but a sword. The wisdom which is from above is "first pure" and then “peaceable.” All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. 5:11. "Blessed are you when men shall revile you !" As the prophets of old were persecuted because they set forth and maintained the righteousness of God, so the disciples of Christ must be reviled and persecuted because they proclaim Christ as the incarnation of the righteous and holy God, because they proclaim the good news of his redemption, and assert the judgment of his holy will against all sin and iniquity. 5:12. "Great is your reward in heaven." The reward here spoken of, is a reward for those who suffer for righteousness' sake, not for those who are simply calculating on a future compensation. The Kingdom of Heaven is equally promised in the nine beatitudes, but in each under a different name in accord with it. To the poor it is a kingdom. To the meek, often dispossessed here below, it is a land of great price. To those who mourn, it is an ineffable consolation. To those wronged in judgment, it is an eternal satisfaction. To the pure in heart, it is the vision of God. To the peacemaker, it is to be called the children of God. To the persecuted it is another kingdom. 5:16. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works." The motive to publicity here put forth is the direct opposite of the temper which led the Pharisees to their ostentatious prayers and almsgiving. They did it to be seen of men. They did it to win men's praise. We are here taught to let our light shine, not for any such shallow reason, but that we may win men, not to ourselves, but to God. The man that does his best to prevent his left hand from knowing what his right hand is doing, that is the man who most effectually causes men through seeing his good works to glorify his Father in heaven. For do what he will, such a man cannot keep other men from seeing his good works. These will come to the knowledge of his fellows at last; and from the very fact of their coming in such a way it will cause men to glorify their Father who is in heaven. See also notes on 6:1-3. 5:17. "Do not think I have come to destroy the law." Christ has fulfilled in his person all the righteousness of the old law. He has fulfilled all its types. He is the reality of which the manna, the passover, the burnt offering, and the sin offering, were but feeble figures. He has fulfilled the prophets in that he has fulfilled all that was written of him by Moses and all that followed after. He has fulfilled the law in a higher sense than that just referred to. He has fulfilled it in that He has perfected it. He gave to the old commandments a depth and breadth and height before altogether unknown. He showed men how they were meant for, not the eternal alone, but the thoughts and intents of the heart. Yes, the old law and the prophets have not been destroyed. A new life has rather been infused into them. The spirit of life that was in Christ has passed into them. The meaning of the old Jewish Passover has been transferred to Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. Let us, therefore, keep the feast, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the new leaven of sincerity and truth. 5:21, 22. "You have heard * you." But I tell In these verses our Lord mentions three gradations of offence and judgment. Anger is liable to break forth into act and so put a man in danger of its adequate punishment. Abusive language brings the man who gives way to it into the danger of a severe punishment. Unrestrained anger that breaks forth into the more malignant language of reprobate or villain brings a man into the power of the highest court of the land. It subjects him to the danger of the judgment of death. For it is to be noted, the word here translated fool is not at all adequately so translated. Fool does not express the full malignity of the word used by our Lord. Anger such as our Lord here refers to is likely to issue in a crime which makes a man guilty of death. Our Lord shows in these words the guilt of the angry and malignant spirit from its danger and its tendency. No passion deprives a man so utterly of self control and even of reason, as this one. If not changed by divine grace it makes havoc of spiritual life. For, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." We must see to it, then, that we bear no malice nor hatred in our hearts. 5:23. So if you are offering your gift at the altar," etc. The time for worship is the time for recollection and self scrutiny. It is the time for the worshipper to ask himself, not whether he has a ground of complaint against another, but whether another has some ground of complaint against him. What injury have I done my neighbor? Have I given my neighbor good cause of offence in thought, word, or deed? Have I spoken bitter words against him? Am I allowing bitter thoughts of any one to rankle in my heart? 5:24. "First be reconciled to your brother." To be reconciled to a brother is not only to remove ill will from our minds concerning him. Open confession of all wrong done him is necessary. Restitution to the extent of our power is required. Only thus can the reconciliation here taught be attained. 66 5:25. Agree with your adversary quickly." This truth holds between man and man. between a man and his God. It is also true A wise man at law with any one who had a just cause of complaint against him would do his best to settle the matter before it was actually brought into court. For then it would be too late. So the soul of man should make its peace with God while it is called to-day. Before the judgment is set and the books are open this should be done. For then we must be all judged for the deeds done in the body. "Judge therefore yourselves brethren that ye be not judged of the Lord." For "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God." 5:27, 28. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Not the passing glance, nor the momentary impulse of desire is here referred to. It is the continued gaze by which the impulse is deliberately cherished till it becomes a passion. The realization of this great truth enables the Roman Poet to say in accord with our Lord: "Who in his breast a guilty thought doth cherish, 5:31. "Whoever shall put away his wife," etc. These injunctions respecting divorce naturally follow upon the deeper law of purity laid down in the last few verses. There can be no purity of heart and life unless the purity of home life is preserved. This can be done only by respecting the sanctity of marriage and the indissolubility of the marriage contract. The Jew of our Lord's time could put away his wife for any cause whatever. That generation therefore was an adulterous generation. Even the Apostles, holy men though they were, when they heard Jesus put forth a similar statement, exclaimed: "If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry." See note on Mark 10: 9. 5:33-37. "Thou shalt not for swear thyself," etc. Not a few interpreters and even whole Christian communities such as the Society of Friends, see in these words and in James 5: 12, a formal prohibition of all oaths either promissory or evidential. Such people, accordingly, look on the general practise of Christians, and the formal teachings of the Church of England in her thirty-ninth article as simply an acquiescence in evil. But the context here shows that the sin our Lord is speaking against is the light use of oaths in ordinary speech with no real thought of their meaning. Such oaths of course involve irreverence and are inconsistent with a genuine fear of God. The real purpose of an oath duly administered, however, is to intensify such a fear. It is meant to bring the thought of God's presence forcibly home to men. When oaths attain this, therefore, of course they are rightly used. The needless multiplication of oaths on trivial occa. |