AND SEEING THE MULTITUDES - The great numbers that came to attend on his ministry. The substance of this discourse is recorded also in Luke 6. It is commonly called the “Sermon on the Mount.” It is not improbable that it was repeated, in substance, on different occasions, and to different people. At... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT - The word “blessed” means “happy,” referring to that which produces felicity, from whatever quarter it may come. POOR IN SPIRIT - Luke says simply, Blessed are the poor. It has been disputed whether Christ meant the poor in reference to the things of this life, or to... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN - This is capable of two meanings: either, that those are blessed who are afflicted with the loss of friends or possessions, or that they who mourn over sin are blessed. As Christ came to preach repentance, to induce people to mourn over their sins and to forsake them, it... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MEEK - Meekness is patience in the reception of injuries. It is neither meanness nor a surrender of our rights, nor cowardice; but it is the opposite of sudden anger, of malice, of long-harbored vengeance. Christ insisted on his right when he said, “If I have done evil, bear witness of the evil;... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH DO HUNGER ... - Hunger and thirst, here, are expressive of strong desire. Nothing would better express the strong desire which we ought to feel to obtain righteousness than hunger and thirst. No needs are so keen, none so imperiously demand supply, as these. They occur daily,... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL - That is, those who are so affected by the sufferings of others as to be disposed to alleviate them. This is given as an evidence of piety, and it is said that they who show mercy to others shall obtain it. The same sentiment is found in Matthew 10:42; “Whosoever shall give... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART - That is, whose minds, motives, and principles are pure; who seek not only to have the external actions correct, but who desire to be holy in heart, and who are so. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. THEY SHALL SEE GOD - There is a sense i... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS - Those who strive to prevent contention, strife, and war; who use their influence to reconcile opposing parties, and to prevent lawsuits and hostilities in families and neighborhoods. Every man may do something of this; and no man is more like God than he who does it. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE PERSECUTED - To persecute means literally to pursue; follow after, as one does a flying enemy. Here it means to vex, or oppress one, on account of his religion. They persecute others who injure their names, reputation, property, or who endanger or take their life, on accou... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE YE WHEN MEN SHALL REVILE YOU - Reproach you; call you by evil and contemptuous names; ridicule you because you are Christians. Thus, they said of Jesus that he was a Samaritan and had a devil John 8:48; that he was mad John 10:20; and thus they reviled and mocked him on the cross, Matthe... [ Continue Reading ]
REJOICE, AND BE EXCEEDING GLAD - Regard it as a great privilege thus to be persecuted and to suffer - a thing not to be mourned over, but as among the chief blessings of life. FOR GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN - That is, your reward will be great in the future world. To those who suffer most, God i... [ Continue Reading ]
YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH - Salt renders food pleasant and palatable, and preserves from putrefaction. So Christians, by their lives and instructions, are to keep the world from entire moral corruption. By bringing down the blessing of God in answer to their prayers, and by their influence and ex... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD - The light of the world often denotes the sun, John 11:9. The sun renders objects visible, shows their form, their nature, their beauties, their deformities. The term light is often applied to religious teachers. See Matthew 4:16; Luke 2:32; John 1:4; John 8:12; Isaiah 49:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER DO MEN LIGHT A CANDLE ... - The word rendered “candle” means any portable light, as a lamp, candle, lantern. Compare Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16; Luke 12:35. Jesus proceeded here to show them that the very reason why they were enlightened was that others might also see the light, and be benefited b... [ Continue Reading ]
LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE ... - Let your holy life, your pure conversation, and your faithful instructions, be everywhere seen and known. Always, in all societies, in all business, at home and abroad, in prosperity and adversity, let it be seen that you are real Christians. THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOO... [ Continue Reading ]
THINK NOT THAT I AM COME ... - Our Saviour was just entering on his work. It was important for him to state what he came to do. By his setting up to be a teacher in opposition to the scribes and Pharisees, some might charge him with an intention to destroy their law, and to abolish the customs of th... [ Continue Reading ]
VERILY - Truly, certainly. A word of strong affirmation. TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS - This expression denotes that the law never would be destroyed until it should be all fulfilled. It is the same as saying everything else may change; the very earth and heaven may pass away, but the law of God shal... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER THEREFORE SHALL BREAK - Shall violate or disobey. ONE OF THESE LEAST COMMANDMENTS - The Pharisees, it is probable, divided the precepts of the law into lesser and greater, teaching that they who violated the former were guilty of a trivial offence only. See Matthew 23:23. Christ teaches t... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS - Your holiness; your views of the nature of righteousness, and your conduct and lives. Unless you are more holy than they are, you cannot be saved. SHALL EXCEED - Shall excel, or abound more. The righteousness of true Christians is seated in the heart, and is therefore genuine.... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE HEARD - Or, this is the common interpretation among the Jews. Jesus proceeds here to comment on some prevailing opinions among the Jews; to show that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was defective; and that people needed a better righteousness, or they could not be saved. He il... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I SAY UNTO YOU - Jesus being God as well as man John 1:1, John 1:14, and therefore, being the original giver of the law, had a right to expound it or change it as he pleased. Compare Matthew 12:6, Matthew 12:8. He therefore spoke here and elsewhere as having authority, and not as the scribes. It... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, IF THOU BRING THY GIFT TO THE ALTAR ... - The Pharisees were intent only on the external act in worship. They looked not at all to the internal state of the mind. If a man conformed to the external rites of religion, however much envy, and malice, and secret hatred he might have, they tho... [ Continue Reading ]
AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY QUICKLY - This is still an illustration of the sixth commandment. To be in hostility, to go to law, to be litigious, is a violation always, on one side or the other, of the law requiring us to love our neighbor, and our Saviour regards it as a violation of the sixth comman... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT WAS SAID BY THEM OF OLD TIME, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY - See the notes at Matthew 5:21. Our Saviour in these verses explains the seventh commandment. It is probable that the Pharisees had explained this commandment, as they had the sixth, as extending only to the external... [ Continue Reading ]
THY RIGHT EYE - The Hebrews, like others, were accustomed to represent the affections of the mind by the members or parts of the body, Romans 7:23; Romans 6:13. Thus, the bowels denoted compassion; the heart, affection or feeling; the reins, understanding, secret purpose. An evil eye denotes sometim... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IF THY RIGHT HAND OFFEND THEE - The right hand is selected for the same reason as the right eye, because it is one of the most important members of the human body. The idea is, that the dearest earthly objects are to be sacrificed rather than that we should commit sin; that the most rigid self-d... [ Continue Reading ]
IT HATH BEEN SAID ... - That is, by Moses, Deuteronomy 24:1. The husband was directed, if he put his wife away, to give her a bill of divorce, that is a certificate of the fact she had been his wife, and that he had dissolved the marriage. There was considerable difference of opinion among the Jews... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT FORSWEAR THYSELF - Christ here proceeds to correct another false interpretation of the law. The law respecting oaths is found in Leviticus 19:12, and Deuteronomy 23:23. By those laws people were forbid to perjure themselves, or to forswear, that is, swear falsely. PERFORM UNTO THE LO... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I SAY UNTO YOU, SWEAR NOT AT ALL - That is, in the manner which he proceeds to specify. Swear not in any of the common and profane ways customary at that time. BY HEAVEN; FOR IT IS GOD’S THRONE - To swear by that was, if it meant anything, to swear by Him that sitteth thereon, Matthew 23:22. N... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALT THOU SWEAR BY THY HEAD - This was a common oath. The Gentiles also used this oath. To swear by the head was the same as to swear by the life; or to say, I will forfeit my life if what I say is not true. God is the Author of the life, and to swear by that, therefore, is the same as to s... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT LET YOUR COMMUNICATION - Your word; what you say. BE, YEA - Yes. This does not mean that we should always use the word “yea,” for it might as well have been translated “yes”; but it means that we should simply affirm or declare that a thing is so. MORE THAN THESE - More than these affirmations... [ Continue Reading ]
AN EYE FOR AN EYE ... - This command is found in Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21. In these places it was given as a rule to regulate the decisions of judges. They were to take eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, and to inflict burning for burning. As a judicial rule it is not unju... [ Continue Reading ]
GIVE TO HIM THAT ASKETH THEE - This is the general rule. It is better to give sometimes to an undeserving person than to turn away one who is really in need. It is good to be in the habit of giving. At the same time, the rule must be interpreted so as to be consistent with our duty to our families 1... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE HEARD THAT IT HATH BEEN SAID, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR, AND HATE THINE ENEMY - The command to love our neighbor was a law of God, Leviticus 19:18. That we must therefore hate our enemy was an inference drawn from it by the Jews. They supposed that if we loved the one, we must of course h... [ Continue Reading ]
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES - There are two kinds of love, involving the same general feeling, or springing from the same fountain of good-will to all mankind, but differing so far as to admit of separation in idea. The one is that feeling by which we approve of the conduct of another, commonly called the lov... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT YE MAY BE THE CHILDREN OF YOUR FATHER - In Greek, the sons of your Father. The word “son” has a variety of significations. See the notes at Matthew 1:1. Christians are called the “sons” or “children” of God in several of these senses: as his offspring; as adopted; as his disciples; as imitators... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT REWARD HAVE YE? - The word “reward” seems to be used in the sense of “deserving of praise.” If you only love those that love you, you are selfish; it is not genuine love for the “character,” but love for the “benefit,” and you deserve no commendation. The very “publicans” would do the same. THE... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IF YOU SALUTE YOUR BRETHREN ... - The word “salute” here means to show the customary tokens of civility, or to treat with the common marks of friendship. See the notes at Luke 10:4. The Saviour says that the worst men, the very publicans, would do this. Christians should do more; they should sho... [ Continue Reading ]
BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT ... - The Saviour concludes this part of the discourse by commanding his disciples to be “perfect.” This word commonly means “finished, complete, pure, holy.” Originally, it is applied to a piece of mechanism, as a machine that is complete in its parts. Applied to people, it... [ Continue Reading ]