be stated in order to carry the inference that he who has the large obstruction in his eye should first get rid of it, so that he may be fit to operate on his brother’s eye. In other words, a man should have his own errors and faults corrected in order that he may be able, first, to see clearly, and then, to correct firmly and wisely, the errors and faults of others.
I. It is a delicate operation to correct the faults of other men.—It may be likened to the feat of taking a chip of wood, a hair, or an insect’s wing out of an inflamed eye. A clumsy operator may easily make things worse. So may a clumsy or unkind censor offend his brother, and do no good, but rather harm. All the greater is the delicacy if one undertakes the task as a volunteer. Something might be said of the risk that attends all human judgment of the conduct of other men. It is not often that one knows accurately and completely the outward facts, and one never quite knows the temptation resisted or yielded to, and the inward motive, or the commanding and determining one among a group of motives, which influenced the action under review.
II. Self-ignorance and self-conceit incapacitate one for performing this operation.—The case indicated by our Lord is that of one who is insensible of his own faultiness, yet presumes to deal with the faultiness of others; and He addresses such a person by the strong term of disapproval, “hypocrite,” which He often applied to the scribes and Pharisees. Literally, it would be impossible for one who had even a small chip of wood in his eye to be unaware of it. The delicacy of the organ would produce acute annoyance. But, alas! one may so destroy the delicacy of conscience as to go about with a great fault obvious to every one, and yet forget it, and suppose that no one else can see it. It is a false zeal which flies at extraneous evil and spares that which is in our own homes, our own hearts and lives.
III. An honest Christian reserves his strictest judgment for himself.—Self-love will suggest excuses, and even tempt a man to ignore his own faults, or, at all events, to change their names; but a supreme love of righteousness, such as ought to possess the Christian mind, keeps conscience at work, and enjoins self-judgment and self-correction. “Have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity covereth a multitude of sins.” Such was the rule for the early Christians, and it is as much in force as ever.—D. Fraser, D.D.
Mat_7:3. The mote and the beam.—We look at our neighbour’s errors with a microscope, and at our own through the wrong end of a telescope. We have two sets of weights and measures; one for home use and the other for foreign. Every vice has two names, and we call it by the flattering and minimising one when we commit it, and by the ugly one when our neighbour does it. Everybody can see the hump on his friend’s shoulders, but it takes some effort to see our own.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat_7:5. Casting out the mote.—A blind guide is bad enough, but a blind oculist is a still more ridiculous anomaly.—Ibid.
Judging: true and false.—I. The first branch of the contrary duty to rash judgment is to employ our censoriousness first and chiefly upon ourselves: “First cast out the beam out of thine own eye.”
1. The more time we spend at home, the less we have to squander away abroad.
2. The better acquainted we are with our own sin and folly, we shall be so much the more charitable to the errors of others.
3. The better we are acquainted with our own sins, we shall be so much the freer from pride and vanity, which is the great cause of rash judgments.
II. The second branch of it is to look charitably on the actions of our neighbour, and not be too sharp-sighted in spying out his small faults.
III. A third branch is that we perform the friendly office of monitors to our neighbour himself, instead of exposing him to others.
IV. The fourth branch is that in administering our admonitions we use prudence not to throw them away where they will do hurt, but to contrive to give them when our neighbour is in the best temper and disposition to receive them kindly, and to make the best use of them.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_7:6. The dogs and the swine.—It is not an easy thing to be morally and spiritually useful to other men. Christian usefulness requires careful discrimination of what is fitting or unfitting, and a power of reserve as well as a faculty of speech. Our Saviour did not call men by opprobrious names. It would, indeed, be a harsh mode of speaking to stigmatise men as dogs and swine, as vile and stupid animals, but it is quite another thing to introduce such creatures in order to give point to an illustration of what would be unbecoming and unsuitable in the delivery of sacred truth to profane persons. The first case supposed is that of a priest or Levite, who, on leaving the temple, observed one of the ever-hungry dogs that prowled about the city of Jerusalem, but were never admitted within the gates of the sanctuary. Forgetting all considerations of manners and propriety, he returned into the court, took a portion of flesh which had been on the altar of burnt offering, and threw it to the dog. Such an action would violate the Divine law which assigned the flesh of the offerings to the priests, and it would indicate gross disrespect and want of the sense of fitness. The other case supposed is that of a lavish rich man, who for some whim, or intending a practical joke, threw pearls, as if they were seeds, before a herd of swine. The swine in Palestine never were tame creatures, as with us. Though in some parts of the country they were kept in herds, they were by the Jewish law unclean animals, and disallowed as food for man. Accordingly, they were at the most only half-tamed; and the genuine wild boar has always haunted the valley of the Jordan. Now, if one should cast pearls in the way supposed before those animals, they might rush for what seemed to be grain, since they are always voracious, but, quickly discovering the hoax, would trample on the pearls, as pigs commonly put their feet into and upon their food; and, not improbably an enraged boar would rend the foolish man who had played this dangerous game, by a side upward stroke of his tusk, as the manner of such creatures is. Extreme instances are chosen in order to put a much-needed lesson in a strong light. But what is the lesson? It cannot be that Christians are never to press the gospel on an indifferent, unsympathetic, or even hostile audience. In that case it would contradict all those counsels and charges which require a fearless and even an aggressive testimony to the name of Jesus; and it would be at variance with the example of our Lord and His Apostles, who preached the word in the face of angry opposition.—D. Fraser, D.D.
Reverence and discretion.—The positive lesson conveyed in this metaphorical saying of Jesus is one of reverence and discretion. We understand it thus:—
I. As to the preaching of the gospel.—While the preacher is not to evade difficulty or shrink from opposition or personal danger, he is to consult decorum and opportunity so far as not to expose names and things that are sacred, to open and egregious contempt. On this principle one is not to address religious truth to a drunkard in his cups, or to him who sits in the scorner’s chair. Open-air preaching, too, requires very especially to be placed under this rule of Christ. If conducted at fit places and times it is not merely an allowable, but a highly commendable practice; but the question of fitness is of far more importance than inexperienced preachers are aware.
II. As to statements of spiritual experience.—In this matter Christian men are apt to fall into one or other of two opposite extremes. Many pass through life with hardly a word, even to their pastors or their nearest friends, which indicates that they have received any spiritual benefit or have any inward experience of the grace of God. This is the one extreme of unreasonable reticence. On the other hand, a good many talk too much about themselves, and will even volunteer before indiscriminate assemblies an account of their conversion, and of their great peace and joy in believing. This is the opposite, the egotistical extreme. Between these extremes the wise and humble Christian ought to steer his course. He must consider his company and his opportunity.
III. As to the admission to sacred privileges and functions in the church.—The confusion into which Christian society has fallen makes it difficult for the most faithful churches to apply the sound principle of the separation of the holy from the unclean. Churches that have lost or surrendered the power of self-discipline enfeeble discipline in other churches also. But none the less does it remain a sacred duty to warn from the Lord’s table the carnally minded and such as do not discern the Lord’s body, and never knowingly to admit to church privilege or office any who are of impure or intemperate habits.—Ibid.
Perverted judgments.—I think it would not be untrue to say that on the right interpretation of this verse hangs our true understanding of the whole of the chapter. And yet I venture to think that the ordinary signification attached to the words will not satisfy any of us if we reflect. Take this thing judgment, what is behind it? Prejudice! Yes, and a hundred other things. It is not only prejudice which is like the beam in the eye, but also jealousy, and envy, and our own indolence. What Christ warns us against are the dogs within ourselves. He says, “You have capacity, but take care that that capacity is under righteous rule, take care it does not fall into the power of the dogs, the passions within you, which will trample that very faculty under their feet, for if it does so you imperil yourself.” There are two powers of judgment we may exercise in the world, or rather, for the purpose of illustration, we may select two.
I. There are our intellectual judgments.—Is it not a fact that all those who have reflected upon the operations of the human mind, and the evidences of that operation in the world, have reminded us that we are very seldom able to exercise judgment under the influence of what they call the true light of reason? There is a bias, a bias belonging to every race and class in the community; every profession has its bias, and you find it a most difficult thing—and this is the reason very often for the perpetuation of abuses—for the class to dissociate itself from its bias, which makes it judge the thing, not on its merits, but always upon the prevailing, predominating bias of that class. Just in the same way there is the bias of home and family. In our life, Christ says, ever coming to impair the calm, intellectual judgment of our nature, there lurk these evil passions which tend to pervert, and destroy perhaps, the noble gift which God has given us.
II. If you turn to moral judgments, I think the case becomes clearer. There is nothing in the world which is more open to the power of the wild beast within us than your moral judgment. Your conscience is just as capable of falling into bad hands as your reason is, and when the conscience falls into bad hands it is worse with you than when the reason does! The very justification of all the barbarities of the past has been the conscientiousness of the men who have done them. Thomas Lynch says, “We all of us need a conscience in order to keep a conscience.” Catch the spirit of Christ! I said that my text was the pivot of the whole chapter. So it is.—Bishop W. B. Carpenter.
Zeal and prudence.—It is bad to hide the treasure in a napkin; it is quite as bad to fling it down without preparation before some people. Jesus Himself locked His lips before Herod, although the curious ruler asked many questions; and we have sometimes to remember that there are people who “will not hear the word,” and who must first “be won without the word.” Heavy rains run off hard-baked earth. It must be softened by a gentle drizzle. Luther once told this fable: “The lion made a great feast, and he invited all the beasts, and among the rest a sow. When all manner of costly dishes were set before the guests, the sow asked, ‘Have you no bran?’ Even so,” said he, “we preachers set forth the most dainty dishes—the forgiveness of sins and the grace of God; but they turn up their snouts, and grub for guilders.” This precept is one side of the truth. The other is the adaptation of the gospel to all men, and the obligation on us to preach it to all. We can only tell most men’s disposition towards it by offering it to them, and we are not to be in a hurry to conclude that men are dogs and swine.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat_7:7-8. Importunity in prayer.—
I. The duty of fervent prayer.—“Ask;” “seek;” “knock.”
1. The occasion of pressing the duty in this place.—Our Saviour had been recommending a great many difficult duties to His disciples. It was very natural for Him to think they would be mightily discouraged, considering how disproportioned their strength was to so difficult a task. Therefore it was necessary to put them in a way whereby they might be enabled to perform it. And herein especially consists the advantage of the Christian morals, beyond the morals of the heathen. They had all the great tasks of duty to undergo, only by their own strength, care, and endeavours, which was a very discouraging, comfortless business; but we Christians are taught where there is supply enough of grace to be had.
2. The nature and exercises of the duty.—It is an intent application of the mind to God, and comprehends the whole commerce which our souls have with Him, whether to pay our homage and adorations to Him, or to thank Him for all His mercies and favours, or to address Him for any mercies and favours to ourselves or others. But that part of it which is chiefly aimed at in this place is the begging of grace, whereby we may be enabled and assisted to discharge the great duties which He requires of us. Consider:
(1) The necessity of grace to enable us to do our duty.
(2) The fitness of prayer towards the obtaining of grace. (a) Grace is a treasure in the hands of God Himself. It is not like silver or gold, to be dug with hard labour out of the bowels of the earth. (b) The right dispositions for the reception of grace are all included in prayer. (c) God is more ready to grant than we are to desire.
3. The circumstance of instancy or frequency.—Taught us in the triple repetition of the precept, ask, seek, knock.
(1) It is not enough that we pray for a good thing once; but we must insist and renew our petitions often, for the words do each of them imply a further degree of industry and diligence. The easiest way of obtaining a thing is to have it for asking. Then the word “seek” implies a further degree of diligence, as when a thing is out of place, and we cannot have it for calling for, then we are at the pains to search and look for it. But the word “knock” signifies a yet greater degree of patience and perseverance in our suit. For it supposes that there may be several difficulties in the way, and that the passage may be shut up, yet that we should patiently wait, and drive on our suit with greater importunity.
(2) Asking, seeking, and knocking imply that we ought not to be discouraged with the difficulties we meet with, either in putting up our prayers to God, or in not receiving quickly a due return of them; but that we should strive to conquer and overcome all difficulties, and be incessant in our prayers to God.
(3) Asking, seeking, and knocking imply a careful watching and embracing the favourable opportunities of devotion, whether these arise from external providences or internal favourable dispositions.
(4) The words ask, seek, and knock import a great assiduity in devotion.
(5) Also that we use our utmost endeavours to obtain what we pray for.
II. Encouragements to this duty, taken from the promises and nature of God.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Prayer.—I. The qualifications of the persons that pray.
1. Faith.—
(1) They must believe in God’s being, ability, and goodwill.
(2) In the mediation and intercession of Jesus Christ.
(3) That God for Christ’s sake will hear and grant their prayers.
(4) That the good things needed cannot be obtained without prayer.
2. Practice.—
(1) There must be a care and endeavour to comply with all God’s commandments (1Jn_3:22; Pro_28:9; Pro_15:8).
(2) If conscious of having committed sin, we must repent of it (Psa_66:18; Isa_1:15).
(3) We must set about our prayers with our hearts free from malice, and full of charity to all men (Mat_5:23, etc.; Mar_11:25).
(4) There must be no bad design in any petition (Jas_4:3).
II. The matter of our prayers.—
1. The expression. “Every one that asketh receiveth” must be understood only with relation to good things (Mat_7:11).
2. The promise is limited to such things as are good for us that ask them. For it is possible there may be gifts good in themselves and yet not proper for us in our particular circumstances.
III. The manner of our praying.—
1. Fervent and hearty.
2. With patience and constancy.
3. With humility and submission.
4. With gratitude for former mercies.
5. With vigilance and the diligent use of other lawful means appointed by God.
IV. The grant of our prayers.—God performs this promise, not only when He grants the very thing we pray for, but in other cases when we are not so sensible of it (2Co_12:7).—Ibid.
The efficacy of prayer.—Jesus Christ did not mean that His followers may have whatever they like. The way to spoil a child is to give it all it asks, and He does not mean to spoil us. Therefore He must thwart our wishes till they run parallel with His will, and are fixed on higher good than earth holds. So, of course, this promise is true only in the spiritual realm, or in regard to the development of the Christian character. We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that Christian people generally have such scanty portions of the free riches of God?—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat_7:7. How to pray.—
1. Be short.—Jesus, by word and example, inculcated this. Persons who sought His aid offered short petitions. Peter in the water, the publican in the temple, and the thief on the cross made short prayers.
II. Be specific.—Prayer that is indefinite does not avail. “My son,” “my daughter,” “my servant,” “my sight”—that is the form of request: and the accompanying charge is, “Bring him to Me.”
III. Be importunate.—The midnight prayer, “Friend, lend me three loaves,” was short, specific, and importunate. And it was answered, not for friendship’s sake, but because of importunity.
IV. Pray with a forgiving spirit.—“When ye stand praying, forgive.” I once attended an ecclesiastical convention, and was entertained in a refined, Christian household. A young lady in the family in a conversation remarked, “I never offer the Lord’s prayer.” On my expressing surprise, she added, “I don’t dare to; I don’t dare pray, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors’; I am so afraid that I have not a forgiving spirit that I dare not ask God to forgive me as I forgive others.” I asked, “What do you pray?” She replied, “I say, ‘as we ought to forgive others.’ ”
V. We must do what we can to answer our own prayers.—A little boy heard his father pray that God would feed the poor; and when the prayer was over, he said, “Father, if you will give me the key to the granary door, I will answer your prayer myself.” Frederick Douglass tells that when he was a slave he prayed seven years for liberty, but received no answer; at length it occurred to him that he must answer his own prayer; and when, with his eye fixed on the north star, he prayed with his legs, his prayer was answered. If we pray for the conversion of a child, a scholar, or a friend, we must speak to that person and do what we can to bring him to Christ.
VI. We must expect that our prayers will be answered. (Heb_11:6; Mat_9:29).—L. H. Read, D.D.
Prayer a key.—“Knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
I. Prayer opens to us the door to the knowledge of God.
II. It opens to us the knowledge of ourselves.—“Now mine eye seeth Thee,” etc.
III. It opens to the soul the glory of the natural world (Psa_92:4-6).
IV. It opens to us the clearest and most glorious knowledge of heaven.—The Study.
Asking.—Emerson tells how he arranged his first sermon in these divisions:
1. Men are always praying.
2. All their prayers are granted.
3. We must beware, then, what we ask. He had got the theme from the blunt saying of a field labourer, that men are always praying, and all their prayers are heard.—W. M. Macgregor, M.A.
Mat_7:9-11. God’s love to us and our duty to Him.—
I. God’s readiness to give good things to His creatures.
1. His goodness to those who pray to Him, is really beyond anything we have to explain it by.—We know nothing in nature of a more sincere and steady love than that of parents to their children, yet it is much allayed and abated by other bad qualities.
2. The promise and encouragement of the text are limited to good things.
3. The promise is not restrained to the elect but extended to all that pray.
II. God loves to be asked and waited upon for good things. Three plain reasons for this:—
1. God’s honour.—Suppose a prince ever so merciful, would it be consistent with his honour to pardon his rebellious subjects if they refused so much as to beg pardon, or to petition for any favour?
