Matthew 5

Notes

Ver. 3. Truly happy they are, and shall be, who are sensible of their own ignorance, sinfulness, and insufficiency, and depend on God's free grace for instruction, forgiveness, and supply; and whose hearts are so weaned from the riches, honours, and pleasures of this life, that they readily submit to God's disposals, and part with everything temporal for the gospel's sake; for they have a full and everlasting interest in all the riches and honours of the kingdom of grace here, and of the kingdom of glory hereafter. 4. Happy are they who evangelically mourn under a deep sense of their own sinfulness of heart and life, and the miseries to which they are thereby exposed, and for the dishonour done to God by others, or the miseries inflicted on them; for they shall, in due season, be revived by the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and shall at last enter into the full and everlasting joy of their Lord. 5. Happy are they who, sensible of their own unworthiness, and of God's great goodness, readily submit to his will in all things without murmuring, and who are gentle and patient to their fellow-creatures, hardly provoked and easily appeased; for they, with God's friendship, and with inward satisfaction in their own minds, shall enjoy whatever of the good things of this world are most for their real advantage, and shall have their happy share in the new heavens and the new earth. 6. Happy are they who highly value, and earnestly desire and apply, my complete sacrifice for their justification, and my Word and Spirit for the sanctification of their nature; for their desires shall be granted, and their souls eternally filled with all possible graces and comforts. 7. Happy are they who, from an unfeigned faith in God's special mercy to themselves, are tender-hearted towards others, readily forbearing severities, forgiving injuries, pitying and relieving the distressed; for God, in his unbounded kindness, will reward them with mercies inexpressibly more valuable. 8. Happy are they whose religion is pure and undefiled, whose hearts are purified by faith, their consciences washed in the blood of Jesus from guilt, their natures and tempers rendered holy by his Spirit, and who allow themselves in no hypocrisy, pride, or sensuality; for they shall enjoy delightful fellowship with God here, and the full and immediate vision and enjoyment of him for ever. 9. Happy, and that eternally, shall they be who, being reconciled to God through Christ, have his peace filling their hearts, and rendering them earnestly diligent to maintain and promote peace in every society they are connected with, as far as they can, in a consistence with truth and holiness; for this manifests them to be the children of God, who shall be openly and eternally owned as such, and enjoy all the privileges that belong to the adoption of sons. 10-12. Happy are they who, with faith and patience, undergo the severest persecutions for their adherence to me, my truths and ways; for they are interested in, and shall enjoy, all the blessings of the gospel and of the heavenly state.—Do ye therefore, my disciples, reckon it a real happiness, and rejoice and glory in it, if, while ye live soberly, righteously, and godly, ye be reproached and persecuted for preaching my gospel, and following my example in holiness; for God will graciously reward you, and make even your troubles work for you an exceeding and eternal weight of glory; and know, for your encouragement, that in this path of persecution all the ancient prophets, those favourites of Heaven, travelled to and obtained their heavenly, their distinguished, rewards. 13. Ye are appointed, by your instructions and example, to spread abroad the savour of my knowledge wherever ye go, to reform the world, and preserve it from utter corruption and ruin. If therefore your hearts be gracious, your doctrines sound, and your lives exemplary, ye will be the blessed means of purging out corruptions in faith and manners, and of making multitudes of converts acceptable to God and useful to man. But if ye degenerate into unfaithful, cold, and carnal tempers, corrupt notions, and licentious lives, ye will become the most unprofitable, worthless, and contemptible of men. 14-16. Ye are appointed, in the most public manner, to spread abroad the light of my gospel in a dark world, and, by your instructions and example, to direct sinners into the way of salvation. Take care, therefore, that your doctrine and conversation shine with such lustre and purity before all men wherever ye go, that, by means thereof, they, under the influence of divine grace, may be brought to esteem, acknowledge, and admire the great excellency of real religion, as displayed in you, and to embrace and practise it themselves, to the glory of your heavenly Father. 17, 18. Think not that I am come to abrogate the moral law, or to set aside the writings of the Old Testament, or to teach anything contrary thereto. No, my great aim and work is to confirm them. I am come to explain, enforce, and establish the moral law, as an everlasting rule of righteousness, and to vindicate it from the injurious glosses which have been put upon it. I am come to fulfil all its precepts and its penalty, as a broken covenant, in the room of sinful men; and, in so doing, to answer all the types, accomplish the prophecies and promises, and to fill up all the defects of the Old Testament dispensation. For I assure you, in the most solemn manner, that no part of the typical ceremonies, or of the Old Testament predictions, shall be left unfulfilled, and no obligation of the moral law shall ever be set aside. And as I myself will persevere in the most exact obedience till the last moment of my humbled life, so will I excite and enable my followers to persevere in their obedience till the end of the world. 19. Whoever therefore shall wilfully set aside and transgress even the least of these moral commands, or teach or encourage others to do so, shall be held unworthy to be a subject, and much more an officer, in the gospel church, or of admission into the heavenly glory; and he who, from a principle of faith and love, shall conscientiously respect all these commandments, and teach and encourage others to do so, shall be highly honoured among my subjects and servants. 