THE HEART OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY #3

THE  HEART  OF  TRUE  CHRISTIANITY #3

From  the  Albert  Barnes  Bible  Commentary

GOSPEL  OF  MATTHEW

CHAPTER VII.

Judge not, etc. This command refers to rash, censorious, and unjust judgment. See Ro. ii. 1. Luke (vi. 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.

I  HAVE  A  FULL  IN-DEPTH  STUDY  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  CALLED  "RIGHTEOUS  JUDGEMENT"  AS  JESUS  HIMSELF  ONCE  SAID,  "JUDGE  RIGHTEOUS  JUDGMENT"  -  Keith Hunt

With what judgment, etc. This was a proverb among the Jews. It expressed a truth; and Christ did not hesitate to adopt it as conveying his own sentiments. It refers no less to the way in which men will judge of us, than to the rule by which God will judge us. See 2 Sa. xxii. 27; Mar. iv. 24; Ja. ii. 13. Mete. Measure. You shall be judged by the same rule which you apply to others.

And why beholdest thou the mote, etc. A mote signifies any light substance, as dry chaff, or fine spires of grass or grain. It probably most usually signified the small spicules or beards on a head of barley or wheat. It is thus placed in opposition to the word beam. Beam. The word here used signifies a large piece of squared timber. The one is an exceedingly small object, the other a large one. The meaning is, that we are much more quick and acute to judge of small offences in others, than of much larger offences in ourselves. Even a very small object in the eye of another we discern much more quickly than a much larger one in our own; a small fault in our neighbour we see much more readily than a large one in ourselves. This was also a proverb in frequent use among the Jews, and the same sentiment was common among the Greeks, and deserves to be expressed in every language.

5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out, etc. Christ directs us to the proper way of forming an opinion of others, and of reproving and correcting them. By first amending our own faults, or casting the beam out of our eye, we can consistently advance to correct the faults of others. There will then be no hypocrisy in our conduct. We shall also see clearly to do it. The beam, the thing that obscured our sight, will be removed, and we shall more clearly discern the small object that obscures the sight of our brother. The sentiment is, that the readiest way to judge of the imperfections of others is to be free from greater ones ourselves. This qualifies us for judging, makes us candid and consistent, and enables us to see things as they are, and to make proper allowances for frailty and imperfection.

6. Give not that which is holy, etc. By some the word holy has been supposed to mean flesh offered, in sacrifice, made holy, or separated to a sacred use; but it probably means here anything connected with religion—admonition, precept, or doctrine. Pearls are precious stones found in shell-fish, chiefly in India, in the waters that surround Ceylon. They are used to denote anything peculiarly precious, Re. xvii. 4; xviii. 12-16; Mat. xiii. 45. In this place they are used to denote the doctrines of the gospel. Dogs signify men who spurn, oppose, and abuse that doctrine; men of peculiar sourness and malignity of temper, who meet it like growling and quarrelsome curs, Phi. iii. 2; 2 Pe. ii. 22; Re. xxii. 15. Swine denote those who would trample the precepts under feet; men of impurity of life; those who are corrupt, polluted, profane, obscene, and sensual; those who would not know the value of the gospel, and who would tread it down as swine would pearls, 2 Pe. ii. 22; Pr. xi. 22. The meaning of this proverb, then, is, do not offer your doctrine to those violent and abusive men who would growl and curse you; nor to those peculiarly debased and profligate who would not perceive its value, would trample it down, and would abuse you. 

This verse furnishes a beautiful instance of what has been called the introverted parallelism. The usual mode of poetry among the Hebrews, and a common mode of expression in proverbs and apothegms, was by the parallelism, where one member of a sentence answered to another, or expressed substantially the same sense with some addition or modification. See the Introduction to the Book of Job, vol. i. p. xxviii.-xxxix. Sometimes this was alternate, and sometimes it was introverted—where the first and fourth lines would correspond, and the second and third. This is the case here. The dogs would rend, and not the swine; the swine would trample the pearls under their feet, and not the dogs. It may be thus expressed:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, Lest they [that is, the swine] trample them under their feet, And turn again [that is, the dogs] and rend you.