2. The good of the persons themselves.
3. The right government of the world.
III. What duties are incumbent upon us, from the knowledge and belief of this paternal affection in God, toward His poor creatures. The loving Him out of gratitude, with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; manifested in
(1) faith;
(2) obedience;
(3) hope;
(4) filial reverential fear;
(5) trust;
(6) patience;
(7) disposition to honour Him;
(8) humility.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_7:12. The golden rule in the kingdom.—This is the golden rule—the Christian’s law of reciprocity, which will serve as a rule of conduct for all the life. Legitimately applied, it would serve all social life, family life, commercial life, political life, church life, and national life. To obey it out and out would soon bring the golden age.
I. The characteristics of this golden rule.
1. Its principle.—The principle here stated by our Lord is the second great commandment—“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Place thyself in thought, in the condition or the circumstances of thy neighbour, and judge accordingly.
2. It is fundamental.—It underlies all public and private justice, government, society, education, and religion.
3. It is reasonable.—Have not others the same rights as ourselves, be their condition or position what it may? It is universal for all classes—for employers and employed; for all lands and times.
4. It is equitable.—The equity of this law is clearly seen if we consider its grounds.
(1) The equality of all men by nature.
(2) The possible equality of all men as to condition and state of life.
(3) Wherein we may be unequal, the inequality is not such as to be the ground of unequal dealing with one another; for we ought to treat our neighbour as we would expect to be treated by him in the same circumstances.
(4) Wherein men may be unequal, the inequality is not fixed. They may rise; others may fall.
(5) Consequently, the great advantage and blessing of such a rule. It teaches that with us, as with God, there is no respect of persons. The law is mutual and universal, and if acted upon would bring social salvation.
5. It is portable.—It is not only easy to be remembered, but it is the handiest, readiest, and best of all moral maxims. “It is the ‘two-foot rule’ which the skilful artisan always carries with him ready to take the measurement of any work to which he is called.”
6. It is evangelical.—It is more than a moral maxim, it is an evangelical principle; for it teaches us that in order to be able to act it thoroughly, truly, and sincerely, we need the grace of God in a large degree. “The Emperor Alexander Severus was so charmed by the excellence of this rule that he obliged a crier to repeat it whenever he had occasion to punish any person, and caused it to be inscribed in the most noted parts of his palace, and on many of the public buildings. He also professed so high a regard for Christ, as having been the author of so excellent a rule, that he desired to have Him enrolled among the deities.”
II. The argument adduced for the enforcement of this rule.
1. “For this is the law and the prophets.”
2. The authority which enjoins obedience to it.—The authority of Christ.
3. The example of Christ also enforces it.—J. Harries.
The sum of our duty to our neighbour.—
I. The dependence of this rule on the foregoing doctrine.—“Therefore.”
1. By way of imitation of God in His goodness.
2. By way of gratitude to God for His goodness.
3. From His relation of a loving Father to us, which makes us all brethren.
II. The rule itself.—
1. It must be limited to the point of duty, and not extended to foolish and unreasonable desires.
2. It was not our Saviour’s design to set all men on a level, taking away all distinction between princes and subjects, masters and servants, parents and children, etc.
3. The rule we are to go by in our dealings with our neighbour is not what he doth by us, but what we should think his duty to do by us, in such and such circumstances.
4. It takes in all duty, and we should ask what we should think to be our duty if our neighbour were in our place and we in his.
III. Our Saviour’s honourable character of this rule.—“This is the law and the prophets.” Consider:—
1. The comprehensiveness of this rule.—It is a complete sum of all the rules set down in the Holy Scriptures concerning our duty to our neighbour; and it is likewise in the nature of a good casuist to decide all the particular cases and doubts which rise from those rules.
2. The brevity of this rule.—It helps both the understanding and the memory.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
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.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain Matthew 5-7, and Luk 6:20-49. A few days ago…
CHAPTER 16
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
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Matthew 5-7, and Luk 6:20-49. A few days ago it was my privilege to spend two beautiful bright days at the sea of Galilee, sailing over it, and visiting the places of historic note. Our dragoman escorted us up Mt. Hattin, which hangs over the city of Tiberias on the west coast, and said to us, “This is the Mount of Beatitudes.” I correct this mistake, lest you fall into it. While perhaps all the guides through that country would corroborate our dragoman, the Word of the Lord is the end of all controversy. Mt. Hattin, so celebrated as the battlefield on which the Christian Crusaders suffered their last and final defeat by Saladin, the Mohammedan general, A.D. 1189, after which the Cross retreated from the Holy Land, the Crescent superseding even till this day, is twenty miles from Capernaum overland, and ten by sea. Hence this can not be the Mount of Beatitudes, as we see (Matthew 8 and Luke 7) that when our Lord concluded this sermon, and they descended from the mount, they were at the city of Capernaum, which is on the north coast. From these Scriptures, we see very clearly that the great mountain, rising in his majesty, immediately back of Capernaum, is really and unmistakably the Mount of Beatitudes. This conclusion satisfies the Scripture at all points — i.e., the location of the mountain; the plateau, about midway from the summit down to the sea, where Jesus descended with his apostles; and the city of Capernaum, down on the plain, hard by the sea.
“Seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain, and having sat down, His disciples came to Him.” Our Lord, having already this morning done a mighty work of bodily healing and soul saving, retires from the multitude, leaving them on that “level place” — i.e., plateau, on the southern slope of the Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum and the sea of Galilee being down at the base — retires back into the mountain, where He had spent the preceding night in prayer, organizing the Apostolate about sunrise. Though at the beginning only His disciples came to Him, the multitudes doubtless follow on.
“Opening His mouth, He continued to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” Luke: “Lifting up His eyes toward His disciples, He said, Blessed are ye poor, because yours is the kingdom of God.” Here, as uniformly in the Scriptures, “heaven” (E.V.) is “heavens” in the Greek, corroborating the astronomical revelation of many worlds constituting the celestial universe. “Kingdom of heaven” and “kingdom of God” are everywhere precisely synonymous — here, Matthew giving the former, and Luke the latter; simply meaning the Divine government, including all the saints and angels in glory, and the holy people under the reign of grace on the earth. Spiritual poverty stands at the head of these seven wonderful, spiritual Beatitudes, corroborating the uniform teaching of God’s Word, setting forth humility as the fundamental and primary grace of the Holy Spirit, without which every other is defective and evanescent. Conviction, superinduced by the straight preaching of the awful Sinai gospel is prerequisite in every substantial work of grace. John Fletcher was once interrogated, “What is the most important Christian grace?” He answered, “Humility.” “What is the next?” His response was, “Humility.” To the third inquiry he gave the same answer. When John Wesley preached the funeral sermon of that good man, he said: “The most saintly man I ever saw lies in that coffin, and I never expect to see another such till I go to glory.” Perfect humility is the corner-stone of all Christian perfection.
“Blessed are they that mourn, because they shall be comforted.” When the Holy Spirit transmits His wonderful light into the deep interior of the sinner’s heart, revealing to him his absolute destitution and hopeless bankruptcy, he is inundated with a Bochim of weeping, refusing to eat or sleep; but crying to God out of a broken heart, mourning night and day, despite all efforts to comfort him, till Jesus sends into his troubled breast the infallible Comforter. Hence, you see the logical connection of these two Beatitudes — “poverty of the spirit” preparing the way for the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
“Blessed are the meek, because they shall inherit the earth.” Meekness is a strong, clear case of humility, bringing us down low at the feet of Jesus, there to abide in the bottom of the valley of humiliation, from which we can never fall, as we are already on the bottom, and no place into which to fall. The meek here signifies the genuine humble saints of God in all ages and nations, in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought the glorious work of pride’s extermination. Here our Savior flashes out a glorious anticipation of the Millennial Theocracy, when the humble saints of God, who have lived and died in poverty, many of them sealing their faith with their blood, shall be promoted to the thrones and principalities, and, as the subordinates of the glorified Christ, rule the world. We are very sure that the Lord’s meek and holy people have not yet inherited this earth. With very little exception, it is in the hands of Satan’s people. The Word of the Lord can not fail. I am living in constant anticipation of the trumpet call, responsive to which the saints, living and dead, will fly up to meet the Lord in the air. (1Th 4:13-18.)
“Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, because they shall be filled.” Here we have another beautiful couplet of these Beatitudes; meekness, which is perfect humility, puts us in position to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Are you hungry? Do you not hear the invitation ringing? Your chair is vacant at the table of the Lord, which is groaning beneath the very bounty of heaven, the blessed Master sitting at the head, and saying to all, “Help yourselves,” while the angels are all around you, with smiling solicitations to partake of this and that, and everything sweet, delicious, and nutritious; the fatted calf floating in his gravy, bread enough and to spare, milk and honey flowing, delicious grapes of Eshcol, strawberries, cream, and every edible desirable or conceivable, without money and without price. Are you thirsty? The crystal river of life is flowing at your feet, and Jesus is ready to turn the water into wine.
It is your privilege to eat to gluttony and drink to intoxication. I fear the trouble is, that you do not hunger and thirst. Thirty thousand promises in God’s Infallible Word assure you, that heaven is full of salvation, and you have nothing to do but tap the ocean by faith and you will get full. Even now is the auspicious moment for you to eat and drink and be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” The merciful man is merciful to everything that has feeling. His heart leaps over the ocean, and breaks with sympathy for the heathen millions, “sitting in the valley and the shadow of death.” He cries to God to make him a blessing to all his neighbors and friends. O how gushingly and genuinely he loves his enemies! He is full of kindness to the horse, cow, hog, sheep, dog, cat, chicken, and every living creature. He longs to do good to everybody and everything. O how he loves the antiholiness people, who fight him so pugnaciously! He does not feel like leaving his Church, where God needs him to show mercy to the unsaved. If they turn him out, he is still the more flooded with loving sympathy and tender mercy, crying out, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” This blessing takes away all your horns, hoofs, claws, sharp teeth, and leaves you harmless as a wasp whose sting has been extracted. These Beatitudes run in couplets: Spiritual poverty puts you down where you can mourn and be comforted.
Meekness is still a deeper humiliation, preparatory for the filling of the Holy Ghost. From the bottom of a deep well, you can look up and see stars at noonday. If you want to see the deep things of God, close your eyes. The blessing of mercy is still progressive in the sphere of humiliation, and a glorious preparatory school for the happy graduation, which follows in the next Beatitude; i.e., a clean heart.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, because they shall see God.” Our Savior has decreed that none shall see the kingdom unless they are “born from above;” and now we hear the irrevocable decree ringing out, “None but the pure in heart shall see God.” The heart is never pure, so long as it contains any malevolent affection; — i.e., pride, vanity, folly, envy, jealousy, revenge, selfishness, bigotry, sectarianism, anger, malice, ambition, avarice, lust, or any other incentive out of harmony with pure love, the character of Jesus, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and the will of God. The precious blood of Jesus, applied by the Holy Spirit, through humble faith, preceded and accompanied by complete consecration and obedience to God, is the heavenly elixir for the purification of the heart.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, because they shall be called the children of God.” Things are very apt to be called what they are. The Bible was first written in Hebrew, which is a rigidly significant language, every name having a meaning. Consequently, when Adam, before the black darkness of sin fell on his intellect, looked on the animals which God had created and brought to him, he had no trouble to name them all, not haphazardously, but significantly of their character, by the wonderful intuition of his unfallen intellect looking into the very nature of every animal, diagnosing its constitution, recognizing its character, and calling it just what it was. That mutation is still in the world in a modified state, as a rule calling everything by its right name; i.e., what it is. When you receive a clean heart, you, ex-officio, become a peacemaker; i.e., like a ministering angel, you make peace among all the inmates of your house, not only with one another, but with God, thus rendering your home a little heaven. You become a peacemaker in your community, reconciling alienated friends; rising above partisan strife, whether political or ecclesiastical; shedding a benignant, heavenly influence all around. Is there any serious trouble between neighbors or Church members? You run, lest some one may anticipate you, and take the blessing which God has for the peacemaker, and you may miss it. Religious professions which do not illustrate and verify these Beatitudes are all counterfeit and spurious.
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” Such is the importance of the blessing of persecution that our Lord here repeats it in a more elaborate form: “Blessed are ye when they may revile you, and persecute you, and say every evil word against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, because great is your reward in the heavens; for thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Luke gives this blessing so grand and beautiful, we give you the full benefit of his testimony: “Blessed are ye when the people may hate you, and when they may turn you out of the Church, despise and cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of man. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven, for according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the prophets.” The old prophets, like the apostles, suffered a terrible persecution all their lives, many of them sealing their faith with their blood. You wonder why I give you this Scripture from Luke, “Turn you out of the Church.” The word which our Savior used is aphorisosin, and means separate — i.e., separate you from their fellowship; i.e., turn you out of the Church, which was currently customary during all the persecutionary ages, when they burned the heretics, invariably excommunicating them from the Church antecedently to their martyrdom. When they burned Bishops Latimer and Ridley at Smithfield, during the reign of Bloody Mary, the Roman Catholic bishop turned them out of the Church before they took their lives. Much of this excommunication is now going on — a matter of great encouragement to God’s true people, because it is a literal fulfillment of our Savior’s prophecy. What shall we do amid all these persecutions, excommunications, and everything they dare to undertake? as they certainly would expose God’s people to martyrdom now, as in bygone ages, if the civil arm would only enforce ecclesiastical law. Our Savior tells us what we are to do amid all these persecutions, (Luk 6:23), “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward in heaven is great; for according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the prophets.” Hence, you see, it is no time to put on a long face, turn blue, and complain, “O they have done me so much evil, and even turned me out of the Church.” Do you not know that all your murmuring and complaining grieves the Holy Spirit and pleases the devil, and at the same time shows to the world that your place is down low at the altar, where you are to stay until you get a clean heart? Do you not see here that persecution is a blessing, and actually climaxes the preceding six? If you were sanctified wholly, then persecution would be a blessing to you, and you would rejoice in it. The joy of perfect love can not be quenched out by the devil’s cold water. When you get this catalogue of blessings, as you see, culminating in a clean heart, then you will be in fix to obey the Savior, who commands you to rejoice in your persecutions, and leap for joy, even in case that they turn you out of the Church, ignoring you as a heathen or a publican. Rely upon it, this is all true.
These Beatitudes are a glorious and ineffable reality. If you are not sanctified wholly, having a genuine case, in harmony with the Scriptures, wrought by the Holy Ghost, persecution will not be a blessing to you; as it is very likely to upset you, provoke you to commit sin, and bring you under condemnation. While, if you really have a clean heart, filled with the Holy Ghost, you will stand on an eminence, not only above, but out of reach of persecution, so that you will actually get happy, rejoice and leap for joy, amid the persecutions; not that you rejoice over the persecution, but your eye is on that great reward in heaven, the persecution serving as an exceedingly valuable test, throwing wide open the door through which God pours a flood of blessed assurance, which lifts you above all the raging storms and black tornadoes which earth and hell combined can raise against you. Remember, the blackest clouds are white as snow on the upper side, where the sun is shining in his beauty. These seven Beatitudes are the sapphire steps of Jacob’s ladder, by which you climb above every storm, tread the bright plateaus of the Delectable Mountains, where the Sun of righteousness eternally shines in His undimmed glory, and the fadeless flowers of Paradise emit their heavenly fragrance on celestial airs, their fadeless tints and hues flashing in the gorgeous glory of the Sun that never sets.
“Moreover, woe unto you rich people, because you exhaust your consolation;” not, as E.V., “have your consolation,” as in that case it would read echete, whereas we have apechete, which means exhaust. How is this? Why the rich, worldly people have only the consolation of this world, which is fleeting and transitory. Therefore they exhaust their happiness in this life — i.e., use it all up and have none left for eternity.
“Woe unto you who have been filled, because you shall hunger.” Still speaking of these rich, worldly, unsaved people, who have been filled — i.e., satisfied with the bounty of this world, which they must quickly leave, and go away to hunger through all eternity. “Woe unto you who laugh now, because you shall weep and mourn.” It is impossible to live for this world and for heaven at the same time, as they are utterly out of harmony, either with other. Here is the turning-point in human destiny.
We are all brought face to face with the issue: Take this world or heaven.
“Woe unto you when all the people may speak well of you; according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the false prophets.” During an Annual Conference, a petition was brought before the Cabinet, requesting them to send a preacher who would please, not only the Methodists, but other denominations and the outsiders, specifying, “We want a well-rounded man.” The presiding bishop observed, “There is but one round figure, and that is zero, all the rest having sharp corners; so go and tell them I haven’t got the man. But be of good comfort; for they can pick him up anywhere, as there are plenty of them.” It is a significant fact that the climacteric effort is made in pulpit and pew to please everybody, which is inevitably selfcondemnatory, at the same time illustrating their unhappy identity with the false prophets, and confirming the sad conclusion that we live in an age of fallen Churches and false prophets; also warranting the conclusion that the false prophets of the old dispensation were the popular preachers, beloved and applauded by the people, who believed them to be orthodox, genuine, and true, while they persecuted Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and all the glorious prophetical procession from righteous Abel down to the present day.