20. I assure you that, unless ye be interested in my complete fulfilment of the law in your stead, and unless your personal conformity to the law be more excellent, spiritual, and extensive than that of the highest Pharisaical pretenders to holiness, ye can never be admitted to the blessings of the kingdom of grace here, or of glory hereafter. 21, 22. For, to give you some specimens of their defective interpretations and observances of the moral law, they pretend that there is no disobedience to the ancient command prohibiting murder, and adjudging murderers to death, but in wilfully and unjustly taking away a man's life. But such is the spirituality and extent of this commandment, that whosoever indulges rash, wrathful, and causeless anger, or a malicious and revengeful temper, is, in God's account, guilty of murder in his heart, and thereby exposed to his righteous judgment; and whoever in pride and passion revile their neighbours as worthless empty wretches, or as profane reprobate brands of hell, involve themselves in still deeper guilt, and ought to be punished by men, but shall not escape the far more severe and everlasting justice of God. 23, 24. Never therefore presume to perform any act of religious worship, or to hope for its acceptance with God, while ye indulge yourselves in causeless and sinful anger, or in evil speaking; but if ye have offended a brother, first humbly confess your fault, ask his pardon, and satisfy him for the wrong you have done him, and then present your devotions to God, in hopes of forgiveness and acceptance. 25, 26. And as both God and your brother are jointly offended, without delay embrace the reconciliation which God offers you in his promises, and be reconciled to your offended brother while ye are in the way of mercy, lest death cut you off in your sins, and drag you to the tribunal of God, that you may be condemned and cast into hell, from whence ye can never be released, since everlasting sin is the complete equivalent of everlasting hell. 27-30. The scribes and Pharisees pretend that nothing else is prohibited by the ancient commandment respecting adultery but a man's actually lying with a woman who is not his wife. But I assure you that, according to the mind of God in this precept, every man who looks upon any woman with unchaste desires after her, and contrives how to accomplish them, is guilty of adultery in his heart, though he has not had opportunity to commit it in fact; and therefore, if this, or any other sin, should be ever so dear, apparently pleasant, or profitable to you, and though it should require great self-denial, and be very painful for you to part with it, yet, as the loving, harbouring, or practising it, would defile and endanger your soul, offend God, and expose you to his everlasting wrath, mortify, detest, and abhor it without delay: it is better to suffer the greatest uneasiness and temporal loss in so doing, than that your whole man should be eternally lost, in hell on account of your indulging and practising it. 33-37. Your scribes and Pharisees pretend that the ancient command relative to swearing prohibits only the breach of such oaths as are sworn by God himself, or the swearing by his name in ordinary conversation; but I assure you that it prohibits the swearing by any creature, and the violation of such oaths as are sworn by them, since God is represented in, and connected with, every creature ye can swear by. Do not therefore swear at all by creatures, or in common conversation, but merely affirm or deny things as they really are; for all other means to gain credit to what you say, in the common affairs of life, proceed from the devil and your own sinful habits or lusts, and imply that yourselves are unworthy to be believed, or that your hearers are unreasonably incredulous. 38-42. The ancient law prescribed only for the direction of magistrates, in the retaliation of injuries done by their subjects one to another, is understood by your scribes and Pharisees as if it warranted private persons to indulge a malicious temper, and revenge themselves in lawsuits or otherwise; but I admonish and charge you never to avenge yourselves by rendering evil for evil; and, in lesser matters, bear even repeated affronts and injuries with patience, rather than retaliate in a contentious, revengeful, and furious manner; and, as far as ye can, without embarrassing your own worldly circumstances, be always ready, by giving or lending, to relieve the necessities of others, especially if they humbly apply to you for help. 43-48. Your scribes and Pharisees have further pretended that the ancient law of loving your neighbours warrants you to hate all those who are not of your kindred and religion; but though ye ought never to approve the wickedness of your enemies, I solemnly charge you to love their persons, as partakers of the same human nature with yourselves, speak good of them as far as ye justly can, and heartily wish them all temporal and eternal happiness; take all opportunities of doing good to them, and earnestly pray for their conversion and salvation who hate, curse, despitefully use, and persecute you, that ye may appear the genuine children of that God, and perfectly conformed to his image, who is so graciously liberal of his providential favours, even to his wicked and unreasonable enemies of mankind; for if ye only love them who are affectionate and kind to you, or be friendly to those of your own kindred, religion, or party, what peculiar excellency is in that conduct, or what gracious reward can ye expect for it? It is no more than even the worst of men think themselves obliged to, by the common ties of gratitude, nature, or society. Study therefore to have your principles and behaviour greatly superior to all this, and rising to the highest resemblance of your heavenly Father, whose tender mercies are over all his works, in the displays of his goodness and all his other moral perfections.