7-11. Ask, and it shall he given you, etc. There are here three different forms presented of seeking the things which we need from God—asking, seeking, and knocking. The latter is taken from the act of knocking at a door for admittance.  See Lu. xiii. 45; Re. iii. 20.

The phrases signify to seek with earnestness, diligence, and perseverance. The promise is, that what we seek shall be given us. It is of course implied that we seek with a proper spirit, with humility, sincerity, and perseverance. It is implied, also, that we ask the things which it may be consistent for God to give—that is, things which he has promised to give, and which would be best for us, and most for his own honour, 1 Jn. v. 14. Of that God is to be the judge. And here there is the utmost latitude which a creature can ask. God is willing to provide for us, to forgive our sins, to save our souls, to befriend us in trial, to comfort us in death, to extend the gospel through the world. Man can ask no higher things of God; and these he may ask, assured that he is willing to grant them.

Christ encourages us to do this by the conduct of parents. No parent turns away his child with that which would be injurious. He would not give him a stone instead of bread, or a serpent instead of a fish. God is better and kinder than the most tender earthly parents; and with what confidence, therefore, may we come as his children, and ask what we need! Parents, he says, are evil; that is, are imperfect, often partial, and not unfrequently passionate; but God is free from all this, and therefore is ready and willing to aid us. Every one that asketh receiveth. That is, every one that asks aright; that prays in faith, and in submission to the will of God. He does not always give the very thing which we ask, but he gives what would be better. A parent will not always confer the very thing which a child asks, but he will seek the welfare of the child, and give what he thinks will be most for its good. Paul asked that the thorn from his flesh might be removed. God did not literally grant the request, but told him that his grace should be sufficient for him. See Notes on 2 Co. xii. 7, 8, 9.   A fish.   A fish has some resemblance to a serpent; yet no parent would attempt to deceive his child in this. So God will not give to us that which might appear to be of use, but which would be injurious.

12. All things whatsoever, etc. This command has been usually called the Saviour's golden rule, a name given to it on account of its great value. All that you expect or desire of others in similar circumstances, do to them. Act not from selfishness or injustice, but put yourself in the place of the other, and ask what you would expect of him. This would make you impartial, candid, and just. It would destroy avarice, envy, treachery, unkindness, slander, theft, adultery, and murder. It has been well said that this law is what the balance-wheel is to machinery. It would prevent all irregularity of movement in the moral world, as that does in a steam-engine. It is easily applied, its justice is seen, by all men, and all must acknowledge its force and value. This is the law and the prophets. That is, this is the sum or substance of the Old Testament. It is nowhere found in so many words, but it is a summary expression of all that the law required. The sentiment was in use among the Jews. Hillel, an ancient Rabbi, said to a man who wished to become a proselyte, and who asked him to teach him the whole law, "Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another." Something of the same sentiment was found among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and is found in the writings of Confucius.

13, 14. Enter ye in at the strait gate. Christ here compares the way to life to an entrance through a gate. The words straight and strait have very different meanings. The former means not crooked; the latter, pent up, narrow, difficult to be entered.  This is the word used here, and it means that the way to heaven is pent up, narrow, close, and not obviously entered. The way to death is open, broad, and thronged. The Saviour here referred probably to ancient cities. They were surrounded with walls and entered through gates. Some of those, connected with the great avenues to the city, were broad and admitted a throng; others, for more private purposes, were narrow, and few would be seen entering them. So, says Christ, is the path to heaven. It is narrow. It is not the great highway that men tread. Few go there. Here and there one may be seen—travelling in solitude and singularity. The way to death, on the other hand, is broad. Multitudes are in it. It is the great highway in which men go. They fall into it easily and without effort, and go without thought. If they wish to leave that and go by a narrow gate to the city, it would require effort and thought. So, says Christ, diligence is needed to enter life. See Lu. xiii. 24. None go of course. All must strive, to obtain it; and so narrow, unfrequented, and solitary is it, that few find it. This sentiment has been beautifully versified by Watts:

"Broad is the road that leads to death, And thousands walk together there; But wisdom shows a narrower path, With here and there a traveller."