CHAPTER 20
CRITICISM
Luk 6:37; Mat 7:1. “Criticize not, in order that you may not be criticized; for with whatsoever criticism you criticize, you shall be criticized; and with whatsoever measure ye measure, it shall be measured unto you.” Luke says: “Criticize not, and ye can not be criticized; condemn not, and ye can not be condemned.” Lord, help us to profit by these plain, practical truths and solemn warnings! The critic’s cap, manufactured in hell and dispensed by the devil, is not at all becoming a saint of the Lord. Loke says if you do not criticize others you can not be criticized. Well, it has been said that curses, like chickens, will come home to roost. If you criticize no one, you will find no trouble by the criticism of others; if they undertake it, it will prove a failure, rebounding on their own heads. A critical spirit is incompatible with deep piety, and if indulged will sap the foundation of a Christian experience, and retrogress sweet, perfect love back into sour godliness, which is Satan’s counterfeit holiness. Lord, save us from a critical and condemnatory disposition!
GOOD MEASURE
Luk 6:38. “Forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, heaped up, shaken together, running over, will they give into your bosom. For with the same measure you measure, it shall be measured unto you.” This day in Jerusalem all travelers are astonished at the striking fulfillment of this commandment. Go through the bazaars, and you will see them fill the vessel, shake it down, and run it over. The old Quaker, measuring his wheat and doing just as Jesus commanded, filling, shaking down, and running over, when asked why he gave so bountiful measure, said: “I never can travel this road any more; so I am determined to make everything right as I go along this time.”
BLIND LEADERS
“And He spoke a parable to them, Whether is the blind able to lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?” No wonder our Savior forbade His own apostles to go out preaching the gospel until they had received the sanctifying baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. The departure of the Church from that Divine precept has filled the world with blind leaders. The only available remedy in this case is the sanctification of the ministry and the official members.
OUR SAVIOR’S STEWARD OF PERFECTION
“The disciple is not above his Teacher; but every one who has been made perfect shall be like his Teacher.” Jesus is the only unfallen Son of humanity. Perfection is from facio, “to make,” and per, “complete.” Hence it means “made complete.” Jesus, who was always free from depravity, is our only Paragon. Now, He says that “every disciple who has been made perfect shall be as his Teacher.” When He eliminates original sin out of the heart in the glorious work of entire sanctification, in so doing He makes us perfect, and in that respect like Himself; not that we have the perfection of His Divinity, which is absolute and peculiar to God only, but when we get rid of all sin, we have the perfection of His humanity, with the exception of our infirmities, which are the after-effects of sin, and will inhere so long as we are in these mortal tenements, but which He never had, from the simple fact that He was not a personal participant in the fall.
INFIRMITY & INBRED SIN
“Why do you see the mote which is in the eye of your brother, and recognize not the beam which is in your own eye? Or how are you able to say to your brother, Brother, permit me, I will cast out the mote which is in thine eye, thyself considering not the beam which is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam from thine own eye, and then thou shah see clearly to cast out the mote which is in the eye of thy brother.” Mote here symbolizes infirmity, which does not bring any one under condemnation, just as the mote will never seriously injure the eye, much less put it out; while the beam in the eye, if not removed, would destroy it quickly. Now the beam symbolizes inbred sin, a big thing in the heart which will ruin you, world without end, if you don’t have it taken away; while you can go right on to the end of life with infirmities, as it is the province of glorification, which you receive when soul and body part, to take that all away, and let you fly into heaven with a shout. So we find people all around criticizing little things, which are of no serious moment, and never would keep anybody out of heaven, while they themselves have evil tempers, unholy passions, and worldly greed, and perhaps other phases of inbred sin, pride. vanity, lust, envy, jealousy, prejudice, bigotry, which they must get rid of if they ever pass through the pearly portal.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR AMMUNITION
“Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine; lest they may trample them under their feet, and, turning, tear you to pieces.”
The dog and the hog are prominent in the Bible as unclean animals, symbolic of spiritual impurity; i.e., carnality. This is a profitable warning, much needed, lest in our enthusiasm we preach holiness to carnal people who are utterly incompetent to appreciate it. Therefore it only makes them mad, so they reject us with contempt, and want to do us violence. Much of the Lord’s ammunition is thus wasted on dead game. As hogs can not eat gold coins and diamonds, but will only get mad because we did not give them corn, so carnal people can not receive the pure gold of holiness and the dazzling pearls of Christian perfection. Like hogs and dogs, they run over them with contempt, trampling them in the mud, get angry, blaspheme, and persecute. Then, what should we preach to the carnal, worldly Churches? Preach Sinai. They do not need sanctification, and can not receive it in their present attitude. They need conviction. They must see an open hell before they will give up their pride, fall down in the dust, and cry for mercy. So long as you preach sanctification to them, you recognize their justification, perpetuate their awful delusion, under which they are fast going down to hell. They need the terrors of the law, the doom of the lost, and the duration of eternity held up before them till they get their eyes open, see their awful condition, and cry for mercy.
THE HOLY SPIRIT CLIMAXES ALL BLESSINGS
“Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. What man is there of you whom his son may ask bread, whether would he give him a stone? If he may ask a, fish, whether will he give him a serpent? If then ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in the heavens, give good things to them asking Him?” God never gives us anything useless — e.g., a stone; nor any thing injurious — e.g., a serpent. This explains the reason why so frequently our petitions are not answered. How many pray for riches, which, if granted, would prove a mill-stone round their necks, dragging them down to hell! The child cries for the razor. The father, in love, withholds it, and lets it cry on. Our Savior’s illustration, contrasting us fallen beings with our evil natures, and still so delighted to give good gifts to our children, with the pure and unadulterated parental affection of our loving Heavenly Father, who is certainly infinitely more anxious to bestow on His children all things appertaining to their good in this world and that which is to come. As it is impossible for Him to be unkind, do wrong, or even make a mistake, such should be our perfect confidence in His Fatherly kindness and our unconditioned resignation to His will, that we would offer our petitions and leave the answer with Him, at His own discretion, to answer them at His own time and in His own way. We should be so lost in His will that our perfect rest will not be affected in case that He withholdeth the answer altogether, so far as we know.
THE LAW OF RECIPROCITY
“Therefore all things, so many as you may wish that men may do unto you, do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets.” Here you see that the gospel dispensation, instead of abrogating the law and the prophets, indorses, adopts, and perpetuates them, as a substratum of that universal kingdom which the apostles were commanded to preach to all nations, girdling the globe with salvation and holiness to the Lord, and thus bringing the blessings of the Old Testament Theocracy, which was restricted to the Jews, into every home, blessing every family on the earth with the hallowed truth, glorious light, and heavenly benignity which reigned in the homes of the patriarchs and prophets, thus gathering all nations into one universal fraternity, making every man beneath the skies your neighbor, brother, friend, doing away with all animosities, alienations, and conflicts obliterating the spirit of belligerence from the face of the earth, consolidating Father Adam’s family in one universal brotherhood.
THE GATE & THE WAY
“Enter in through the narrow gate; because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are going in through it. Because narrow is the gate and contracted the way which leadeth into life, and few there are finding it.”
“Broad is the road that leads to death, And thousands walk together there; while wisdom shows a narrow path, With here and there a traveler.”
This gate stands at the hither terminus of the King’s highway of holiness which leads up to heaven. The gate is so narrow and difficult of entrance that nothing but the immortal soul can make the ingress; all sin, the pomp, pageantry, pride, riches, emoluments, and aggrandizement of the world, must be left behind. This is the reason why so few pass through the narrow gate of regeneration. They hold to many things they can not take with them. Tethlimmene, which qualifies the way we must all travel to heaven, is a perfect passive participle, from thlibo, “to contract,” “squeeze together;” hence it means having been compressed, drawn together, and rendered very narrow and difficult of passage, illustrating the utter impossibility for an encumbered traveler to pass over it. While we are here assured that very few ever find the narrow way, how sad to know that so many of those few, having found it, fail to walk in it to the end! Some are quickly deflected; others hold on a good while, and are then derailed; while not a few comparatively, having long walked in the way, are sidetracked by the enemy; while others have gone on till the bright hills of glory are actually visible, by the eye of faith, from the summits of the Delectable Mountains, and even after this grand proficiency in the Divine life, make shipwreck.
FALSE PROPHETS
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, and within are rapacious wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do they gather the grape bunch from thorns or figs from brambles? So every good tree produces beautiful fruits, and the corrupt tree produces evil fruits. The good tree is not able to produce evil fruits, neither does a corrupt tree produce beautiful fruits. Every tree not producing good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Luke: “For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh.” This beautiful paragraph is our Savior’s exegesis of the gate and the way which lead to death. While the narrow way is but an air-line, narrow as to principle, but broad as to capacity, amply capacious for all the people in the world to walk along it abreast till they enter the pearly gate of the New Jerusalem, the broad way is wide as the world, permitting you to go any way you please except the way of holiness, conferring on you the largest liberty to take your choice among the three hundred and sixty points of the mariner’s compass, and go any way you will. You observe this terrible warning to “beware of false prophets.” Do you see the connection? It is plain and simple. The false prophet is the counterfeit preacher. How are we to know him? By the differentia which Jesus here specifies: a. He broadens the way; i.e., gives his people large liberties, so they can commend him as a “high-toned, level-headed, broad-minded, cultured gentleman.” Therefore he is popular, and they will keep him a long time. Now do not forget that this follows as a legitimate sequence that the false prophet does not preach this narrow gate and contracted way, so difficult to find and walk in, but he is liberal-minded, and preaches a broad-gauge gospel. b. You are to know him by his fruit. You see where the E.V. reads “good fruits,” you have “beautiful fruit,” the literal translation of the Savior’s word. What does it mean? Why, the beauty of holiness; and as Luke says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” the true prophet not only exhibits the beauty of holiness, but he is full of it. Whenever he opens his mouth, it pours out.
“Having been made free from sin, we have our fruit unto sanctification, and the end everlasting life.” (Rom 6:22.)
Regeneration is the flower, and sanctification the fruit. Now what is the evil fruit against which our Savior warns us? It is anything and everything except holiness.
AWFUL DISAPPOINTMENT
“Not every one saying to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but the one doing the will of My Father who is in the heavens. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out demons, and in Thy name done many mighty works? And I will confess unto them, That I never knew you; depart from Me, ye who work iniquity.” This paragraph describes the false prophets above, in the judgment-day, coming up with their grand and glowing reports of demons cast out — i.e., many souls converted; and many mighty works — i.e., great, fine churches built, powerful sermons preached, and wonderful official triumphs. But do you not see our Savior rejects them altogether? The truth of the matter is, they have never been His preachers at all. The devil, robed as an angel of light, played off on them in the beginning, calling and sending them. So they have been preaching Satan’s counterfeit gospel all their lives, counting many converts and doing many mighty works, helping the devil to delude the people and lead them to hell in solid columns. What is the remedy for these awful troubles in the end? Be sure you pass the narrow gate, so difficult of entrance that it will try your flint and steel, and test your stamina to the very bottom. Then be sure that you travel the self-denial way of “holiness to the Lord.”
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Mat 7:1-6
Mat 7:1-6
The law kept by sympathy. "Judge not, that ye be not judged." This word of Christ’s implies—
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I. That we are not to be eager to spy out our neighbour’s faults, for that is not worthy, not Christian, not fulfilling the law of God. The more vigilant we are over him, the more careless we are of ourselves. The less we spare his faults, the more tender we grow of our own. The men who are most censorious are just the very men who are themselves the least faultless, the most indulgent to their own cherished sins.
II. That neither are we to speak hastily of the sins of our neighbour. A readiness to spy out faults is one thing; it is another thing to be eager to speak of them and point them out to others. The two things are generally combined. And this is indeed the mischief of that kind of character, that it seldom, if ever, refrains from proclaiming the faults which it is so prone to discover, reckless of the pain or the injury which it may thus inflict; were it otherwise, the evil resulting from such a habit would be mainly limited to the man himself who indulged in it.
III. This implies also that we are to watch against that uncharitable spirit which is ever ready to ascribe the worst meanings and the worst motives to our neighbour’s conduct. If there is any moral duty which, more than another, stands out as the very badge and symbol of Christianity, it is charity.
IV. In all such matters we must be regulated by the great law of moral sympathy, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Judge not your neighbour in a way in which you would not like him to judge you. Do not spy out his faults in a fashion which you would consider unkind and ungenerous if done to yourself; do not talk of his errors as you would feel it unfair to have your own discussed and babbled about; do not ascribe base motives and wicked meanings to him, which you would hold to be unjust if ascribed to you. So do ye to others whatsoever ye would that they should do to you.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 276.
References: Mat 7:1.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 42; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 27. Mat 7:1, Mat 7:2.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 172. Mat 7:1-6.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 234; J. Oswald Dykes, Manifesto of the King, p. 529.
Mat 7:2
The New Testament is full of a natural and necessary reciprocity between man and the things by which he is surrounded. Every gift has its return, every act has its consequence, every call has its answer in this great, live, alert world, where man stands central, and all things have their eyes on him, and their ears open to his voice.
I. Even with man’s relations to the material earth this law is true. "They treated nature as they would." So all men—all races—treat nature according to their wills, whether their wills be the deep utterance of their characters, or only the light and fickle impulses of self-indulgence. And what they are to nature, nature is to them—to one man the siren, who fascinates him to drunkenness and death; to another the wise friend, who teaches him all lessons of self-restraint and sobriety, and patient hope and work.
II. But after all, our relations to the world of nature are little more than illustrations of our relations to the world of men. Let us see how true the law which we are looking at is there. I think there grows in us a strong conviction with our growing years that for a man to get bad out of the world of fellowmen is not necessarily a disgrace to the world of fellowmen, but is certainly a disgrace to him. There are men in the world today who are being made worse by living with the best and purest. Souls are darker for the sunshine, souls are colder for the warmth, with which they live in daily company. And why? Because heaven does not make holiness, but holiness makes heaven; because if you do not give yourself in sympathy to goodness, goodness cannot give itself in influence to you; because with what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you. Each man gets out of the world of men the rebound, the increase and development of what he brings there.
III. And now in that great giving in, that supreme self-consecration, does our law still hold? Indeed it does. Nowhere does it so completely hold. For there are different measures in which men give themselves to Christ, and Christ despises none of them, but in different measures He again is compelled to give Himself back to them. With what measure each gives himself to the Saviour, the Saviour gives Himself in His salvation back to each. As when in some foreign land, in some strange shrine of Romish or Pagan worship, all glorious with art, all blazing with the light of precious stones, there bend around the altar the true devotees who believe with all their souls; while at the door, with heads uncovered and with faces solemnized by the presence of a ceremony in which they do not believe and in which they take no part, lingers a group of travellers full of joy at the wondrous beauty of the place; and as when the music ceases and the lights go out they go away, each carrying what it was in him to receive—the devotee his spiritual peace, the artistic tourist his spiritual joy; so men bestow themselves on Christ, and by the selves that they bestow on Him the giving of Himself to them must of necessity be measured.
Phillips Brooks, Sermons in English Churches, p. 265.
References: Mat 7:3-5.—S. Cox, An Expositor’s Notebook, p. 266. Mat 7:6.—Ibid., p. 279.
Mat 7:6, Mat 7:12
Consider:—
I. The reserve which will not give things holy to dogs. The dog was reckoned, with the swine, among the unclean animals. They were both of them types of the grossly sensual kind of sinners, given over to mere brute appetite, and insensible to any higher life. Hence it was a common saying, "Without are dogs," to indicate the general carnality of the Gentile world. Things holy belong to the holy, or at any rate to those who recognize them to be holy, and will treat them, therefore, with the reverence which is their due. We are bound to act so that these sacred things shall not be despised, and that our good shall not be evil spoken of, and that we shall not needlessly arouse the opposition and hatred to spiritual concerns which these carnal minds are so ready to indulge in.
II. There is also a similar reserve with regard to things precious: "Neither cast your pearls before swine." The things precious, indicated by pearls, may be also, no doubt, very sacred, but they do not belong to the holy privacies of religious life. On the contrary, they are meant for use and free circulation; for by the pearls I understand chiefly the truths of the Gospel. This second proverb implies that even in the performance of the great Christian duty of preaching the Gospel there is still left room for some discretion and reserve, lest by unwise speech we bring dishonour on the truth and needless persecution on ourselves. These two things must combine ere we shall be justified in keeping silence.
III. For our practical guidance in such matters it seems to me we must always read these words in the light of the great principle, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." That is to say, it is our duty in certain cases to consider how we ourselves would like it if the truth were forced on our attention at such a time, or in such a way, as to provoke our opposition to it, and lead us into sinful rejection of its claims.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 292.
Mat 7:7
God is not only a great Giver, but He is sometimes a great Hider of His gifts. The subject to which the text applies pre-eminently, as the context shows, is the matter of the soul’s welfare, and the things that accompany salvation. The promise is not, "Seek, health and ye shall find it. Seek fame, seek fortune, and ye shall find them;" but the whole discourse bears on the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof, and the promise of the true and faithful witness is tantamount to this: "Seek God, and ye shall find Him. Seek His friendship, and He will not refuse it. Seek the Holy Spirit, and He will not withhold it."
