NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER FIVE

Part IV (con’t)

Verse 19: “The same is true with obeying every command in the law, even one that does not seem important. Whoever refuses to obey just one command and teaches others not to obey it will be the least important in God’s kingdom. But whoever obeys the whole law and teaches others to obey it will be great in God’s kingdom.”

Practice what you Preach is the theme here. Christ Jesus places extreme emphasis on the equal application of the two. Our status in the kingdom of God is gauged by our adhering to this principle even though we are no longer under the Law but under Grace. As a born again believer in Christ we must still practice what we preach. Jesus knew He was talking to people who experienced daily what verbal teachings said about being not only aware of the circumstances that require obedience to the law, but every detail of that obligation. We see this discussed in the Jewish literature about obeying the laws of the Sabbath.¹ Not only is one liable if they forget that the Sabbath is holy, but they are further penalized if they forget each detail of their liability which could end up requiring many more sacrifices to cover their sins. One Rabbi commented²: “If a man performs but a single commandment things will go well with him and he will have a long life and will inherit the Land; but if he neglects a single commandment things will go bad for him and he will not have a long life or inherit the Land. He who is well versed in Bible, Mishnah and good manners will not easily sin, for it is said: ‘A threefold cord is not quickly broken.’³”⁴

This verse also strikes to the very core of hypocrisy. How many teachers advocate open-mindedness for others but restrict themselves from being likewise? How many point to the highway of holiness and yet fail to walk on it themselves? In the eyes of God, both are guilty of hypocrisy and will suffer the consequences. Jesus is now reminding His Jewish listeners what they were taught so they would apply the same principle to His teachings. They all knew that Moses told the people of Israel that after they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land, the Levites would keep reminding them of what they had been taught. And one of the things the Levites would chant was, “Let a curse be on the one who does not support this law and agree to obey it.”⁵ Laws are not given to be looked at and then randomly chosen to obey. What if everyone driving on our highways drove with the same attitude! One Psalmist held this same view.⁶ But Moses added a warning: “You must be careful to do everything I command you. Don’t add anything to what I tell you, and don’t take anything away.”⁷ This is especially true today of theologians and ministers who feel free to reinterpret what God’s Word says to meet their expectations, not God’s will. Jesus’ teaching was important for the disciples to remember because He often had to show them where God’s word had been misunderstood.

We must keep in mind that most of these people in Jesus’ day had never read a scroll containing God’s Word, they had only heard it read by the Scribes and Rabbis. This gave rise to an oral tradition of the Word, which when compared to the Word itself showed its flaws. Even in our day, many oral traditions have been taken as the Word of God, when in fact it is in conflict with God’s written Word. I’ve even heard ministers say that the Bible says: “God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.” In fact, this was said by hymn writer William Cowper in 1773, one hundred and sixty-two years after the King James Version was printed.

To the western ear what Jesus is saying here does not pick up on the subliminal message that is being conveyed by Jesus to the leading priests and Jewish religious hierarchy. What was part of the verbal teaching of the Rabbis even before Jesus’ day became written down in the Jewish Mishnah and later commented on in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds. But there were many who were still committed to keeping God’s word pure. Said one Rabbi: “It is better that one letter be rooted out of the Torah than to speak publicly against God’s will.”⁸ Today we would call this “Situation Ethics.” In other words, the Jewish leaders were teaching that it is okay to change the law to meet the situation, even though it may violate the letter of the law. That way they would keep God from looking bad in spite of what He had written to the contrary. Unfortunately, we are seeing this done today despite what God’s word says about marriage, adultery, capital punishment, etc. In the same document we read that one Rabbi sent this inquiry to another: “Cannot the Rabbinical Court lay down a condition which would cause the annulment of a law of the Torah?”⁹ In other words, if the law in the Written Word does not fit the situation, then rules can be made up that are more in harmony with current social norms than those existing when the law was written.