15. False prophets. The word prophet originally means one who foretells future events. As prophets, however, were commonly regarded as public instructors on the subject of religion, the word came to denote all who were religious teachers. See Notes on Ro. xii. 6. In this sense it is probably used here. A false prophet is a teacher of incorrect doctrine, or one falsely and unjustly laying claims to divine inspiration. It probably had reference to the false teachers then among the Jews. Who come in sheep's clothing. The sheep is an emblem of innocence, sincerity, and harmlessness. To come in sheep's clothing is to assume the appearance of sanctity and innocence, when the heart is evil. Ravening wolves. Rapacious; voraciously devouring; hungry even to rage. Applied to the false teachers, it means that they assumed the appearance of holiness in order that they might the more readily get the property of the people. They were full of extortion and excess. See Mat. xxiii. 25.

16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. The Saviour gives the proper test of their character. Men do not judge of a tree by its leaves, or bark, or flowers, but by the fruit which it bears. The flowers may be beautiful and fragrant, the foliage thick and green; but these are merely ornamental. It is the fruit that is of chief service to man; and he forms his opinion of the nature and value of the tree by that fruit. So of pretensions to religion. The profession may be fair; but the conduct—the fruit —is to determine the nature of the principles.

17. A corrupt tree. The word corrupt here does not signify, as our translation would seem to indicate, that the tree had been good, but had become vitiated; but that it was a tree of a useless character, of a nature that produced nothing beneficial.

21. Not every one that saith, etc. The Saviour goes on to say that many, on the ground of a mere profession such as he had just referred to, would claim admittance into his kingdom. Many would plead that they had done miracles, and preached or prophesied much, and on the ground of that would demand an entrance into heaven. The power of working miracles had no necessary connection with piety. God may as well, if he chooses, give the power of raising the dead to a wicked man, as the skill of healing to a wicked physician. A miracle is a display of his own power through the medium of another. An act of healing the sick is also a display of his power through the agency of another. In neither of these cases is there any necessary connection with moral character. So of preaching or prophesying. God may use the agency of a man of talents, though not pious, to carry forward his purposes. Saving power on the mind is the work of God, and he may convey it by any agency which he chooses. Accordingly, many may be found in the day of judgment who may have been endowed with powers of prophecy or miracle, as Balaam or the magicians of Egypt; in the same way as many men of distinguished talents may be found, yet destitute of piety, and who will be shut out of his kingdom. See Mat. vii. 21; 1 Co. i. 26; xiii. 1-3. In this last place Paul says that, though he spoke with the tongue of angels, and had the gift of prophecy, and could remove mountains, and had not charity or love, all would be of no avail. See Notes on 1 Co. xiii. 1-3.

In that day. That is, in the last day, the day of judgment; the time when the principles of all pretenders to prophecy and piety shall be tried. Profess unto them. Say unto them; plainly declare.  I never knew you. That is, I never approved your conduct; never loved you; never regarded you as my friends. See Ps. i. (5; 2 Ti. ii. 19; 1 Co. viii. 3. This proves that, with all their pretensions, they had never been true followers of Christ. Jesus will not then say to false prophets and false professors of religion that he had once known them and then rejected them; that they had been once Christians and then had fallen away; that they had been pardoned and then had apostatized—but that he had never known them—they had never been true Christians. Whatever might have been their pretended joys, their raptures, their hopes, their self-confidence, their visions, their zeal, they had never been regarded by the Saviour as his true friends…. It settles the question; and proves that whatever else such men had, they never had any true religion. See 1 Jn. ii. 19.