I. Seek knowledge. To true religion a pre-requisite is a certain measure of enlightenment.
II. More especially, as comprehending the best knowledge, and as the most effectual means at once of reassurance Godward and of all progress in goodness, seek the Saviour. Seek not only to know about Him, but seek confidence in Him; seek to know Him as your own. Come boldly to the throne of grace; come, and you will obtain mercy now, and will find help in all your future times of need.
III. Seek certainty. Give all diligence so as to attain a full assurance of sin forgiven, and of your own acceptance in the Saviour. Dark shadows of apostasy will flit across your path, and your energies will be paralyzed by dreary forebodings. So cry to the Captain of salvation to deliver you from the hand of this enemy, and as for life, as for heaven, watch against his furious onsets or sudden surprises. And if you have any doubt as to the reality of your religion, solve the doubt by becoming definite and decisive now. You know who is the rightful claimant of your services; therefore, take up the cross, deny yourself, and follow Christ.
J. Hamilton, Works, vol. vi., p. 351.
I. In considering these words I would first inquire to whom such exhortations are rightly addressed. Now, it is to be remembered that these words occur in that great discourse of our Lord’s which is called the Sermon on the Mount. And for the right understanding of that great embodiment of Christian morality, and of its relations to the whole body of Christian truth, it is, I think, very needful to remember that the Sermon on the Mount is addressed to Christ’s disciples, that it presupposes discipleship and entrance into the kingdom, and has not a word to say about the method of entrance.
II. Consider in what region of life these promises are true. They sound at first as if they were dead in the teeth of the facts of life. Is there any region of experience in which to ask is to receive, to seek is to find, and in which every door flies open at our touch? If there be, it is not in the ordinary workaday world that you and I live in, where we all have to put up with a great many bitter disappointments and refused requests, where we have all searched long and sorely for some things which we have not found, and the search has aged and saddened us. But yet it seems that the distinct purpose of our Lord is to assert that the law of His Kingdom is the direct opposite of the law of earthly life, and that the sad discrepancy between desire and possession, between wish and fact, are done away with for His followers. The region in which we receive this great and liberal charter of entire response to our desires is simply and only the spiritual region in which the highest good is.
III. Note on what conditions the promise depends. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, Nov. 20th, 1884.
References: Mat 7:7.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 340; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., pp. 29, 71; S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 146; H. M. Butler, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 33.
Mat 7:7-8
I. We have in these words, not a formal definition of prayer, but an incidental definition of prayer, and a most complete definition. We have it in the little word "ask." To pray to God is to ask of God. "Ask," said Christ; and the more simple and childlike the asking the better.
II. We have here a recognition of the hindrances which we meet in prayer. The blessings that we want are sometimes visible in God’s hands; God seems to be standing before us with the very mercies that we require, holding them out to us—then "ask." But mercies are sometimes hid, as in God’s treasures—then "seek." The blessings are sometimes deposited, as in holy places—then "knock." In one word, instead of being hindered by hindrances to prayer—"ask"—"seek"—"knock."
III. Observe, there is here a positive injunction. The text is not, you may pray, but "ask." Prayer is not optional. I must pray, if I be a true disciple, and if I be an obedient child; and if I cannot pray with these eyes open, regarding prayer as a privilege, then I must pray as a duty.
IV. Christ stimulates to obedience by words of encouragement. (1) In the first place, He calls attention to universal experience. "Every one that asketh receiveth." (2) As a further encouragement, Christ points to the conduct of parents towards their children. (3) Christ gives force to His illustration by a gentle reference to our common depravity. "If ye then, being evil." The very incidental nature of the recognition of our sinfulness shows how constantly it was before Christ, and how much He thought of it.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 4th series, No. 20.
The Strength of Wishes.
The text certifies in truth to the power of strong wishes. Asking, seeking, knocking—all these express earnest wishes of the heart, which have put themselves in the shape of addresses to God. If we do not become believing or serious Christians, Scripture says it is because we have no real wish to become so. We do not ask, or seek, or knock: if we did we should obtain.
I. Think of the keenness and force of the wishes we form with respect to various temporal advantages, whether of mind or outward fortune. The sight of success in any human faculties, in any particular kind of address, or in science or art, or manner, stirs up at once the natural emulation of the human heart, and sets men thinking and dreaming of it and wishing it for themselves. Who can live in the world without becoming aware that the very air which surrounds him is cut through in all directions by wishes—eager, impetuous wishes; wishes happy or sad, according as they promise or not their own fulfilment.
II. What, then, if people, instead of wishing for art, or quickness, or dexterity, or other such gifts, with that sharpness of desire they do, could from the heart wish that they were religious—the teaching of Scripture is that the strong wish for this state of mind will be itself the means of obtaining it. Only wish for this temper really and steadily, and your wish will fulfil itself. Wish devoutly, not as if your own will and power could accomplish the wish, but under a deep sense of the power of God to work what He will within us, and to move us from the bottom of our hearts to good, and your wish will be fulfilled. Religion, while it promises so much, takes high ground in its conditions; it must be felt as the first want, as an imperious need of the soul; otherwise the wish for it does nothing and has no power. So deep is the instinctive feeling in the human mind of the power of a real wish in spiritual things, that a worldly man rejects it and puts it from him, as if it would be only too sure to effect the change in him if it stayed; and he does not want to be changed.
J. B. Mozley, University Sermons, p. 213.
Reference: Mat 7:7, Mat 7:8.—R. Lee, Sermons, p. 57.
Mat 7:7-11
I. Our Lord enjoins us here to pray; and He assures us that we shall not pray in vain. It does not indeed follow that God will grant any and every thing we may choose to ask; for there are some things which, without irreverence, we may truly say, it is impossible for Him to bestow. But our Lord’s words do involve that prayer is not merely effectual in producing a devout frame of mind, but also in securing, to some extent, the object of our requests. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." But—
II. For the perfect assurance of our minds on this subject, it is to be remembered that this whole question rests on the Fatherhood of God; and unless we hold fast by that, the grace and truth of our Lord’s saying here will soon vanish from our minds. For unless we come in the faith and love of children to their Father, we might as well be dumb, like the prayerless atheist, who holds the throne of heaven to be vacant and impotent, as indeed it virtually is if there be not a Father there to hear us.
III. While prayer is thus effectual because it is made to a Father who feels with us and is willing to help us, we are not to suppose that everything we ask of Him shall be given to us, neither should we murmur when our requests are refused. It is well to ask of Him, but not to dictate to Him. He will withhold no good thing from them that fear Him, but then He knows better than we do what it is good to give; and sometimes the best answer to our requests is in reality to deny them. We are but as children here, ignorant of the real qualities of many things, taken with the glitter of others, and likely enough to ask for a boon what would be far from a blessing. Therefore it behoves us ever to school our hearts to say, "Not as we will, but as Thou wilt."
IV. In order to be effectual, our prayers must be real; but for the highest efficacy, they must be both real and also spiritual. God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. He will not give you something else in reply to that petition; for that is a boon which can never be amiss.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 256.
References: Mat 7:7-12.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 245. Mat 7:7-14.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Manifesto of the King, p. 551. Mat 7:8.—S. Cox, Expositions, vol. iv., p. 60.
Mat 7:9
Sham Immortality.
I. So much is there in the Christian doctrine of immortality that captivates the imagination and touches the heart, that the apostles of unbelief are constrained to find a substitute for it, and they preach an immortality in words which are anointed with the unction of the pulpit. But all that is true in their doctrine has been a conscious Christian possession, and I may say a human possession, since men became capable of reflection; and all that is new is the sight of infidelity strutting in garments stolen from Christianity. They teach that the dead live on in those who come after them, that the dead have a real place in succeeding generations, and make them what they are; that the dead are the true rulers of the present, and are often more powerful than when they were alive. When they say that "the dead are still living round us, and are as active as ever they were in life," they do not mean by living what men usually mean. For they do not believe in the immortality of the soul—that is, in the continued existence of the conscious, rational being, of that unity we call the ego or self. Their "raptures conjured up to serve occasion of poetic pomp" simply come to this—conduct of every kind has its consequences, and these consequences reach to future generations. If there is no other immortality than this, that a man’s conduct will continue to have its effects in the future, it is for the greater part of mankind an immortality which is uninspiring, and for many an immortality of hopeless night.
II. How insignificant must be the effect of a single life such as that lived by thousands and millions of human beings, on the next generations. When we remember that if every act has its persisting effects, then our bad acts, our silly acts, our mean acts, have their effects, their immortality, just as our good ones have. There cannot be much inspiration in the immortality of our vices and follies. If this is to be the life to come, we may well wish for a great sword long enough to smite the future, and strong enough to strike off the heads of the offspring which will bear our names.
W. Page Roberts, Liberalism in Religion, p. 112.
References: Mat 7:9-11.—J. H. Jellett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 158; J. Burton, Sermons on Christian Life and Truth, p. 121.
Mat 7:11
In our text Christ tells us what we are to expect of God, in His treatment of us. There is mystery about God’s nature; we cannot fathom it, and as God is thus mysterious, our kind Redeemer takes something that all men will know. He appeals to feelings that are lacking in very few human hearts. He goes to the love and care of parents for their child, and He says if you want to know how God feels towards you, and how ready God is to give you everything that is really good, here is something to go by. God feels towards each of us as a kind and wise father feels towards his child; and the difference is just this, that God, our Father in heaven, is infinitely better than the very best earthly father.
II. These points of superiority are so plain and simple that they need very little illustration. (1) For one thing, God knows what is good for us, as no human parent can know what is good for his child. (2) Another point in which appears the superiority of the great Father, to whom Christ points as above all earthly parents, is His power. He is able to do all He wishes. He has all power to give us all good things, to help and save. (3) Then God is always kind. There are unnatural parents; let us hope very few: "They may forget, yet will I not forget thee." (4) Our heavenly Father excels the best earthly one, in that He is always near; always within hearing; always within reach; never leaving, never forsaking; Father of the fatherless, Friend of the friendless; yea, "when father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up."
A. K. H. B., Grave Thoughts of a Country Parson, 1st series, p. 18.
I. Look first at the relationship of the father to the child. Christ takes as the basis of His argument the relation of the father on earth to the child on earth. Amongst all the affections of the world there is none like it, because this alone is free from the imputation or the suspicion of selfishness. Here, out of the wreck and ruin of humanity, there emerges this one affection, strongly triumphant amidst all circumstances that have tested it. This it is which is purest and strongest; and Christ says, "Even more than that is the love of the great Father towards you."
II. Can you not trust in the loving-kindness of God for that? Can you not believe that when He selects that title He is your Father, that He meant you to realize it, that He intended that you should not simply say it, but meant it to be a fact? Not alone are you to say that as there is a father in every human family, so probably there may be a fatherly feeling on the part of the great God in heaven towards His children. God rather wishes you to reverse the thought, and say that He gave you this in life, which is only a shadow after all of the fatherly relationship, that you might in that shadow learn the realities of heaven.
III. Therefore, also, we must learn to trust the wisdom of that parent. If we, as His children, receive sometimes in answer to our prayers that which we are tempted to think is a stone, we must learn to think that though the bread may be as hard even as a stone, it is still bread, sustaining bread; for we cannot doubt, knowing the Father’s loving purposes, that His wisdom surpasses ours, and that He gives what we really need.
Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 177.
References: Mat 7:11.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 93; W. Gladden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 200; J. Edmunds, Sermons in a Village Church, p. 128.
Mat 7:12
I. If we look into this precept more closely, and discuss the ground upon which love to our neighbours appears to be made dependent, an objection may be raised which is worth while to notice. The objection is this, that the rule of brotherly love is apparently made by the text a selfish rule; that is, that our conduct towards others appears to be made to rest upon their conduct towards ourselves. To which it may be at once answered, that any notion of limiting our kindness to others by the kindness of others towards ourselves, could never, for one moment, have been harboured in the mind of Him who bids us love our enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, after the example of our Father in heaven; who is kind to the unthankful and the ignorant, and makes His sun to shine upon the just and unjust. In this rule our Lord neither recognizes nor fosters any feeling of selfishness properly so called. He only refers to a method of measuring the character of our actions which we may easily perceive to be the only method by which our actions can be estimated aright.
II. He who prefers to this golden rule the harsher rule of leaving every one to take care of himself, of seeking in all things our own advantage, and leaving others to do the same, can hardly remember that parable of our Lord concerning the hard-hearted servant—he who had been forgiven a thousand talents laying hands upon his brother, who owed him "an hundred pence." He had a right to the money—well—but would he have thought the right to have been one which ought to be exercised had he been the debtor instead of the creditor? That was the point which he ought to have considered; there comes in the application of Christ’s golden rule.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 6th series, p. 196.
I. Consider the precept itself, and the limitations with which it is to be understood, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Here is the great Gospel legislation, and no rule, it would seem, could be more simple to comprehend or more easy to apply; for in considering how we ought to act towards any person we are just to imagine that we change places with him. We are to be what he is, and he is to be what we are; and this transfer of conditions being mentally made, we are to give just so much as we should like to take, and withhold whatever we would wish to have refused. "Whatsoever ye would." But how if ye would do something which is not right and not reasonable and not consistent, if generally carried out, with the interests and well-being of human society—would the rule of our text apply then? Clearly not. A judge, administering the laws of his country, knows very well that if he were in the situation of the prisoner there is nothing which he would desire so much as an acquittal. Must he, therefore, pronounce nothing but pardons? A bold beggar comes to a rich man for alms. Imagine a reversal of their positions, and the rule of doing as you would be done by would require that the rich man should give up the half of his property. These and similar cases, arising out of the necessary dependences and relationships of social life, sufficiently evidence that the rule of our text is to be received with a certain understood limitation, and imply that it is not what we do, or might wish others to do to us, that is to be the gauge of our conduct to them, but only what, according to the principles of equity and fairness and right, we ought to wish.
II. Consider the excellence of this rule, and the grounds on which it claims the respect and homage of mankind. These are (1) its reasonableness, as founded on the original equality of all men one with another; (2) its capability of easy and immediate application; (3) the kindness and beneficence of such rule in relation to ourselves. Self-love itself has made God’s standard of Gospel morality: "Love thy neighbour as thyself, and all that the Lord thy God hath required of thee is done."
D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3,046.
Something like this golden rule was contained in the old writings of the Jews, but mark that wonderful discrimination and wisdom of Jesus, that He should have seized upon it, that He should have taken it out of the great mass of their writings and traditions; that He should have seized upon it and brought it out. With them it was but a negative; now, they said, if there is anything that you do not like, that is very hateful to you, do not do that to another. Jesus Christ comes with the positive, and tells us about the doing: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."
I. Observe, the teaching of the New Testament is a teaching of general principles assuming a vast variety of complexions, but you are to apply general principles which are laid down. The great thing, therefore, for Christian men is to understand the culture of the conscience, the intelligent training of the moral and spiritual faculties, that there should be in the man, by culture through the truth, by the Divine Spirit and the culture of the finer faculties of his nature, a nice perception of the lights and shades of his moral obligations. The New Testament gives us a grand general rule, and it tells us, as those whose reason is enlightened, whose conscience is educated, and who under the influence of that can apply a general rule, what to do.
II. "This is the law and the prophets." It is the law and the prophets in relation to this matter, in relation to social morality, in relation to the second table of the law; but it is not the law and the prophets with respect to both tables of the law. Our Lord did not come merely to be a teacher of social morality; He did not come to confine Himself to that, but to be a Redeemer and a Saviour, and to teach His disciples in the Divine life, that out of that Divine life should come all social virtue which, coming out of the Divine life and being done unto God, is worthy of being called holiness, something very different from mere social virtue.
T. Binney, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 8.
References: Mat 7:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1723; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 260; J. L. Davies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 136.
Mat 7:13-14
There are only two ways—the broad and the narrow. Along one or other of these has every mortal pilgrim gone. By one or other of these is every living man travelling now.
I. Look first at the broad way. It is the most manifest and obtrusive, and the nearest to us naturally. (1) It has a gate. A gate is a place of entrance to a city, or a field, or a country. As a religious term it means the beginning of a course or onward career. It points to the great moral truth, that there are critical and decisive points in life to which men come. (2) The way is broad. All kinds of persons may walk in it. Some are much worse than others; some are on the darker side of the road, some are on the side nearest the narrow way, "not far from the kingdom of God."
II. We come next to the strait gate. There is thus an undisguised difficulty in salvation. The way is narrow, but the gate that gives entrance to it is narrower still. The gate can be none other than repentance, the leaving of one life behind, and entering on another. The turning and the change are the greatest that can possibly be. The principle of the life is changed. The affections must follow the principle. The habits must follow the affections. It is a change throughout the whole being.
III. Note these inducements to walk in this narrow way. (1) The gate is strait, but it is always open. Always open and strait as it is, there is not a man living who cannot, if he will, get through. (2) The narrow way is narrow, but it grows wider as you go on; not that Christians ever cease to deny themselves, but that the self-denial becomes easier, more full of recompense, more the normal law of life. (3) The end is everlasting life. Who can tell the meaning hidden in the heart of God that these words contain? It leadeth unto life.
A. Raleigh, Dawn to the Perfect Day, p. 62.
The Strait Gate.