Ver. 1. Set. Sitting was the Jewish posture of instruction: and it still prevails among teachers in the universities. The Jewish readers, however, seem to have stood up until they commenced to expound. See Lu. 4. 16, 20. C.

Ver. 13. Salt is a compound body, whether natural or artificial. Its general character is sapidity, and a preservative power when combined with animal substances. But if by any chemical agency one or more of its constituents be separated from the others, the part remaining may retain much of the appearance of the original compound, and yet have lost its most remarkable and valuable properties. Maundrel declares that when, in the Valley of Salt, near Gebul, he broke a piece that had been exposed to the rain, sun, and air, though it retained the sparkling appearance of the salt, it had totally lost its savour, in conformity to our Lord's description.—Note, The disciples were commissioned by the salt of truth, by the example of self-denial, purity of life, and piety, to counteract the corruption of falsehood, covetousness, licentiousness, forgetfulness of God, and idolatry. But if the salt (Christians themselves) have lost its savour, wherewith shall it (the salt itself) be salted? C.

Ver. 17. Neither to abrogate nor repeal the moral law, to which it is evident he refers; for he proceeds to vindicate it from the false glosses of the scribes and Pharisees. But neither did he formally abrogate or repeal the ceremonial law, though it be also fulfilled. The ceremonial law ceased among the Jews when Providence rendered its observances impossible. Upon the Gentiles it was never binding. See Ac. 21. 20-26; 15. 1, 23-29. C.

Ver. 18. Till the types be fulfilled by the antitype; till the end be attained by Christ in his righteousness; and till the predictions with which all is illustrated and enforced shall be fulfilled—first, in the dispersion, and afterwards in the restoration, of Israel. C.

Ver. 19. Shall be called the least. Of all men the least pleasing to God; one who knew the law, but was at once a teacher and example of disobedience. See ver. 20.—Note, 'The kingdom of heaven' does not mean the kingdom of glory, but the gospel dispensation. See Mat. 13. 24-30, 47-50, &c. C.

Ver. 20. Your righteousness can never mean personal righteousness in an acknowledged sinner, for the two ideas are utterly incompatible; see Ro. 3. 10. There is no righteousness but that of God through faith, Ro. 3. 22. This righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees—1. In its Origin and Author—God in Christ. 2. In its perfection—having the excellency of God's work in the flesh. 3. In its efficacy upon the conscience, to purge it; and upon the heart, to write the law on it, He. 9. 14; 8. 10-12. C.

