1 And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea, by the farther side of Jordan: and the
Eeople resort unto him again ; and, as e was wont, he taught them again.
2 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife ? tempting him.
8 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you ?
4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.
5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the crea- tion God made them male and female.
7. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
8 And they twain shall be one flesh : so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same mat- ter.
11 And he saith unto them, Who- soever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to an- other, she committeth adultery.
The opening verse of this passage shows us the patient perseverance of our Lord Jesus Christ as a teacher. We are told that He came " into the coasts of Judaea by the
that the " fire" means not tribulation, and some the work of the Holy Spirit. Cartwright holds the last of these opinions, Junius the first.
3. Some think that in the first clause of the verse, our Lord is speaking of all members of His church, both good and bad, and that His meaning is the same as that of St. Paul, where He says, " The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." (1 Cor. hi. 13.) The second clause, they think, describes the preserving effect of grace on the hearts of true believers. According to this view, the meaning of the verse would be — " Every one shall be finally salted, tried, and tested by the fire of the last day ; and every one who has offered himself as a living sacrifice to God, shall be salted with grace, and so finally preserved from death and corruption."
4. Some think that in the first clause of the verse our Lord is speaking of the wicked, and in the second clause of the righteous. According to this view, the sense would be — " Every wicked man shall be salted with fire and punished for evermore ; and every living sacrifice to God, or godly man, shall be salted with grace, kept from the power .of death, and saved for evermore." — This is the view of Hammond and Manton.
I offer no opinion and make no comment on any of the above views. The objections which might be made against every one of them are neither few nor small. Whether these objections are insuperable or not, is a point on which learned theologians differ widely, and a conclusion will perhaps never be attained until the Lord appears.