Why should this gate be called strait? In order to understand the language of our Lord, let us call to mind the four great laws of the kingdom, and it will not be difficult to understand why this gate should be called strait.
I. Christ enjoins us to love our enemies. If you consider what that means, you cannot but feel that such a gate is a very strait one, and hard indeed to enter in at.
II. Moreover, the Lord also laid down a principle of unostentatious sincerity, which forms a very strait gate to all manner of hypocrites and formalists.
III. Jesus goes on yet further to say, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." The carnal, worldly mind finds it a very hard thing—a very strait gate indeed—to set its affection on things above, and trust God for all that may be needed. And yet we cannot enter in at the strait gate, unless we take no thought for the morrow, but seek first the kingdom of God, and trust Him to provide the rest.
IV. And now add to all these difficult requirements the further demand made on us, that we should do to others as we would that they should do to us. Now here again is an extremely strait gate. It implies that we should never judge hastily, but take pains, and be at some trouble to understand our neighbour’s case, and to feel what he may be expected to feel, and to follow up our sympathy with active help and kindness. And it is hard for the selfishness of our hearts to take the same interest in another as we do in our own affairs. Yet we cannot really enter in at the strait gate, unless we are prepared to bear each other’s burdens in this spirit, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 308.
There are two things which Holy Scripture sets before us in every possible way—the exceeding desire of the Almighty to save mankind, and the exceeding unwillingness of mankind to turn to Him and be saved, on account of the extreme corruption of our hearts.
I. It has been well observed, how easy it is for God to create is evident from the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, for He has only to speak the word and all things are made. But how difficult it is, even for almighty power, to redeem will appear from the sufferings of Jesus Christ, from all the history of the world, and from the fact that, after all that has been done, the way of life is narrow. And this was very apparent when our Lord was manifest in the flesh, for He went about with almighty power, exceedingly desirous to restore and to do good to all, to heal every disease and remove every shape of evil, but still He could not do, it is said, what He wished to do, because of man’s unbelief. It was easy for our blessed Lord to walk upon the waves of the sea; it was easy for Him to feed thousands with a few loaves; but not so easy was it to get one child of Adam to repent and be forgiven. And therefore, perhaps, it is that there is joy among the angels of heaven over one sinner that repenteth, so great and difficult a matter is it to get one sinner to be converted that it makes a movement, as it were, and a stir among the blessed societies of heaven.
II. As eternal salvation is of all things the highest object on which our hearts can be set, so it is the most difficult. And a great part of the difficulty consists in this, that we will not be persuaded it is so difficult in our own case, but think that on account of the unbounded mercies of God, we may ever secure our pardon, and can repent whenever we please. And therefore, when worldly things go well with us we are full of self-confidence, we are full of care about everything but our spiritual condition, and when we are afflicted we are too much cast down; whereas in adversity we should learn Christian hope, and in prosperity we should fear always and exceedingly.
III. It is very awful, and enough to make the hardest heart serious, to consider that if there are many who go the way of destruction, and few that find the way of life, then each should reflect that the chances are that he himself will not find it. He is more likely to be of the number of the many than of the few. If each person would seriously consider this, such a thought would make him very earnest about his salvation.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. ii., p. 233.
References: Mat 7:13.—A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 1; T. T. Lynch, Sermons for My Curates, p. 353. Mat 7:13, Mat 7:14.—E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. i., p. 164; E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 82; Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 255; W. Wilkinson, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. i.
Mat 7:14
I. The faithfulness of a holy God is the meaning which lies on the surface of the text. Sin has separated man from God, and the whole world lies in an outer darkness. The way that leads down to destruction is broad and easy. It requires no exertion, no self-denial, no crucifying of sinful desires. But to turn from this broad path into the narrow way of life is difficult. The gate unto life is strait. The compassionate Redeemer of men has told us that it is strait. He will not make it wider that the carnal may get through. Although a whole world should remain without and perish because it is strait, God will not make the entrance easier. The terms are clear and fixed. There is no ambiguity, and will be no change.
II. The tenderness of a merciful Father. (1) There is a gate. When a window is opened in heaven to display a terror, the gate is strait, we see within and read the mercy. There is a gate. While the ostensible announcement is, Your corruptions must be excluded, the covert intimation is, Yourself may go in. In form the text is a stroke directed against a sinful man; but in nature it is intended to take effect only on the man’s sin, to destroy it, and so permit the emancipated man to enter into the joy of the Lord. (2) The gate leadeth unto life. If the passage is dark, narrow like the grave, the mansion in which it issues is as bright as heaven, and as large as eternity. If the pleasures of sin must be left behind, the pleasures of holiness await you at God’s right hand for evermore. (3) Those who enter neither make nor open the gate; they only find it. It is not written, Few there be that can force their way through it; but, "Few there be that find it." Men spend their strength for nought in efforts to escape from condemnation when God has not made a way. All the delay and all the loss occur through the error of trying to make a gate, instead of seeking the gate that is already made. (4) He who made the way, and keeps it open now, is glad when many "go in thereat."
W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, p. 237.
I. In proportion to the importance of any kingdom is the stringency of the conditions of entrance. (1) Here is the kingdom of human learning—knowledge, critical acquaintance with letters, ample and accurate information about history, all that is known by the name of learning—and over the gate of that kingdom I find this inscription, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way." (2) Here is a man who wishes to excel in authorship. You read his book. You don’t see all that lies behind the book. You don’t see the rough outline which he first sketched—blotting and interlining and erasing. What is it that is written over the man’s study and over the man’s desk? This, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way." (3) We are thus enabled to say that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is necessarily the straitest, narrowest of all. What are other kingdoms to the kingdom of life? As this is the highest kingdom of all, where is the unreasonableness of making the conditions of entrance into this kingdom the most exacting and stringent of all?
II. There are two gates, and only two; two destinies, and only two—the way leading to destruction; the way leading to life. The question now is, Will you have life according to the interpretation of the Son of God, or will you not? He that believeth shall be saved.
Parker, City Temple, 1871, p. 169.
Mat 7:15-20
I. Christ warns us here to beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing. There is allusion here, no doubt, to the symbolical garments of the prophets, with which His hearers would be so far familiar, having in their minds John the Baptist’s girdle of camel’s hair. It is likely enough that sheep’s clothing was even more frequently used by them than camel’s hair—being symbolical at once of their shepherd character and also of innocence and guileless simplicity. Now Christ gives us to understand here that others will come, wearing the prophetic robes, which are easily put on, but not being true shepherds of the sheep, being rather like ravening wolves, who care not save to rend and to kill and to destroy. The sheep’s clothing here is not a matter of dress only, but of religious profession and moral bearing, for without some plausible semblance of godliness the false prophet would be easily detected and would soon lose his errand. (1) The false prophets come, they are not sent; they come on their own errands, they are not sent on their mission by God. (2) These false prophets make a wide gate and a broad road for us; and that is perhaps the essential idea of their sheep’s clothing.
II. Christ gives us a test by which the false prophet may be tried. "By their fruits," He says, "ye shall know them." By this is meant the truth, not in its mere intellectual aspect, but in its practical results. The proof of a man’s grace and truth and godliness is to be sought in two ways. (1) It may be seen first and chiefly in himself. He who calls on us to enter in at the strait gate must show some tokens that he has himself entered in. We must not inquire merely what are his views, but what practical illustration does he give of those views in his life; for if there is no indication that he has been grafted into Christ, how shall I hope to gather grapes of thorns, or good fruit from a corrupt tree? (2) The fruit may be seen in others too. The effect of his teaching may be witnessed in those who hear him. The true shepherd goes before his flock, and they follow him; and if they are all on the narrow road, surely this will be more or less apparent, both in him and in them.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 323.
References: Mat 7:15-21.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 16; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 344. Mat 7:15-20.—J. Oswald Dykes, Manifesto of the King, p. 595.
Mat 7:15-29
I. The object of our Lord in this Sermon on the Mount was to convey an accurate idea of the righteousness required in His kingdom. He did so mainly by contrasting it with the spurious forms of righteousness current among men. The mere pretender is placed before us under three figures: (1) the wolf in sheep’s clothing; (2) a thorn bush that has artificial flowers and fruits stuck all over it; (3) a man who builds a very superb mansion, spends no end of pains and money on what can meet the eye, and exposes himself to public criticism. People pass by and admire. On visiting the spot afterwards, they see nothing but a heap of ruins. The house was fine in appearance at first, but lacked the essential thing—the foundation. The semblance of the thing is by no means the thing itself.
II. We are liable, however opposed to shams in ordinary life, to be shallow in religion. When a man is recognized by society as a Christian, he soon gets to deem himself one. Appearances are all in his favour. The hearing of the Word seems sufficient evidence of a devout mind. We listen so respectfully to instruction in duty that surely more cannot be required from us. Are we not often as much satisfied when we see the reasonableness of a thing, and feel as if we were already become righteous, as when we experience the reality?
III. The results of trusting in superficial appearances are stated in language intended to set forth their overwhelmingly disastrous nature. The rain-storm mentioned is such as every winter is sure to bring about in Palestine. It is no extraordinary calamity. The inevitable tests the house, and shows its faultiness or its strength. Time is all that is required to test everything. It forces nature to the front. Make sure that you have such a foundation as will stand all the shocks of time and last eternally.
M. Dods, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 397.
References: Mat 7:15-29.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 265.
Mat 7:16
The religion of Jesus Christ is one of deeds, not words; a life of action, not of dreaming. Our Lord warns us to beware of any form of religion, in ourselves or others, which does not bring forth good fruit. God does not look for the leaves of profession or the blossoms of promise. He looks for fruit unto holiness. If we are selfish, self-willed, proud, lovers of our own selves, our religion is but the sheep’s clothing covering the Wolfish heart, or the white paint hiding the corruption of the sepulchre. It is easy enough to assume the character and manner of a Christian, but to live the Christian life is not so easy. What are some of the fruits which God looks for in the life of a Christian?
I. At the head of all we must place love. If you really try to do God’s will it is a proof of your love. A true Christian cannot be selfish. If we love God we shall try to lead others to Him.
II. Another fruit for which God looks in a Christian’s life is humility. Every act and word of our Saviour’s earthly life teaches us to be humble. Let the haughty, the proud, the self-satisfied man open his Gospel, and he will find a reproof to his pride on every page. We preach humility to others, we expect to see it in others’ lives; are we humble ourselves? Have we learnt to walk humbly with our God?
III. Another fruit which God expects in the lives of His people is forgetfulness of self. Let us strive by God’s grace to get away from self and the eternal thinking and talking of our own concerns. Even Jesus Christ pleased not Himself, and we are no Christians unless we are trying to forget ourselves and to deny ourselves.
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 69.
References: Mat 7:16.—H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, p. 97; C. Kingsley, Village Sermons, p. 276; E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 175. Mat 7:17.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xv., p. 16. Mat 7:18.—J. Hiles Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 99. Mat 7:20.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 33; Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 253.
Mat 7:21-29
The Wise and Foolish Builders.
I. The Lord describes the false disciples as men who cry, "Lord, Lord," to Him, but who bear no fruit. The language clearly implies that there are some who profess to be Christians, who acknowledge Jesus to be the Lord, and pray to Him as Lord, and praise Him as the Lord, who nevertheless have no part in Him. This confession, "Lord, Lord," is symbolic of a sound creed, as well as a religious profession. It is as much as to say that there are many who have an unhesitating belief in the doctrine of grace and of God, who, nevertheless, are not true disciples of Jesus. Our Lord gives us to understand that the true disciple is one who not only cries, "Lord, Lord," but also doeth the will of his Father which is in heaven.
II. Having thus described the false and true disciples, the Lord goes on to remind us that there is a day coming when their characters shall be discovered and their judgment settled.
III. The Lord concludes the whole sermon with one of those exquisite parables whose pictorial beauty and spiritual insight, always remarkable, are in this case elevated into a strain of solemn grandeur and awful impressiveness. Of course that parable rises most naturally from the immediately preceding warning in reference to the day of judgment. But equally, of course, it stands in close relation also to the whole discourse which it so fitly concludes. You may say the foolish builder is the man who heareth the words of the Lord and doeth them not, and who persuades himself that all is well because he crieth, "Lord, Lord," or because he prophesieth and doeth many wonderful works in the name of Christ, whom, nevertheless, Christ will one day utterly disown, so that his house shall fall about him in a great and sorrowful ruin. Or, on the other hand, you may gather up the whole teaching of the sermon—its introductory beatitudes, its profound laws of love, truth, faith, and sympathy—and say that the foolish builder is the man who has not entered in at the strait gate, thus clearly described and asserted to be the only way of life, the only sure foundation on which our hopes can rest.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 338.
References: Mat 7:21.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1158; R. W. Dale, The Evangelical Revival, p. 104; C. Girdlestone, A Course of Sermons, vol. ii., p. 203. Mat 7:21-23.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Manifesto of the King, p. 615; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 15. Mat 7:22, Mat 7:23.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2,317. Mat 7:23-27.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 248.
Mat 7:24-25
Building upon the Rock.
I. True religion is here likened to a man’s own house. For, after all, every one’s real life is his home. We move, indeed, amidst many an outdoor scene, and we meet there with all the varieties which give to our world its chequered lights and shadows. But, in comparison, these external things are very little to a man who can retire into the bosom of his family, and command for himself the repose, and the refreshment, and the welcome, and the smiles, and the affections of that sanctuary of the heart. So it is with religion. We go out to other things, we come home to that.
II. Now, of this home of the mind, the Great Teacher tells us that it must be "built upon a rock." And a home, whatever it may be besides, is a poor home if it be foundationless. A few err in looking at foundations too much; many more commit the far more dangerous and vital mistake of not searching into them enough; they are busy, these men, in filling their houses with pretty fancies, and putting on many ornaments, and rearing pinnacles of sparkling hope—while the whole, from end to end, is hollow, and the entire fabric, at any moment, totters to its fall. And so it happens to them, in some awful hour when they most need the refuge, lo, the building, the baseless building, is gone, and they are left, shelterless and naked, to the fury of the storm.
III. How are we to get upon the Rock? I answer, By dealing with God’s Word, whenever it meets you, as a reality. Handle the Word of God as a fact. Follow it implicitly where it leads you. God’s promises are all to effort. Obedience is faith. Therefore for every hearing let there be a doing. Let every received truth have a reflection in behaviour. For he that "heareth and doeth" is the wise man who builds his house upon a rock, and it stands for ever and ever.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, p. 259.
Mat 7:24-26
Doing and Dreaming; Houses on the Rock and the Sand.
I. In the course of my travels I have met with three distinct dreamers. (1) There is the rationalistic dreamer. He beholds his face in a glass, and stands before it, admiring it. His religion is just a looking-glass for himself; but as the looking-glass is made by himself, it is worth little. To him religion is a system of ideas, and no idea represents reality. (2) There is the sentimental dreamer. He will talk to you for hours of the presence of God in nature. But religion is not that; it is more than that. Sentiment is eminently "a face in a glass," and just reflects what we are ourselves. A house of sentiment is the last place I should fly to, to shelter me from the storm. (3) There is the pietistic dreamer. Contemplation without action is disease. Idle self-contemplation is the paralysis of the soul.
II. The religion of the dreamer is a religion of theory. The religion of the doer is one of experience. It has been too much the method in religion to put knowing beyond doing. Knowing has been regarded as the highest faculty; in reality, it is the lowest. Knowing should result in doing, which is the intellect resolved into the will; and doing should merge into being, which is the intellect and will in unconscious unity—man’s highest state. Short of this, religion is a mere reverie.
III. The religion of the dreamer will always be one of doubt. The religion of the doer will always be a religion of evidence. This follows the last remark, because doing leads to knowing.
IV. The dreamer confines his religion to solitude; the doer finds a vent for his in society. Religion comforts solitude and consoles it; it does not encourage the spirit of it. If we are to enter the solitude, it is that we may collect the moral forces of our nature, and come forth, inspired by the Divine Spirit, to cry aloud, "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!"
V. The religion of the dreamer is a religion without love. But the life of the doer is love. Our love, in fact, is proportioned to our labours—our labour proportions our love. Love is the fountain of all true knowledge. Every man understands more by his affections than by his reason.
VI. There is no salvation for the dreamer. Ten virgins went forth to meet the bridegroom; and five were wise, and five foolish. Work while it is today. Shadows fall; life is closing round you. All things settle into seriousness. Opportunities are flying. Work alone is imperishable.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 413.
References: Mat 7:24-27.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 918; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 55; A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., p. 90; J. Oswald Dykes, The Manifesto of the King, p. 637; E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 76. Mat 7:24-29.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 273.
