MATTHEW
21. Luke 11:34
22. The eye is the lamp of the body — And what the eye is to the body, the intention is to the soul. We may observe with what exact propriety our Lord places purity of intention between worldly desires and worldly cares, either of which directly tend to destroy. If thine eye be single — Singly fixed on God and heaven, thy whole soul will be full of holiness and happiness. If thine eye be evil — Not single, aiming at any thing else.
24. Mammon — Riches, money; any thing loved or sought, without reference to God. Luke 16:13.
25. And if you serve God, you need be careful for nothing. Therefore take not thought — That is, be not anxiously careful. Beware of worldly cares;
for these are as inconsistent with the true service of God as worldly desires. Is not the life more than meat? — And if God give the greater gift, will he deny the smaller? Luke 12:22.
27. And which of you — If you are ever so careful, can even add a moment to your own life thereby? This seems to be far the most easy and natural sense of the words.
29. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these — Not in garments of so pure a white. The eastern monarchs were often clothed in white robes.
30. The grass of the field — is a general expression, including both herbs and flowers. Into the still — This is the natural sense of the passage. For it can hardly be supposed that grass or flowers should be thrown into the oven the day after they were cut down. Neither is it the custom in the
hottest countries, where they dry fastest, to heat ovens with them. If God so clothe — The word properly implies, the putting on a complete dress, that surrounds the body on all sides; and beautifully expresses that external membrane, which (like the skin in a human body) at once adorns the tender fabric of the vegetable, and guards it from the injuries of the weather. Every microscope in which a flower is viewed gives a lively comment on this text.
31. Therefore take not thought — How kind are these precepts! The substance of which is only this, Do thyself no harm! Let us not be so ungrateful to him, nor so injurious to ourselves, as to harass and oppress our minds with that burden of anxiety, which he has so graciously taken off. Every verse speaks at once to the understanding, and to the heart. We will not therefore indulge these unnecessary, these useless, these
mischievous cares. We will not borrow the anxieties and distresses of the morrow, to aggravate those of the present day. Rather we will cheerfully repose ourselves on that heavenly Father, who knows we have need of these things; who has given us the life, which is more than meat, and the body, which is more than raiment. And thus instructed in the philosophy of our heavenly Master, we will learn a lesson of faith and cheer. fulness from every bird of the air, and every flower of the field.
33. Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness — Singly aim at this, that God, reigning in your heart, may fill it with the righteousness above described. And indeed whosoever seeks this first, will soon come to seek this only.
34. The morrow shall take thought for itself — That is, he careful for the morrow when it comes. The evil thereof — Speaking after the manner of men. But all trouble is, upon the whole, a real good. It is good physic which God dispenses daily to his children, according to the need and the strength of each.
CHAPTER 7
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.
1. Judge not — any man without full, clear, certain knowledge, without absolute necessity, without tender love. Luke 6:37.
2. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you — Awful words! So we may, as it were, choose for ourselves, whether God shall be severe or merciful to us. God and man will favor the candid and
benevolent: but they must expect judgment without mercy, who have showed no mercy.
3. In particular, why do you open your eyes to any fault of your brother, while you yourself are guilty of a much greater? The mote — The word properly signifies a splinter or shiver of wood. This and a beam, its opposite, were proverbially used by the Jews, to denote, the one, small infirmities, the other, gross, palpable faults. Luke 6:41.
4. How sayest thou — With what face?
5. Thou hypocrite — It is mere hypocrisy to pretend zeal for the
amendment of others while we have none for our own. Then — When that which obstructed thy sight is removed.
6. Here is another instance of that transposition, where of the two things proposed, the latter is first treated of. Give not — to dogs — lest turning they rend you: Cast not — to swine — lest they trample them under foot.
Yet even then, when the beam is cast out of thine own eye, Give not — That is, talk not of the deep things of God to those whom you know to be wallowing in sin. neither declare the great things God hath done for your soul to the profane, furious, persecuting wretches. Talk not of perfection, for instance, to the former; not of your experience to the latter. But our Lord does in nowise forbid us to reprove, as occasion is, both the one and the other.
7. But ask — Pray for them, as well as for yourselves: in this there can be no such danger. Seek — Add your own diligent endeavors to your asking:
and knock — Persevere importunately in that diligence. Luke 11:9.
8. For every one that asketh receiveth — Provided he ask aright, and ask what is agreeable to God’s will.
11. To them that ask him — But on this condition, that ye follow the example of his goodness, by doing to all as ye would they should do to you. For this is the law and the prophets — This is the sum of all, exactly answering Matthew 5:17. The whole is comprised in one word, Imitate the God of love. Thus far proceeds the doctrinal part of the sermon. In the next verse begins the exhortation to practice it.