JESUS TAUGHT MANY, NOT FEW, BUT MANY WOULD COME IN HIS NAME SAYING JESUS WAS THE CHRIST AND WOULD DECEIVE MANY, MANY NOT THE FEW, BUT MANY—MATTHEW 24.  PEOPLE WOULD DO ALL KINDS OF THINGS IN THE NAME OF CHRIST, BUT JESUS WILL SAY “I DO NOT NOW YOU; I DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU HAVE COME FROM.” THEY WOULD BE WORKERS OF INIQUITY, PRACTICING AS A WAY OF LIFE LAWLESSNESS, AND SIN. THEY WOULD BE REFUSING TO SERVE AND OBEY THE TEN COMMANDMENT OF GOD IN SOME WAY. READ THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN EXODUS 20. HOW ABOUT THE 4TH ONE; THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK,  ARE YOU OBEYING IT?  Keith Hunt

24-27. Jesus closes the sermon on the mount by a beautiful comparison, illustrating the benefit of attending to his words. It was not sufficient to hear them; they must be obeyed. He compares the man who should hear and obey him to a man who built his house on a rock. Palestine was to a considerable extent a land of hills and mountains. Like other countries of that description, it was subject to sudden and violent rains. The Jordan, the principal stream, was annually swollen to a great extent, and became rapid and furious in its course. The streams which ran among the hills, whose channels might have been dry during some months of the year, became suddenly swollen with the rain, and would pour down impetuously into the plains below. Everything in the way of these torrents would be swept off. Even houses, erected within the reach of these sudden inundations, and especially if founded on sand or on any unsolid basis, would not stand before them. The rising, bursting stream would shake it to its foundation; the rapid torrent would gradually wash away its base; it would totter and fall. Rocks in that country were common, and it was easy to secure for their houses a solid foundation. No comparison could, to a Jew, have been more striking.—So tempests, and storms of affliction and persecution, beat around the soul. Suddenly, when we think we are in safety, the heavens may be overcast, the storm may lower, and calamity may beat upon us. In a moment, health, friends, comforts may be gone. How desirable, then, to be possessed of something that the tempest cannot reach! Such is an interest in Christ, reliance on his promises, confidence in his protection, and a hope of heaven through his blood. Earthly calamities do not reach these; and, possessed of religion, all the storms and tempests of life may beat harmlessly around us.

There is another point in this comparison. The house built on the sand is beat upon by the floods and rains; its foundation gradually is worn away; it falls, and is borne down the stream and is destroyed. So falls the sinner. The floods are wearing away his sandy foundation; and soon one tremendous storm shall beat upon him, and he and his hopes shall fall, for ever fall. Out of Christ; perhaps having heard his words from very childhood; perhaps having taught them to others in the Sabbath-school; perhaps having been the means of laying the foundation on which others shall build for heaven, he has laid for himself no foundation, and soon an eternal tempest shall beat around his naked soul.   How great will be that fall! What will be his emotions when sinking for ever in the flood, and when he realizes that he is destined for….  peltings of that ceaseless storm that shall beat when "God shall rain snares, fire, and a horrible tempest" upon the wicked!

28, 29. His doctrine. His teaching. As one having authority, and not as the scribes. The scribes were the learned men and teachers of the Jewish nation, and were principally Pharisees. They taught chiefly the sentiments of their Rabbins, and the traditions which had been delivered; they consumed much of their time in useless disputes and ''vain jangling." Jesus was open, plain, grave, useful, delivering truth as became the oracles of God; not spending his time in trifling disputes and debating questions of no importance, but confirming his doctrine by miracles and argument; teaching as having power, as it is in the original, and not in the vain and foolish manner of the Jewish doctors. He showed that he had authority to explain, to enforce….He came with authority such as no man could have, and it is not remarkable that his explanations astonished them. From this chapter we may learn:

1st. The evil of censorious judging, ver. 1-5. We cannot see the heart. We have ourselves possibly greater faults than the persons that we condemn. They may possibly be of a different kind; but it is nevertheless not uncommon for persons to be very censorious toward faults in others, which they have to much greater extent themselves.