Mat 7:28
I. Note some characteristics which the Sermon on the Mount possesses. (1) The wonderful literary beauty of the language cannot have been unobserved by any one. (2) We have all marked the desultory arrangement, and the apparently disconnected progress of ideas. (3) From beginning to end there is no allusion in it to the atonement made by our Redeemer. Christ is here as the preaching prophet, not in any disclosure as the atoning priest. (4) The history of the sermon affords a conspicuous example of the way in which men sometimes pervert God’s Word. For those sceptical moralists who reject the notion of sin—of the awful curse denounced on sin and due to it, of the need and provision of a ransom for sin—calmly and superciliously appeal away from all warning by saying, "Our sufficient creed is the Sermon on the Mount." Most of us would admit this statement, for we remember a startling and supernatural reach of requirement in this discourse: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
II. What was the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount? (1) We find in it the description of a character. The Sermon on the Mount pictures a character perfectly easy to recognize anywhere, if we could meet it. (2) We find in this discourse a rule of life. It is a thing to be acted and breathed, as well as read and quoted. Jesus of Nazareth lived this wonderful discourse. He put it forth to be lived by everybody under the New Testament dispensation. (3) We find here, likewise, a standard of spiritual and experimental attainment. (4) We find in this sermon an instrument of condemnation. It is astonishing that any man can take comfort in turning away from the Gospel scheme of atonement, and resting on this sermon for peace; for there are verses in it crowded and awful with monitions of coming wrath. (5) We find in this discourse an incitement to holiness.
C. S. Robinson, Sermons on Neglected Texts, p. 248.
References: Mat 7:28.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 288. Mat 7:28, Mat 7:29.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 284.
Mat 7:29
This was the impression made by our Lord on those who heard Him teach and preach. He spoke as if He had a right to be heard, as if He had a message to deliver, as if His declaration of the truth were enough.
I. Just what distinguishes our Lord’s teaching from the teaching of uninspired teachers distinguishes the Bible from all other books. It speaks with authority. Other books may teach the truth; other books may give precepts of holiness, may give examples of excellence; other books may set before us the loftiest, the purest ideas—may demonstrate the truth of their teaching by unanswerable arguments. But the characteristic of the Bible is not merely the truth which it teaches, the examples which it holds before the eyes, the ideals of life which it compels us to revere; but, beyond all these, the love of supreme authority with which it speaks. It is not merely that the Bible claims this authority; it compels the conscience to allow the claim. It speaks with authority, and it speaks with power.
II. Whence came this authority and this power? What do we mean by our conscious, and still more by our unconscious, acknowledgment of it? We mean that it is overshadowed by the presence of God. Just as the religious man is distinguished from the man of high moral character, and from the man of excellent natural graces, by the ever-present sense of a relation to God running through all his life, just so the Bible is unlike all other books, because it always seems to take us at once into God’s presence. Not by any means that it professes to be, or seems as if it were, dictated by God Himself. No, plainly enough, it is written in human language: the thoughts are human thoughts; it is stirred by human feelings; it is addressed to human understandings. It is as thoroughly human as our Lord was man. But there is brooding over it, there is dwelling in it, a Divine authority which makes it quite unlike anything else which the world has seen. It lays hold of the conscience as nothing else has ever done, nothing else can do. It speaks with an authority which other teachers cannot claim.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 2nd series, p. 33.
References: Mat 7:29.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 132; T. T. Lynch, Three Months’ Ministry, p. 217.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 5. (Mat 7:1-14.)
Section 5. (Mat 7:1-14.)
Lessons of divine government.
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5. (1) The fifth section gives us lessons of divine government, the first of which is to remember that we are subjects under it, and not rulers, - so that we must keep off the judgment-seat. To put ourselves there is already a sign that personal feelings or interests are moving us; if it were otherwise - if God were aright before us - should we forget that He Himself was Lord in His own Kingdom? If personal interests are moving us, then we are in the worst possible condition to be judges, as is evident; for we are then judges in our own case: a thing that no law would permit, no sane mind tolerate.
But then we must understand what it is, this judgment which the Lord forbids. And here two things should be clear to us: first, that we are to judge of things, - of the evil and the good in either principles or acts presented to us. Here we have what touches ourselves: it is necessary that we should have our "senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb 5:14). It is true that we are to be "wise concerning that which is good and simple concerning evil" (Rom 16:19); and this word "simple" (literally, pure, unmixed"*) is a warning as to the defiling nature of evil, which if realized will forbid unnecessary occupation with it, as the contrast with "wise" would lead us to understand. Yet we must know it so far as to know it to be evil, or we have no safeguard against it. Judgment, therefore, as to whatever lies in our path, is absolutely necessary for us; and the character of the world and the state of Christians both warn us to be watchful.
{* Akeraioi, which in Mat 10:16 and Php 2:15 is translated "harmless," and which Bengel gives as "sine cornu" (Gk, form alpha (prtv.) and keraia,) "hornless." The general derivation, however, and which commends itself here, is from alpha and kerannumi, to "mix," "unmixed."}
We are obliged then to judge of things as we meet them, - are responsible to the Lord, and in our own behalf, to do so; but more, we are obliged, and by the same authority, to judge persons also: "by their fruits ye shall know them," - twice repeated here (vers. 16, 20) - is our direct warrant to do so: "do not ye judge them that are within?" asks the apostle (1Co 5:12); we do and we must do it: it is, of course, not this, therefore, that the Lord is forbidding here.
The example that is given shows what is intended: to judge of things and of persons in the way of duty is to be obedient and to serve; to judge of what is not before us for judgment - to volunteer in it, or to pronounce as to motives and springs of action, to assume knowledge of that which is not open to us, - this is to take authority, not be subject to it, and indeed to assume what only belongs to the Judge of all, and is an intrusion, therefore, on His office.
This may be mere censoriousness; or passion; prejudice, self-interest may be at work with us: in any case, there is a beam in the eye, which effectually prevents a true and righteous judgment. The assumption is shown in the utterance, whether the mote in a brother’s eye exists or not; and such a spirit awakes an adverse spirit: the harshness is paid back in harshness; the measure we mete to others is measured to ourselves. The language used shows that, while this is permitted in divine government, it is not the sentence of the divine Judge. In the parallel passage in Luke (6: 38) this is plainly stated, "good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men* give into your bosom."
{*The word "men" is not actually expressed: it is "shall they give."{
You reap what you sow, and taste the quality of what you have been sowing; and this may be even mercy in result; for nothing is more likely to awaken in us the sense of what it is we have been doing, and of the omniscient Eye, that has been, unregarded, watching all. Thus God’s mercy and His holiness are found together.
(2) The revolt from harsh judgment is apt to carry us into the opposite extreme of laxity, against which the Lord now proceeds to guard us. Dogs and swine are the very images which Peter uses in his epistle to represent those who manifest their still unrenewed nature after apparent conversion: the "dog" by "turning to his own vomit again, the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire" (2Pe 2:22). Was he not thinking of the words of his Master here?
Christendom has in fact done shamelessly what the Lord here forbids, and has proved the truth of His words in consequence. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, perverted from their original meaning and application, have been used above all to give the grossest evils tolerance in the house of God, and to make Babylon the great "a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." They have thus been trampled under foot by the profane, and Christianity been rent and mangled fearfully, as all the centuries bear witness. The "judgment of charity" is continually invoked to take darkness to be light, and credit the most barren profession with what it dares not even claim for itself. But the false judgment of laxity has here its woe upon it, as much as the false judgment of censoriousness: upon that which puts good for evil, and that which puts evil for good alike. If grace is the spring of holiness, holiness is, by this very fact, the test of grace.
(3) And now the heart of God is declared as the ready and bounteous Giver, whose fullness cannot be exhausted, whose word to His people ever is, "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it." There is no limit except the limit that little faith may put, or the guard on God’s side (which is not limit) that the gift be good. And the Lord double clasps His exhortations with assurances that every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." What a door is, in fact, opened for us here, and what possibility of blessing is here unfolded! How rich may we all be, if we only will be! and what free leave we have to covet the best things! And yet the apostle’s words could find application in the fresh early days in which they were written: "Ye have not, because ye ask not; ye ask and have not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts!" (Jas 4:2-3). Think of such an answer to the royal invitation here! what must man’s heart be, that can answer so?
The appeal is backed with persuasive argument derived from affection subsisting even in earthly relationships. If we call God Father, do we expect to find Him less than such a title implies, even among men? Is not this, in fact, however real, only a feeble suggestion of what God is as Father? It necessarily would be, even if men were unfallen; but "if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more" - there, indeed, is a calculation for faith to make - "how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him?"
(4) The connection of the practical admonition following with this is surely of the same sort as that of what follows the prayer He has given to His disciples to one of the petitions in that prayer. If you realize this bounty of God, of which He has been speaking, you will practise bountifulness; the measure of your conduct to them will not be their actual conduct to you, but what you yourself would have desired it to be. Largeness of mind will be the result of living in the enjoyment of the King’s bounty; and then; conversely, the practical conduct so inspired will react upon yourself, and help you to realize the conditions of successful prayer. A character thus formed will enable one to feel more the character of Him to whom we thus draw nigh. We understand Him as we arc assimilated to Him; and faith strengthens itself thus by that which it has itself developed.
But, moreover, "this is the law and the prophets." The new dispensation falls into the same line, as has been already said, with all that has been before it. The same God has been all through aiming at the same results; and while with each step of progress the means used may vary, the end is continually kept in sight and steadily approaches. The righteousness which the law had in view grace has brought in, and yet law and grace are contrasts.
(5) This section closes with a solemn exhortation to "enter in through the strait gate," as the only way leading to life, and alas, found by few. The many would then (and still will) enter by another and wide gate, and throng a broad way, but a way leading to destruction and not to life. The words are figurative, of course, and the Lord does not further explain them here in any direct way. He leaves them as He does many other things, to awaken thought. There have, in fact, been very different thoughts about them: not, as to what they refer, in the mention of a gate and of a way, for the Lord speaks plainly of the way to life and the way to destruction; and these things are plain enough; but the gate, the way, are not themselves explained. We have but the description, -a "strait" gate and a "narrow" way, with few travelers, set in opposition to a "wide" gate, and a "broad" way, and many crowding them. We are left to ask what is this straitness, and what does it imply? Hard terms and difficult to comply with, with an uncertainty, on this account, of perseverance to the end? Surely not; although many have so taken it. The Lord once uses the first of these expressions in the Gospel of Luke, where He is answering one of those questions with which we so often perplex ourselves: "then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved?" which the Lord answers with a home-thrust at the questioner himself, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," to which He adds also that "many would seek to enter in and would not be able" (Luk 13:24). But He bases this upon something else than the straitness of the gate: the difficulty, or rather, the impossibility of entrance is only found "when once the Master of the house is risen up and has shut to the door;" it was a shut gate that was to be dreaded, not a strait one. Thus the exhortation: be urgent to enter in while there is time.
Here in Matthew, there is no exhortation to strive, but simply to enter in there, and by no other gate. "Few there be that find it:" the mass go by a different road. It is not here the door being shut, but men mistaking which it is: the broad way of destruction being taken for God’s narrow way of life.
This makes the picture of that broad way exceedingly solemn. Many have, no doubt, the thought of its representing the way of vice and open irreligion as opposed to the way of holiness; but closer consideration will convince us that it is not so. For no one expects, however careless he may be about it, the way of sin to lead heavenward. Whereas the Lord plainly intimates this to be what the writer of Proverbs speaks of - "a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Pro 14:12). The question is of finding the way of life. Hence the solemn warning to beware of false prophets which follows thereupon, men who would lead those listening to them upon the broad way of death.
"Few there be that find it." The great company of heavenward wayfarers, as they would consider themselves, are thronging another road, congratulating themselves upon the number and respectability of their companions. As they said in the days in which these words were uttered: "Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people who know not the law, are cursed."
It is plain that the Lord affirmed Himself to be the door and the way. "I am the door of the sheep: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (Joh 10:9). Again; "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (Joh 14:6). Again; if they asked about the works that they should do, He answered: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" (Joh 6:29). Thus, if there are not two ways to life, (and He says there are not,) then the narrow way is Christ Himself. If the "gate" and the "door" are not different, it is still Christ who is represented by the gate. And then men miss the way of life, not because the terms are hard or He so unapproachable, but because men; glorifying themselves as good moralists, refuse the gracious Saviour of sinners, and seek out other ways. "They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom 10:3-4).
The gate is "strait," because here is indeed an absolute condition: "no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Self-righteousness must come down; Christ must be the absolute and complete Saviour, which He alone can be: too strict conditions for multitudes to submit to. The crowds do not yet "come to Him that they may have life" (Joh 5:40). Yet grace itself can make no other terms, and we shall find, as we pass on here but a little way, that these are in fact the terms which exclude many of those who even call Him Lord, but who have never known Him.
6. There follows now a warning about false prophets, which is in very plain connection with that about the different roads which men were taking to reach a common end. This is intensified by the fact that, wherever the true Voice speaks, there will come the false voice after it, its mocking echo; like Jannes and Jambres opposing by imitation, putting on the dress of the sheep, but as a lure, over the evil heart within. The fruit would manifest them, but we must remember that this is not necessarily immoral conduct, in which the sheep’s clothing would no longer remain, but rather their doctrines tested by experience, as when men looking for grapes find nothing but at most the mockery of these.* Satan; when coming in as an angel of light, does not send out open evil-doers to commend his doctrines, while on the other hand an evil life may dishonor the preacher of substantial truth. But a true and needy soul, testing for itself the fruit of what is spoken, will assuredly find that the truth has its own witness to the heart and conscience, such as nothing but the truth can have. Here, above all, the Lord’s words apply, that a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit.
{*"Akanthai, or akantha, is the general name for all kinds of thorns, of which the most common bears small black berries not unlike grapes, while the flower of the triboloi may be compared with the fig." (Quoted in Lange’s Commentary.)}
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Sermon on the Mount (concluded)
The Sermon on the Mount (concluded)
The connexion of thought in this chapter is less close than in the earlier part of the sermon, and the whole chapter bears the appearance of an appendix of miscellaneous practical maxims, many of which, however, may have really formed part of the sermon. The words about rash judgment, and about a tree being known by its fruit, as well as the striking conclusion, are found also in St. Luke's sermon.
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1-5. On the habit of criticising others (Luk_6:37-42). St. Luke's account is here the fuller, and he places the section in a more satisfactory relation to what goes before. Our Lord condemns all forms of censoriousness. He calls censorious persons hypocrites, and says that they are worse than the people they criticise. They are worse because they lack love. As love is the highest, and indeed in the last resort the only Christian virtue, so the lack of it absolutely excludes from the kingdom where all is love. Such persons are also blind. They see their brother's faults, but have no eyes for his virtues, and they neither see nor wish to see their own far greater faults.
1. Judge not] cp. Rom_2:1. Unkind and frivolous criticism is what is meant. Judgment as a serious and solemn act is not forbidden by Christ. It is indeed often the Christian's duty to judge and severely to condemn things which the world never thinks of judging: cp. Mat_18:15; 1Co_5:12; 2Ti_4:2.
2. With what measure ye mete (i.e. 'measure')] A Jewish proverb. The rabbis said, 'In the measure that a man measureth, others measure to him.'
3. Mote] lit. 'a small dry twig or stalk.' Here it stands for a relatively small fault.
The beam] i.e. the great roof-beam of a house, something a thousand times larger than the eye itself. Here it stands for 'want of love,' the most monstrous, under Christ's law, of all vices. Here Christ again adopts a Jewish proverb. It is said that when one Jewish judge criticised another and said, 'Cast out the mote out of thine eye,' the other replied, 'Cast you out the beam out of your own eye.'
6. That the most holy things ought not to be offered indiscriminately to all persons. The earliest comment on this v. is in the 'Teaching' (Didache): 'And let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, except those who have been baptised in the name of the Lord. For it is concerning this that the Lord hath said, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.' This correctly apprehends the principle, which is, of course, capable of wider application. Gore well says, 'We are not to shriek the highest truths of religion at a street corner. We are to wait till people show a desire for the deepest things before we offer them religion. Such was the method of the early Church. It went out into the world. It let all the world see the beauty of its life... But it did not teach them the secrets of its life—its Creed, its Eucharist, its Prayers—till they were ready for them, and showed their readiness at least by enquiry.'
6. That which is holy] in its literal sense the flesh of the sacrifices. Metaphorically it stands for all that is most holy in Christ's religion, like the pearls below. Dogs.. swine] i.e. unclean and ferocious persons. They will trample on (i.e. revile and profane) what you offer them, and assail you with ridicule and blasphemy. While they are in this frame of mind, nothing can be done with them.
7-11. On urgency in prayer, and how God rewards it (Luk_11:9-13). God always answers urgent prayer. Every asker receives, every seeker finds. Yet not every asker receives what he asks, nor every seeker finds what he seeks. As an earthly father gives good gifts to his children, so God gives good things to those that ask Him, not always what they ask, for they often ask amiss, but something far better, even, as St. Luke's version has it, 'the Holy Spirit.' Those who would obtain exactly what they ask, must conform their wills to God's, and ask for things which they know that He is willing to grant. St. Luke connects this section with the Lord's Prayer, and illustrates it further by the parable of the Friend at Midnight. The connexion in St. Luke is much more natural and suitable.
7. Ask.. seek.. knock] A climax of increasing urgency. We are to wrestle with God in prayer, as Jacob wrestled with the angel (perhaps with God Himself), and said, 'I will not let thee go, except thou bless me' (Gen_32:26). The lesson is, 'That men ought always to pray and not to faint' (Luk_18:1).
9, 10. Bread.. stone.. fish.. serpent] A stone is like a loaf, and a serpent is like a fish, especially some fishes. The idea is that God will not mock an earnest suppliant, by appearing to answer his prayer, and giving him something which, though apparently good, is really noxious.