We have seen this in our own court system where a judge will repeal or rescind or vacate a law passed by the State Legislature because they felt it violated the spirit of his or her interpretation of the Constitution. And then one Rabbi objected to what another well-known Rabbi was saying about how certain laws could be ignored by saying: “…you taught us that abstention from the performance of an act is not regarded as an annulment of the law, I have nothing to say since all these are also cases of self-denial.”¹⁰ In other words, if you don’t violate the law yourself but someone else does it for you, you have not broken the law. To put it this way, a man gets into his limousine and tells his driver to step on it and get to the next destination as fast as possible, if the limo is stopped for speeding, the driver gets the ticket but not the passenger because he wasn’t actually driving. To bring this into the purview of God’s laws, If a father sends his son to the store to steal a hammer or measuring tape and the son gets caught for shoplifting, then the father is not charged because he did not actually steal the item. Those were some of the decisions that the Rabbinical Courts were making in Jesus’ day. One venerable teacher confirms this by saying:

“A court may suspend the application of such decrees temporarily, even if it is of lesser stature than the original court. The rationale is that these decrees should not be considered as more severe than the words of the Torah itself, and any court has the authority to abrogate the words of the Torah as a temporary measure. What is implied? If a court sees that it is necessary to strengthen the faith and create a safeguard so that the people will not violate Torah law, they may apply beatings and punishments that are not sanctioned by Torah. They may not, however, establish the matter for posterity and say that this is the law based on the Talmud. Similarly, if they saw that temporarily it was necessary to nullify a positive commandment or violate a negative commandment in order to bring people at large back to the Jewish faith or to prevent many Jews from transgressing in other matters, they may do what is necessary at that time. To explain by analogy: Just like a doctor may amputate a person’s hand or foot so that the person as a whole will live; so, too, at times, the court may rule to temporarily violate some of the commandments so that they will later keep all of them. In this vein, the Sages of the previous generations said: ‘Desecrate one Sabbath for a person’s sake so that he will keep many Sabbaths.’”¹¹ In another place, the same Rabbi exhorts more on the same subject:

“A prophet who violates his own prophetic instructions, and one who refrains from prophesying, are liable for death at the hand of God, since concerning the three of them, it is said, “I will seek retribution from him.” When a prophet – who has already proven himself to be a prophet – instructs us to violate one of the commandments of the Torah or many laws whether they be severe or light in nature, for a limited amount of time, it is the law listen to him. The Sages of the early generation taught as part of the spoken tradition: If a prophet tells you to violate the precepts of the Torah as Elijah did on Mount Carmel, listen to him with regard to all things except the worship of false gods. This applies when his command is temporary in nature. For example, on Mount Carmel, Elijah offered a sacrifice outside the Temple’s premises, even though Jerusalem was chosen for such service, and one who offers a sacrifice outside the Temple’s premises is liable for excommunication. Since he was already established as a prophet, it was the law to listen to him. The commandment, “Listen to him,” applies in these circumstances as well. If they would have asked Elijah: How can we violate the Torah’s command: “Be careful…so you don’t offer your burnt offerings everywhere’?,¹² he would have told them: We should not say anything, but anyone who offers a sacrifice outside the Temple premises is liable for excommunication, as Moses said. The present instance, however, is an exception. I am offering a sacrifice today outside the Temple at God’s command in order to disprove the prophets of Ba’al. Similarly, if any other prophet commands us to transgress for a limited time, it is the law to listen to him. If, however, he says that the law has been nullified forever, he is liable for execution by hanging, for the Torah has told us: “It is for us and our children forever.”¹³

As we can see, this pick and choose as it relates to the Law was already being practiced, and the time will come when Jesus will confront these scribes and teachers on this practice. But for now He wants them to know that His teachings and explanation of the law under the new covenant would not tolerate such manipulation. They all knew the accepted tradition of interpreting the law for convenience so as to avoid breaking it. No wonder Jesus came to fulfill all that the law required, so that our trust in Him does not require us to meet the same demands. Nevertheless, obedience to the new covenant brought by Christ is still mandatory if we are to enjoy the blessings that are promised for such obedience.