2d. We see how we are to treat men who are opposers of the gospel, ver. 6. We are not to present it to them when we know they will despise it and abuse us. We should, however, be cautious in forming that opinion of them. Many men may be far more ready to hear the gospel than we imagine, and a word seasonably and kindly spoken may be the means of saving them, Pr. xxv. 11; Ec. xi. 6. We should not meet violent and wicked opposers of the gospel with a harsh, overbearing, and lordly spirit — a spirit of dogmatizing and anger; nor should we violate the laws of social intercourse under the idea of faithfulness. Religion gains nothing by outraging the established laws of social life, 1 Pe. iii. 8. If men will not hear us when we speak to them kindly and respectfully, we may be sure they will not when we abuse them and become angry. We harden them against the truth, and confirm them in the opinion that religion is of no value. Our Saviour was always mild and kind, and in not a single instance did he do violence to the laws of social intercourse, or fail in the reject due from one man to another. When with harshness men speak to their superiors; when they abuse them with unkind words, coarse epithets, and unfeeling denunciations; when children and youth forget their station, and speak in harsh, authoritative tones to the aged, they are violating the very first principles of the gospel—meekness, respect, and love. Give honour to whom honour is due, and be kind, be courteous.

JESUS COULD GET AT TIMES RIGHTEOUSLY ANGRY; HE DID SO IN MATTHEW 23 CONCERNING THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES; HE DID SO AGAIN WHEN OVERTHROWING THE TABLES AND CASTING OUT THE GREEDY MERCHANTS FROM THE TEMPLE. THERE CAN BE AS PAUL STATED TIMES TO “BE ANGRY AND SIN NOT.” Keith Hunt

3d. Christ gives peculiar encouragement to prayer, ver. 7-11. Especially his remarks apply to the young. What child is there that would not go to his parent and ask him for things which were necessary? What child doubts the willingness of a kind parent to give what he thinks will be best for him? But God is more willing to give than the best parent. We need of him gifts of far more importance than we ever can of an earthly father. None but God can forgive, enlighten, sanctify, and save us. How strange that many ask favours of an earthly parent daily and hourly, and never ask of the Great Universal Father a single blessing for time or eternity!

4th. There is danger of losing the soul, ver. 13, 14. The way to ruin is broad, the path to heaven is narrow. Men naturally and readily go in the former; they never go in the latter without design. When we enter on the journey of life, we naturally fall into the broad and thronged way to ruin. Our original propensity, our native depravity, our disinclination to God and religion, lead us to that, and we never leave it without effort. How much more natural to tread in a way in which multitudes go, than in one where there are few travellers, and which requires an effort to find it! And how much danger is there that we shall continue to walk in that way until it terminates in our ruin! 

No one is saved without effort. No one enters on the narrow way without design; no one by following his natural inclination and propensities. And yet how indisposed we are to effort! how unwilling to listen to the exhortations which would call us from the broad path to a narrower and less frequented course! How prone are men to feel that they are safe if they are with the many, and that the multitude that attend them constitute a safeguard from danger!

"Encompassed by a throng, On numbers they depend; They say so many can't be wrong, And miss a happy end,"

Yet did God ever spare a guilty city because it was large? Did he save the army of Sennacherib from the destroying angel because it was mighty? Does he hesitate to cut men down by the plague, the pestilence, and by famine, because they are numerous? Is he deterred from consigning men to the grave because they swarm upon the earth, and because a mighty throng is going to death? So in the way to hell. Not numbers, nor power, nor might, nor talent will make that way safe; nor will the path to heaven be a dangerous road because few are seen travelling there. The Saviour knew and felt that men are in danger; and hence, with much solemnity, he warned them when he lived, and now warns us, to strive to enter in at the strait gate.