11. Being evil] Christ took no roseate view of the characters of men, even after their profession of faith in Him.
12. THE GOLDEN RULE (Luk_6:31). This v. ought to form a distinct paragraph. Our Lord looks back to what He has been saying in Matthew 5 about the fulfilling of the Law, and sums up His teaching on the whole subject with this important practical maxim. As originally spoken, it probably formed part of our Lord's utterances upon the Law, as it still does in St. Luke, who brings it into connexion with the command, 'Love your enemies': see Mat_5:44. There are certain parallels to this saying. Once a would-be proselyte went to Rabbi Hillel and demanded to be taught the whole Law while he stood upon one leg. The good rabbi made him a proselyte, saying, 'What is hateful to thyself, that do not thou to another. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary. Go, thou art perfect.' The pious Tobias thus instructs his son Tobit (Tob_4:15), 'What thou thyself hatest, do thou to no man.' The Chinese sage Confucius is reported to have said, 'Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.' All these are noble sayings, but they fall far short of Christs golden rule, which means, 'Not only avoid injuring your neighbour, but do him all the good you can.' They simply forbid injuries: Christ commands active benevolence.
A saying ascribed to the Gk. philosopher Aristotle is closer in form to the Golden Rule than any other, but it applies only to friends. Aristotle was once asked how we should act towards our friends, and replied, 'As we would that they should act towards us.'
12. Therefore all things] The 'therefore' looks back to Christ's teaching about the Law. The sense is, 'Because ye are my disciples, and bound to understand the OT. in its higher and more spiritual sense, therefore do unto others all that you would they should do unto you, for this is the true meaning of the Law and the Prophets.'
13, 14. The broad way and the narrow way (Luk_13:24-27). Although it is a blessed thing to be a Christian, it is not easy. The Christian journeys along the narrow way of self-denial discipline and mortification, perhaps of contempt and persecution, but the end of it is life. Much easier is the broad way of selfindulgence, avarice, pride and ambition, but the end of it is death. How many choose death, rather than life! St. Luke speaks only of the narrow 'door,' not of the narrow way, and describes the terrible condition at the last day of those who have not entered it. There is a fine heathen parallel in the allegory called 'the Tablet,' by Cebes, a disciple of Socrates: 'Seest thou not a certain small door, and a pathway before the door, in no way crowded, for only a very few travel that way, since it seems to lead through a pathless, rugged, and stony tract? That is the way that leadeth to true discipline.' There is another in the philosopher Maximus of Tyre (150 b.c.): 'There are many deceitful bypaths, most of which lead to precipices and pits, and there is a single narrow straight and rugged path, and few indeed are they who can travel by it.'
13. The strait gate] RV 'the narrow gate.' St. Matthew's word means a city gate, St. Luke's a small gate or door. Even city gates are exceedingly narrow in the East. For wide is the gate] Several modern editors omit the words 'is the gate.'
14. Strait] RV 'narrow.' Narrow] RV 'straitened.' Few there be that find it] lit. 'few be they who are finding it.' In St. Luke the disciples definitely ask, 'Lord, are they few that be saved?' but Jesus avoids a direct answer, bidding them look to themselves, and take care that they themselves enter by the narrow door. So here Jesus does not solve the mystery of the ultimate destiny of human souls. He refuses to say what proportion of mankind will be finally lost or saved, but he does say that the majority of men do not, in this world at least, choose the narrow way that leads to life. Whether after this life God will interpose to save them from their doom, and will apply to them some chastening discipline which may bring them to a better mind is not revealed. It may be so. Holy Scripture contains certain hints in this direction (1Pe_3:19; 1Pe_4:6), but nowhere gives any clear hope, lest men should be encouraged to neglect their opportunities of repentance in this life: see on Mat_12:32.
15-20. How to detect false prophets and hypocrites in general (Luk_6:43-45). The gift of prophecy was widely diffused in the Apostolic Church, so that the warning against false prophets was needed, but the word is intended to include hypocritical Christian teachers of all kinds. How can they be known? Not always by their doctrine, which, when it suits their purpose, is orthodox, but by their works, especially by their covetousness, which is the unfailing characteristic of false prophets.
The 'Didache' has some interesting remarks about the false prophets of the sub-apostolic age. 'Let every apostle (itinerant missionary) that comes to you, be received as the Lord. He will remain one day, and if necessary, two. If he remains three days, he is a false prophet. And when the apostle goes forth from you, let him receive nothing but bread for his day's journey. If he asks money, he is a false prophet... A prophet who in the Spirit orders a table to be laid, shall not eat of it himself. If he does, he is a false prophet.' The modern representative of the false prophet is the minister or teacher who works for hire or popularity.
15. False prophets] Not the Pharisees, but Christian false prophets and teachers, as is clear from Mat_7:22 : cp. also Mat_24:11, Mat_24:24; 1Jn_4:1.
Sheep's clothing] Not the official rough garb of prophets, as in Heb_11:37, but the disguise of those who wish to pass for sheep, i.e. for Christians. The sheep's clothing is the hypocritical professions and the outward ordination of the false teacher.
16. Fruits] Not doctrines, but works, or moral character, as always in NT.
17-19. Our Lord echoes and reinforces the Baptist's teaching: see on Mat_3:1-12.
21-23. The punishment of false prophets, and of all hypocrites. Our Lord carries us forward in thought to the day of judgment. Even then the false prophets will pretend to be sheep. They will say, 'Lord, Lord,' and plead their successful ministerial labours. But our Lord will say, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
21. Lord, Lord] During His earthly ministry Jesus was generally addressed as 'Rabbi,' Teacher. Here He claims the higher title of 'Lord,' but in what sense? Clearly as implying sovereignty over the universe, which was the sense in which it was applied to Jesus in the Apostolic Church: Act_10:36; 1Co_12:3; Php_2:11.
Kingdom of heaven] Here used of the final bliss of heaven. He that doeth] Everywhere in NT. it is said that men will be judged according to their works, not according to their faith or profession (Mat_16:27; Mat_25:35; Rom_2:6; 1Co_3:8; 2Co_5:10; 1Pe_1:17; Rev_2:23; Rev_22:12,; etc.). If faith is to justify, it must be a living faith which issues in good works.
22. Cast out devils.. wonderful works] There is no reason to suppose that this claim to successful ministerial work is unfounded. It is a fact that God does sometimes, for the sake of the flock, condescend to bless the work of evil shepherds, whose lives are not openly scandalous, and in general, we may say that 'the unworthiness of the ministers hinders not the effect of the sacraments.' Of course the best and truest work cannot be done by such men.
23. I never knew you] i.e. as true disciples: cp. Luk_13:27. The divinity of Christ appears not only from His office of judge, but from His power to read the heart. He claims that the most secret thoughts of the millions of the human race are naked and open before Him, and this is in effect, a claim to be divine.
24-27. The true foundation for all permanent spiritual building (Luk_6:46-49). The great sermon concludes with a parable. Two men built houses near a watercourse. One dug deep and reached the rock, the other built upon the sand (i.e. the alluvial deposit of the watercourse). In the winter there was a flood, and the house built on the sand collapsed. The rock is Christ's own person and teaching, the only foundation for stable, spiritual and social building. Whatever is built upon that rock, lasts. Personal character built up on Christ, i.e. on faith in Him and loyal obedience to His commands, is stable. Men can count upon it, for they feel its strength as well as its gentleness. Societies or states, based on the supremacy of Christ's moral law, last. They have in them the elements of stability, prosperity, and progress. The Christian Church itself is the greatest example of this permanence and progress. Established originally by men who had dug down to the rock and based themselves on faith in Christ's divinity and absolute self-surrender to His service (see Mat_16:18), it became a spiritual fabric which has outlasted the fall of empires, has spread to the most distant lands, and bids fair to fulfil the promise of its Founder that the gates of hell (i.e. of death or destruction) shall not prevail against it.
24. Doeth] Again the stress upon 'doing': see Jam_1:22.
25. Floods] There are hardly any rivers in Palestine except the Jordan, but there are many watercourses or winter-torrents (Heb. nahal, AV 'brook,' Arab. wâdy). These are mostly quite dry in the summer, but in the winter are full of muddy torrent-water, which descends with great violence, and often overflows its banks: cp. Job_6:15.; The foolish man in the parable had built his house either in or close by the channel of one of these wâdys, without thought of the winter rains.
28, 29. Effect of the sermon.
29. Not as the scribes] RV 'not as their scribes': see prefatory remarks to Matthew 5. The scribe relied entirely on tradition. Hence he was compared to a cemented cistern which held every drop of water put into it. So enamoured were the Jews of tradition, that they would hear nothing else even from a man so great as Hillel. It is said that though Hillel discoursed of a matter all day long, yet his hearers received not his doctrine, till at last he said, 'So I heard from Shemaiah and Abtalion.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XLII. G. Law…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XLII. G. Law Concerning Judging].
XLII. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. (A Mountain Plateau not far from Capernaum.) Subdivision G. LAW CONCERNING JUDGING. aMATT. VII. 1-6; cLUKE VI. 37-42.
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a1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. c37 And judge not, and ye shall not be judged [Here again Jesus lays down a general principle in the form of universal prohibition. The principle is, of course, to be limited by other Scriptural laws concerning judgment. It does not prohibit: 1. Judgment by civil courts, which is apostolically approved ( 2Pe_2:13-15, Heb_13:17, Tit_3:1). 2. Judgment of the church on those who walk disorderly; for this also was ordered by Christ and his apostles ( Mat_18:16, Mat_18:17, Tit_3:10, 2Th_3:6, 2Th_3:14, 1Jo_1:10, 1Ti_1:20, 1Ti_6:5). 3. Private judgment as to wrong-doers. This is also ordered by Christ and his apostles ( Mat_7:15, Mat_7:16, Rom_16:17, 1Jo_4:1, 1Co_5:11). The commandment is leveled at rash, censorious and uncharitable judgments, and the fault-finding spirit or disposition which condemns upon surmise without examination of the charges, forgetful that we also shall stand in the judgment and shall need mercy ( Rom_14:10, Jam_2:13). Our judgment of Christians must be charitable, ( Joh_7:24, 1Co_13:5, 1Co_13:6) in remembrance of the fact that they are God's servants ( Rom_14:4); and that he reserves to himself the ultimate right of judging [260] both them and us-- Rom_14:4, 1Co_4:3, 1Co_4:4, 2Co_5:10]: a2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. cand condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released [Though God shall judge us with absolute justice, yet justice often requires that we receive even in the same measure in which we have given it, so in a sense the merciful receive mercy, and the censorious receive censure ( Jam_2:12, Jam_2:13). But from men we receive judgment in the measure in which we give it. Applying the teaching here given locally, we find that Jesus, having condemned the Pharisees in their manner of praying, now turns to reprove them for their manner of judging. Their censorious judgments of Christ himself darken many pages of the gospel. But with a bitter spirit they condemned as sinners beyond the pale of mercy whole classes of their countrymen, such as publicans, Samaritans, and the like, besides their wholesale rejection of all heathen. These bitter judgments swiftly returned upon the heads of the judges and caused the victorious Roman to wipe out the Jewish leaders without mercy. It is a great moral principle of God's government that we reap as we sow. Censorious judgment and its harvest are merely one form of culture which comes under this general law]: 38 give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. [This is not necessarily a promise of the return of our gift in kind. It rather means that we shall receive an equivalent in joy and in that blessedness which Jesus meant when he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." The figurative language is borrowed from the market where the salesman, grateful for past kindnesses, endeavors, by pressing, shaking, and piling up, to put more grain into the measure for us than it will contain. Pockets were unknown to the ancients, and what they wished to take with them was carried in the fold in the bosom of the coat, the girdle below holding it up. [261] Ruth bore this a heavy burden in her mantle which, in the King James Version is mistakenly called the veil-- Rth_3:15.] 39 And he spake also a parable unto them, Can the blind guide the blind? shall they not both fall into a pit? [Whoso lacks the knowledge of divine truth can not so lead others that they shall find it. They shall both fall into the pitfalls of moral error and confusion.] 40 The disciple is not above his teacher: but every one when he is perfected shall be as his teacher. [Pupils do not surpass their teachers, or, if they do, they are self-taught, and hence do not owe to their teachers that wherein they rise superior to them. All that the scholar can hope from his teacher is that when he is perfectly instructed he shall be as his teacher. But if the teacher is a blind man floundering in a ditch, he affords but a dismal prospect for his pupils. The perfection of such teaching is certainly not desirable.] a3 And why beholdest thou the mote [chip or speck of wood dust] that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam [heavy house timber] that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt { ccanst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me cast out the mote aout of thine eye; cthat is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? aand lo, the beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. cthat is in thy brother's eye. [In Matthew and Luke Jesus gives slightly varying applications to this allegorical passage by setting it in different connections. In Luke, as we see, he places it after the words which describe the disastrous effect of being blind leaders of the blind. It therefore signifies in this connection that we ourselves should first see if we would teach others to see. In Matthew he places it after the words about censorious judgment, where it means that we must judge ourselves before we can be fit judges of others. The thought is practically the same, for there is little difference between correcting others as their teachers or as [262] their self-appointed judges. Jesus graphically and grotesquely represents a man with a log, or rafter, in his eye trying to take a chip or splinter out of his neighbor's eye. Both parties have the same trouble or fault, but the one having the greater seeks to correct the one having the less. The application is that he who would successfully teach or admonish must first be instructed or admonished himself ( Gal_6:1). In moral movements men can not be pushed; they must be led. Hence those who would teach must lead the way. Those who have reformed their own faults can "see clearly" how to help others. But so long as we continue in sin, we are blind leaders of the blind.] a6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you. [The connection here is not obvious. This saying, however, appears to be a limitation of the law against judging. The Christian must not be censoriously judicial, but he should be discriminatingly judicious. He must know dogs and swine when he sees them, and must not treat them as priests and kings, the fit objects for the bestowal of holy food and goodly ornaments. Dogs and swine were unclean animals. The former were usually undomesticated and were often fierce. In the East they are still the self-appointed scavengers of the street. The latter were undomesticated among the Jews, and hence are spoken of as wild and liable to attack man. Meats connected with the sacrificial service of the altar were holy. Even unclean men were not permitted to eat of them, much less unclean brutes. What was left after the priests and clean persons had eaten was to be burned with fire ( Lev_6:24-30, Lev_7:15-21). To give holy things to dogs was to profane them. We are here forbidden, then, to use any religious office, work, or ordinance, in such a manner as to degrade or profane it. Saloons ought not to be opened with prayer, nor ought adulterous marriages to be performed by a man of God. To give pearls to swine is to press the claims of the gospel upon those who despise it until they persecute you for annoying them with it. When such men are known, [263] they are to be avoided. Jesus acted on this principle in refusing to answer the Pharisees, and the apostles did the same in turning to the Gentiles when their Jewish hearers would begin to contradict and blaspheme. Compare Mat_15:2, Mat_15:3, Mat_21:23-27, Act_13:46, Act_19:9.]
[FFG 260-264]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain judge not
judge not
In the sense of condemnation.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 1. The Judgment of Righteousness.(Mat 7:1-14.)
CHAPTER 7
1. The Judgment of Righteousness.(Mat 7:1-14.)
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2. Warning against False Prophets.( Mat 7:15-20.)
3. Warning against False Professors. (Mat 7:21-29.)
The chapter which follows contains the last words of the great discourse of our Lord. The contents of this chapter are very instructive and form a most fitting end of the declaration of the King. The first few verses contain a warning against judging. We have in the beginning of the chapter something which is altogether different from the last section of the sixth chapter. There we saw the heir of the Kingdom in the midst of the world, how he is to trust in and depend on the Father and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, his walk undivided and depending. When our Lord begins with “Judge not, that ye be not judged” He directs the attention to the conduct of the disciple towards his fellow disciple. The conduct towards those who are enemies, who despitefully use and persecute the heirs of the Kingdom was mentioned by our Lord before. It is the relation they were to show one towards the other He touches upon now. The principle of this relation is love. In Matthew of course it could not be mentioned in full. In the Gospel of John our Lord leads His disciples into the fullness of it, which here is but indicated, and in the First Epistle of John these precious things are still more unfolded. After He had, as the Lord and Teacher, washed the disciples’ feet, He told them that they ought to wash one another’s feet. This is the opposite from that against which He warns here, sitting upon judgment against the other and exposing one another’s faults.