Ver. 22. In this verse allusion is made to well-known Jewish customs. Various degrees of guilt received from them various degrees of punishment. The fundamental principle here is, that sins of thought or wish are, in the sight of God, virtual transgressions of his law. The man who cherishes causeless anger breaks the sixth commandment, and is liable to the judgment—a Jewish tribunal which inflicted death by the sword. The man who in his anger gave utterance to the contumelious epithet raca was liable to the council, which inflicted death by stoning. The man who said to a brother fool was liable to the Gehenna of fire; i.e. to die the death of a malefactor, and to have his body thrown into the valley of Hinnom, there to be burned. The punishment in every case was death. So in regard to every sin; whatever its kind or degree it is worthy of death, though that death may be inflicted in different ways, and accompanied by different trials. P.

Ver. 26. The adversary signifies, in the original, an opponent at law. He detains his prisoner till he has paid 'the uttermost farthing' of a limited pecuniary debt—diminishing by every payment. How much more shall a righteous God adjudge to 'everlasting punishment' (Mat. 25. 46) impenitent and obstinate sinners, whose guilt has been daily increasing through time (2 Ti. 3. 16), and whose profligacy and rebellion will abide through eternity! Re. 22. 11. C.

Ver. 34. Swear not at all. This prohibition does not extend to 'an oath for confirmation (which is) an end of all strife,' He. 6. 16, but to profane swearing in ordinary conversation. See ver. 37. The lawfulness of a solemn oath in judicial controversy cannot be questioned by any that consider the moral character of the judicial law of the Jews, and the still more solemn example of God himself. See Ge. 26. 3; Ex. 22. 11; De. 29. 12; 1 Ki. 8. 31; Mat. 5. 33; Ac. 2. 30; He. 6. 17; 7. 28. C.

Ver. 36. These were all common forms of swearing. Some of them are so still in the East. In fact, easterns can scarcely utter a sentence without some form or other of imprecation. Their language is polluted with oaths and blasphemy. It was probably in consequence of this pernicious practice that our Lord administered the rebuke. P.

Ver. 38. These quotations were just rules for judges deciding between man and man; but more than dangerous if applied to sanction and measure out private revenge; which perversion of them our Lord here forbids. C.

Ver. 47. The publicans, as the original Greek intimates, were the tax-farmers; and the name seems also applied to their collectors. They seem to have been adopted as the lowest standard of character, both on account of their rapacity and the popular odium attendant upon them as agents of the Roman despotism. C.

Reflections.—Carnal men have very mistaken views of real happiness; it is vain to expect it without being made truly holy. But what a rich variety of blessings the gospel provides for the followers of Christ, under their numerous sorrows, persecutions, reproaches, fears, and dangers, to animate and encourage their holy desires, faith and hope, meekness and patience, humility, love, self-denial, peace, and joy! And marvellous is their happiness in the full enjoyment of God. Delightful are the hints of gospel grace given by our Saviour, which were to be more clearly manifested after his ascension to heaven. And great glory to God, honour to themselves, and profit to their neighbours, do professors, and especially ministers, bring forth when they act in due character. How indispensable and broad, how holy, just, and good, are all the commandments and oracles of God! And great is his grace, and excellent his righteousness, who magnified and made them honourable in the room of guilty men. It is highly necessary to be clothed with his righteousness, endowed with his grace, and conformed to his pattern, in every good word or work. But base is their temper, criminal their conduct, and fearful their danger, who attempt to relax the obligation or contract the obedience of God's law. And it is impossible to have fellowship with him, or have our services accepted by him, while we indulge hatred of brethren, or any other sinful lust. Yea, great reverence of God, and his name and ordinances; great chastity and purity of heart and life; universal mortification of indwelling lusts, and dominion over our appetites and passions; a sacred guard upon our speech, and forbearance under injuries; a diffusive beneficence to mankind, and imitation of our heavenly Father; are necessary to manifest us Christians indeed! Are these, my soul, the laws of the great God my Saviour, and I so unlike them? Are these the laws by which I shall quickly be judged, and do I so little regard them? Let these considerations quicken my soul, and animate me to more serious attention and exact conformity.