5th. Sincerity is necessary in religion, ver. 15-23. Profession is of no value without it. God sees the heart, and the day is near when he will cut down and destroy all those who do not bring forth the fruits of righteousness in their lives. If in anything we should be honest and sincere, surely it should be in the things of religion. God is never deceived (Ga. vi. 7), and the things of eternity are of too much consequence to be lost by deluding ourselves or others. We may deceive our fellow-men, but we do not deceive our Maker; and soon  he will strip off  our thin covering, and show us as we are to the universe. 

If anything is of prominent value in religion, it is honesty—honesty to ourselves, to our fellow-men, and to God. Be willing to know the worst of your case. Be willing to be thought of, by God and men, as you are. Assume nothing which you do not possess, and pretend to nothing which you have not. Judge of yourselves as you do of others —not by words and promises, but by the life. Judge of yourselves as you do of trees; not by leaves and flowers, but by the fruit.

6th. We may learn the importance of building our hopes of heaven on a firm foundation, ver. 24-27. No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, 1 Co. iii. 11. He is the tried Corner Stone, 1 Pe. ii. 6; Ep. ii. 20. On an edifice raised on that foundation the storms of persecution and calamity will beat in vain. Hopes thus reared will sustain us in every adversity, will remain unshaken by the terrors of death, and will secure us from the tempests of wrath that shall beat upon the guilty. How awful, in "the day of judgment, will it be to have been deceived! How dreadful the shock to find then that the house has been built on the sand! How dreadful the emotions, to see our hopes totter on the brink of ruin; to see sand after sand washed away, and the dwelling reel over the heaving deep, and fall into the abyss to rise no more! Ruin, awful and eternal ruin, awaits those who thus deceive themselves, and who trust to a name to live, while they are dead.

7th. Under what obligations are we for this Sermon on the Mount! In all languages there is not a discourse to be found that can be compared with it for purity, and truth, and beauty, and dignity. Were there no other evidence of the divine mission of Christ, this alone would be sufficient to prove that he was sent from God. Were these doctrines obeyed and loved, how pure and peaceful would be the world! How would hypocrisy be abashed and confounded! How would impurity hang its head! How would peace reign in every family and nation! How would anger and wrath flee! And how would the race—the lost and benighted tribes of men, the poor, and needy, and sorrowful—bend themselves before their common Father, and seek peace and eternal life at the hands of a merciful and faithful God!

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WE  KNOW  THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  IS  ON  A  PATH  TO  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD,  A  RESURRECTION  TO  IMMORTAL  GLORY,  AT  THE  COMING  OF  CHRIST  -  THE  CHRISTIAN  DOES NOT GO  TO  HEAVEN  AT  DEATH,  AS  BARNES  AND  ALL  PROTESTANTS  AND  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  BELIEVE  -  SEE  THE  STUDIES  UNDER  "DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION" ON MY WEBSITE, FULLY IN-DEPTH EXPOUNDED FOR YOU….GIVE YOU A LITTLE FROM JESUS—JOHN 3:13.

BUT  ALBERT  BARNES  DOES  A  FINE  EXPOUNDING  OF  THIS  GREAT  CHAPTER  THE  HAS  BECOME  KNOWN  AS  "THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT."

MATTHEW  CHAPTERS  5, 6, 7,  ARE  THE  BED-ROCK  CHAPTERS  OF  TRUE  CHRISTIANITY  AS  TAUGHT  BY  CHRIST  JESUS  OUR  LORD  AND  SAVIOR.  THEY  ARE  THE  TEACHING  WE  MUST  EVER  AIM  FOR,  EVER  SET  BEFORE  US  TO  ATTAIN,  AND  TO  MATURE  INTO  AS  WE  MOVE  ALONG  THE  NARROW  PATH  TO  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  AND  ETERNAL  LIFE  -  Keith Hunt