But we ask, what does our Lord mean, when He says: “Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you”? Does He in these words forbid the judging of outward actions or the present evil? Some have taken it in this sense and gone into that looseness against which the Lord warns later (Mat 7:6). The Lord does not forbid here the judging of actions and evil. If He did, His words would clash with numerous statements in the Epistles. For instance, we read in Corinthians: “For what have I to do with judging those outside also? Yea, do not ye judge them that are within? But those without God judges. Remove the wicked persons from among yourselves” (1Co 5:12-13). It is evident from these words, as well as from the order our Lord has laid down, to proceed with a brother who has sinned (Mat 18:15-18), that the individual believer as well as the assembly has a right to judge evil actions. Furthermore, in this very chapter our Lord declares, “By their fruits ye shall know them;” how, then, could we know them if it were not by ourselves judging the persons on account of their evil actions? Certainly judging of things which surround us, as well as persons, when it is our plain duty to do so, is nowhere forbidden. Contending earnestly for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, to which we are exhorted in these days of falling away, carries with it the necessity of judging that which, in man-made systems as well as in persons, is offensive to God and dishonoring to our Lord. The words which demand the separation from that which is evil presupposes judging likewise. This solemn duty we have as believers, in the midst of a perverse generation, standing as we do, at the close of this dispensation. It is to be exercised as in the fear of the Lord and with the single eye to His glory and the honor of His name. Easily and quickly made is the step from the judging, which is duty, to that censoriousness, fault-finding and all that follows, against which our Lord warns and which is sinful.
But what is the meaning of the words “Judge not”? Our Lord forbids the judging of motives, the spring from which actions result. I have no right to judge that which is not manifested to mine eyes. Motives are concealed and known to God alone. He who in censoriousness continually judges his brother’s motives and in a fault-finding spirit sits in judgment upon him, assumes the place of the judge, which does not belong to him, but to the Lord only. Two passages, perhaps, from Romans and Corinthians explain the judging which our Lord condemns: “One man is assured that he may eat all things; but the weak eats herbs. Let not him that eats make little of him that eats not; and let not him that eats not judge him that eats: for God has received him. Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? to his own master he stands and falls. ... But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? or again, thou, why dost thou make little of thy brother? for we shall all be placed before the judgment seat of God. ... Let us no longer therefore judge one another; but judge ye this rather, not to put a stumbling-block or a fall-trap before his brother” (Rom 14:3-13). “So that do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord shall come, who shall also both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then shall each have his praise from God” (1Co 4:5).
And how true it is what our Lord says: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you.” This is a law, from which the believer cannot escape. A law like that other one in Galatians, “Be not deceived: God is not mocked; for whatever a man shall sow, that shall he reap.” Many a one has found out the swift working of this law, “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you.” Many will have yet to learn by sad experiences and much heartache that the execution of this law is never slow. The word was quickly spoken which censured a brother’s motives, which belittled him (to lift up the self of the accuser), but it will not take very long, and some one will step up with the same measure and the same judgment and do the same to us. Nothing is so detrimental to spirituality than a habitual censoriousness.
And why, then, do men see the little mote in their brother’s eye? Because they do not see the great beam in their own.
If the saint But judges himself he will surely not be forever occupied with seeing the mote in the Brother’s eye. He will be patient, loving and not surmise always evil. “Love does not impute evil ... beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1Co 13:1-13).
In the sixth verse our Lord warns against the other extreme, which is looseness, the abuse of His grace: “Give not that which is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them with their feet and turn round and rend you.” (That incorrect paraphrase called “the Twentieth Century New Testament” has seen fit to put part of this verse in a more refined [? !] language. They translate, “Do not give what is sacred to dogs; nor yet throw your pearls before pigs.” How ridiculous!) A person misunderstanding the “judge not” may allow evil to go unjudged, and therefore that which is holy and the pearls become defiled and are trampled under feet by dogs and swine -- unconverted persons, though perhaps outward professors (see 2Pe 2:22). To apply the passage to the preaching of the Gospel to the unsaved and to those sunk the deepest in vice would be incorrect. It has no reference to the preaching of the Gospel. We should, however, always guard against any irreverent use of the word of God and the blessed things made known in it.
In Mat 7:7-11 we have the familiar words of our Lord telling us to ask of Him, with the assurance that every one that asketh receiveth. The connection is obvious. In looking at the injunctions our Lord gives not to judge and not to abuse, what He has given, one feels the need of wisdom. Intercourse with God in prayer supplies this need. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (Jas 1:5).
And what an invitation is here put before us! How simple and definite the language! How plain it all is with no “if” or “but” added to it. Happy he who takes all these words in their simple meaning and ever uses the royal offer in faith. Of course we would not look in Matthew for the fullest teaching on prayer in His name nor could the words here, “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you,” be applied to anyone else but believers. This is clear from the words: “If ye then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to those that ask Him.” In Luk 11:1-54 we read the same word, but there it says, “give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” The prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit, however, is no longer in order, for the Comforter has come, and no believer has a right now to ask upon this promise for the Spirit.
The 12th verse (Mat 7:12) in this chapter is one of the most misapplied in the whole discourse of our Lord. “All things, therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, thus do ye also to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” This, many professing Christians and others, who make no profession at all, call the golden rule. How many, Jews and Gentiles, have told us that this is the religion they believe in. It is even claimed that in the “sacred” books of the East, the religious products of Buddhism and Brahmanism, something similar is found. (Jews claim the same for the Talmud because Hillel taught “What thou wouldst not wish for thyself, do not unto thy neighbor. This is the whole law.” -- Talmud, Sabb. 31.)
Yet with all this boast in a rule which they do not understand, no one keeps it nor would think of keeping it. The Lord gives this practical word to the true disciple. He who is born again is born of God. He has the nature of God and that is love. “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. ... Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom 13:8 and Rom 13:10). “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1Jn 3:11). “We love, because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19). We see then that the terse saying our Lord puts in the chapter is not out of keeping with the whole. The outcome of intercourse with God spoken of in Mat 7:7-11 will be, acting in love.
This is followed by an exhortation such as He who is from above alone could give and with it the first half of the seventh chapter closes. “Enter ye in through the narrow gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many there are that enter through it; because narrow is the gate and straitened is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there are that find it.” It is the well-known Gospel text, though not always correctly applied. The gate (door) and the way is Christ Himself. “I am the door of the sheep; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (Joh 10:1-42). “I am the way ... no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (Joh 14:1-31). And why then is the gate narrow? Not because certain conditions and hard terms are to be fulfilled, but because man does not want to give up his own righteousness and clinging still to his miserable, filthy rags, he refuses God’s way and God’s door of salvation, which is Christ and Christ alone. Ah, the devices of Satan ever multiplying to keep men away from entering in through the narrow gate! The broad way that leads to destruction was never so thronged in the history of Christendom with such masses of professing, self-righteous, moral, educated, but Christ and the blood rejecting “Christians” as in these days, and still the word is true of the narrow gate and the straitened way that “few there are that find it.”
In His closing words our Lord gives a most solemn warning against false prophets, and makes a contrast between the false professor and the true possessor. “Beware of false prophets, such as come to you in sheep’s clothing, but within are ravening wolves!” (Mat 7:15). Let us notice first of all that this warning has a special significance for the closing of the age, that is, the ending of this dispensation, the seven years of tribulation and sorrow in the earth. We only need to turn to the Olivet discourse (Mat 24:1-51) in which our Lord answers the question of His disciples concerning the consummation of the age. When they asked about this ending of the age they surely meant nothing else but the Jewish age, for of a Christian age they knew nothing. In answer our Lord gives, describing the events which fall into the seventieth week of Daniel, He says: “And many false prophets shall arise.” These false prophets will make their appearance during the great tribulation, no doubt under the leadership of the false prophet, the Beast, so prominent in the book of Revelation. That there have been throughout this dispensation false prophets in sheep’s clothing and that they are more numerous now than they have ever been before we need hardly mention, yet strictly speaking, the warning against false prophets concerns the Jewish remnant in the earth during the time of Jacob’s trouble. Nowhere are we as believers warned against false prophets; we are warned against false spirits and false teachers, which of course, like the false prophets come in sheep’s clothing. False prophets then, after the church is taken, to lead many astray; false teachers and false spirits now while the Church is still on the earth. The false prophets, who will undoubtedly work many miracles and be leaders of the strong delusions, are the visible manifestation of the false spirits which are now at work. When Paul said farewell to the Elders of Ephesus he said: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Act 20:29-30). How soon this prophecy was fulfilled! Let us remind ourselves of some of the solemn warnings which are for the Church. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ” (Col 2:8). “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so-called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (1Ti 6:20). The very errors and false teachings so prevalent in these days are marked out here. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons” (1Ti 4:1). And how great the increase of these seducing spirits in our day! “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (2Pe 2:1). The so-called “Higher Critics,” who sit in wicked judgment upon the infallible Word of God and dishonor Christ, the living Word, are meant here. And where are these men not found throughout Christendom? See also the warnings against false spirits in the first Epistle of John. (1Jn 4:1-3; 2Co 2:17; 2Co 11:13-15; Tit 1:10-11, and other passages).
But whether they are false prophets coming in the future or the false spirits and teachers at the present time, they come in sheep’s clothing. Anti-Christ himself will first speak like a lamb and have a flattering tongue, and all the prophets under his control will follow him, backing their assertions by signs and lying miracles. The story of Moses and Aaron sent by Jehovah, and Jannes and Jambres sent by Satan and endued by him with power, will then be acted out again (Exo 7:11). In this way many will be led astray. In our age Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, and the false spirits and teachers appear like meek sheep of the Great Shepherd. In the subtle infidelity which denies the inspiration of the Bible, Satan has surely transformed himself thus. There is much talk from their side of “Bible research,” and that their work will help in bringing out the truth, and many declarations that they are sincere and earnest Christian workers in spite of their infidelity in the divinity of the Scriptures, but all this is but the sheep’s dress in which they make their appearance. We think of other false teachers who deny the eternal Deity of our Lord, the physical resurrection of Him and the revealed facts concerning the dead in Christ and those who died unsaved. (We have reference to the “Millennial Dawn Series.” Thousands have been led astray by these books which appear indeed in sheep’s clothing, but within is the ravening wolf who wishes to harm the flock of Christ.) All these soul destroying false teachings come in the garb of truth and light.
Our Lord continues: “By their fruits ye shall know them: do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? So every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but the corrupt tree bringeth forth bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. By their fruits then shall ye know them” (Mat 7:16-20).
What does our Lord mean by fruit? Does He mean downright wickedness? There is no question that immorality and evil deeds are included under the term fruit. Many a false teacher began in teaching error in such a way that the error could hardly be distinguished from the truth, but continuing in error he ended with many of his followers in the flesh. Often behind the most subtle errors the flesh is nourished and an outbreak in gross immorality may follow. Yet, if our Lord meant nothing but evil deeds and wickedness, it would be hard indeed to detect these false ones. Satan is not so blind as to peddle his lies around by wicked people whose lives bear the stamp of immorality and open wickedness. He does it in quite another way. We were often told of people who hold the most abominable doctrines and deny the Deity of our Lord as well as the atonement, “But look at the beautiful lives they live! How meek and lovely they are! How much good they do! Do not their lives prove that their doctrine is right and the fruit show that the tree is not bad?” This outward moral appearance and a “sweet” temper belongs only too often to the sheep’s clothing and is one of the devices of Satan with which he tries to lead many away from the truth and into error -- the fruit by which we shall know them may be wickedness in the grossest form, but it means more than that. The word “Do men gather grapes from thorns and figs from thistles?” is the key. Grapes and figs speak of true fruit. Thorns bear fruit which may resemble grapes, but never can they be grapes from which comes the wine which makes glad the heart of God and man. The soul looking deeper (and we remember the warning is for believers) than outward appearances finds soon that the false teacher or spirit is not in the truth. He tests it by the Word, and finds the fruit, the glory of Christ and glorying in Him, lacking. It is a most subtle substitute for the true fruit -- a counterfeit -- and leaves the soul empty. A believer, not much taught in the Scriptures, sent us a few weeks ago a question about a certain publication which was sent to him with the promise of leading him into a better knowledge of the Bible inasmuch as it was devoted to Bible study. We wrote him at once exposing the true character of the paper. He answered, that while he had but little knowledge yet of the Word, and while much seemed to be in favor of the paper which had been placed into his hands, yet while reading he experienced a feeling of emptiness, there was no response from his heart and a lack of joy and peace. This, perhaps, will be helpful to see how a true believer will know them by their fruit.
But in the words of our Lord we have also the most definite teaching of that doctrine, which may be termed the A B C of the Gospel, the total depravity of man, the utter ruin of man, and, therefore, the necessity of the impartation of a new nature. Both, as we well know, are denied by some of the leading preachers and teachers of all the great evangelical denominations. To deny these truths is equal to the denial that Christ is our Saviour. Man is, according to the new theology, his own Saviour. The tree is corrupt, the fruit is bad. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. The tree is good and the fruit is good. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
In the three verses our Lord mentions His own coming day, when He will appear as the One into whose hands the Father has given all things. The whole ending of the discourse brings us into that time. This in itself makes it that great dispensational discourse concerning the kingdom, as we have pointed out in our exposition.
“Not every one who saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father, who is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out demons, and in Thy name have done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye who work lawlessness!”
That this has no reference to the Church is evident. The Church meets the Lord in the air, and every believer has in Christ’s day to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. But at that judgment seat no mere professors of Christ’s name will appear, and no “Depart from Me,” will be heard from the lips of the Lord, the Head of the Body. Nor does this word here in Matthew refer us to the great white throne. When our Lord says “in that day,” He means the day when the kingdom of the heavens is come by His return to the earth. Then many will be found but empty professors, who in spite of their works and using His name were none of His. From this dispensational aspect, we may well look to our times. The name of Christ is upon many lips, and there are many who speak in His name, and do works of power in His name, yet they are not saved and know Him not. Christian Science, falsely so-called, may be mentioned here as well as others. Not outward profession brings into the kingdom and makes one an heir of it, but doing the will of the Father. This is continued in the last paragraph. “Therefore, whosoever heareth these words of mine and doeth them, is likened unto a prudent man, who built his house upon the rock, and the rain and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Mat 7:24-27).
How sublime and yet simple is this illustration of our Lord! Hearing first and doing is the way. The rock upon which he who heareth (believeth), builds, is Christ. Other foundation can no man lay. Being in Him we are safe and secure in time and in eternity. The storm will come, and is even now advancing, yet we have a refuge and a shelter in Him, and as He abides, the Rock, so shall we abide. How true, oh! how true it is:
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.
All which is not Christ is sinking sand. Reader! where do you stand, upon Christ and Christ alone, or upon something else -- no matter what -- the sinking sand?
Such teaching, such unfoldings of the purposes of God were never heard before. The Pharisees and scribes disputed together, and expressed their human opinions, but here One spake with authority, so that the multitudes were astonished.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Warning against Unauthorized Judging and Admonition to Persevere in…
Warning against Unauthorized Judging and Admonition to Persevere in Prayer.
A lesson from the Eighth Commandment:
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v. 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
v. 2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
The Lord’s words, in this connection, do not exclude all judging. According to God’s own creation and order, those whom He has placed as superiors have the right and duty to watch over those placed in their care and correct any wrong disposition and behavior. The executive and judicial officers of a country or a city, the heads of every household, the teachers in the schools, the officers of the church and the whole congregation, Mat 18:15; Gal 6:1, the voters in all democratic forms of government,—all these have the power and the duty to exercise judgment in their particular sphere. The word used by the Lord implies personal, unkind, uncharitable, unauthorized, condemnatory judgment. It was and is a common habit, "especially in religious circles of the Pharisaic type. " Even an official expression of our opinion may run into a sinful extreme. And so far as the common slandering is concerned, what ignorance, haste, levity, prejudice, vanity, and egotism is often revealed in the sentences it pronounces; what an utter disregard of the law of love! How easily even permissible criticism is entangled with personalities! Therefore the warning: Lest ye be judged in the same manner. Uncharitable, unauthorized judgment will be punished here as well as hereafter. It usually pronounces its own condemnation, Rom 2:1. And this condemnation will measure up to the severity of the original transgression: Judgment for judgment; measure for measure. Many an ill report about us may be a just reward for an uncharitable criticism uttered by us, either in thoughtlessness or in spite. An unjust blow will recoil on him who has dealt it.
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 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus continues to teach his disciples in his Sermon on the Mount, which began in Matthew 5:3.
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General Information:
Jesus is talking to a group of people about what they as individuals should and should not do. The instances of "you" and the commands are plural. (See: Forms of You)
Do not judge
It is implied here that "judge" has the strong meaning of "condemn harshly" or "declare guilty." AT: "Do not condemn people harshly" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
you will not be judged
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will not condemn you harshly" (See: Active or Passive)
For
Be sure the reader understands the statement in Mat 7:2 is based on what Jesus said in Mat 7:1.
with the judgment you judge, you will be judged
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will condemn you in the same way you condemn others" (See: Active or Passive)
measure
Possible meanings are 1) this is the amount of punishment given or 2) this is the standard used for judgment.
it will be measured out to you
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will measure it out to you" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
judge
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 7:1 Mercy is a dominant theme in Jesus’ teaching…
7:1 Mercy is a dominant theme in Jesus’ teaching and practice (9:9-13; 12:1-7), but not at the expense of clear opposition to sin (see 18:15-20; 23:13-33). At the same time, Jesus calls for people to stop oppressively controlling others in the name of pastoral concern. The judgment Jesus prohibits often involves rigorous scrutiny of trivial matters (see 23:23-24). God alone has the right to judge (see Jas 4:11-12). • you will not be judged: This might refer to God’s judgment at the end of history (see Matt 5:7). God measures us by our treatment of others (see 6:12; 18:21-35).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.