Let us leave the whole passage with a settled deter- mmatioii to watch and pray against hypocrisy in religion. Whatever we are as Christians, let us be real, thorough, genuine, and sincere. Let us abhor all canting, and aflfectation, and part-acting in the things of God, as that which is utterly loathsome in Christ's eyes. We may be weak, and erring, and frail, and come far short of our aims and desires. But at any rate, if we profess to believe in Christ, let us be true.
Notes. Lukb XI. 37—44.
37. — [A certain Pharisee^ We do not know who this Pharisee was. It seems clear that he was not a disciple of Christ. Yet our Lord accepted his invitation, and dined with him. From this circumstance the conclusion is often drawn by wdak believ- ers that it is lawful and desirable to keep up social intercourse with unconverted people. As to the lawmlness there can be no doubt. As to the desirableness and expediency, every one must judge for himself, and consider what he can do, and what he cannot. Those Christians who plead our Lord's example as an argument for dining with unconverted people, would do well to mark our Lord's conduct and conversation at the tables of those with whom He dined. Let them copy Him in His conversation as well as in the acceptance of invitations. Unhappily, there are many who will accept the invitation as our Lord accepted, but will not talk at table as our Lord talked.
38. — [That he had not first washed.] Let this expression be care- fully noted. The Greek word literally translated would be rendered, " that he had not first been baptized " before dinner. It is clear that the washing spoken of cannot be a washing of the whole body, but a partial washing, as of the hands and feet, or a sprinkling of water on the hands, after the manner of East- em nations. (2 Kings iii. 11.) The opinion held by some Baptists that the Greek word to " baptize" is never used except in the sense of a total immersion of the body, is one that cannot be reconciled with the expression used in this text.
39. — [Your inward part.] This of course means your inward man — ^your heart. It is what St. Peter calls *' the hidden man of the heart." (1 Pet. iii. 4.)
40. — [Te fools.] The literal meaning of the Greek word so trans- lated is, " persons without mind or understanding." It is the same word that St. Paul uses. (1 Cor. xv. 36.) It is not the
48 EXPOsrroRT thotjghts.
word that our Loid forbids to be used in the sermon on the mount. (Matt. v. 22.)
[Did not he that made that which is without, do.] Our Lord's meaning in this verse appears to be that it is absurd and unrea- sonable to suppose that God can be pleased with mere external and ceremonial purity, while inward purity and the cleansing of the heart are neglected. He who made all things, made the inner man as well as the outward, and requires the heart to be washed horn its wickedness, as well as the hands from imclean- ness.
41. — {But rather give alms, do.] This is a very difficult verse. The variety of interpretations of it shews plainly that it has perplexed the commentators.
Some think that the whole verse is ironical, and that our Lord means, " Go on in your practice of giving alms of such things as ye have, and then indeed ye are very holy people ! All things are clean unto youl — Give alms and keep up the ceremonial law, and then no doubt ye are the people! None so holy as ye!" This is the opinion of Lightfoot, who thinks that our Lord is quoting the tenets of the Pharisees *' in mere scoflf and displea- sure." However it does not seem a satisfactory mode of explain- ing the verse, and is unlike our Lord's usual mode. of speaking. This interpretation may therefore be dismissed at once.
The real difficulty of the verse no doubt lies in the words which we translate " such things as ye have." Some think that this expression is elliptical, and that it means, " Give alms every one according to his ability." This is the view of Euthymius, Maldonatus, Cocceius, Hammond, Whitby, Schottgen, and Dodd- ridge.— Others think that the expression means, " Give as alms to the poor those things that ye have," that is, the things that ye have obtained by avarice and plunder, as Zaccheeus did. — Others think that the expression means, " All that ye have — all your property." — Others think that it means, " That which is over and above, — your superfluities, — give them as alms." — Others think that it means, " Give alms with all your might." — Others think that it means, " Give alms, which is the only remedy left to you."
All these interpretations appear very unsatisfactory. None of them meets the grave objection, that, taken in connection witJi the concluding sentence of the verse, they teach false doctrine. Alms do not make our souls clean, and all our actions pure, no matter how, or in what way, or to what extent we give diem.
1 take leave to suggest another explanation, which seems to me to deserve consideration. The literal meaning of the Greek words is as follows, — " But rather give the things that are in, as alms." — The simplest sense of this sentence appears to be, " Give flrst the offering of the inward man. Give your heart, your affec-
LTJKEy CHAP. XI. VEE. 37 44. 49,
tions, and your will to God, as the first great alms which you bestow, and then all your other actions, proceeding from a right heart, are an acceptable sacrifice, and a clean offering in the sight of God. — Give the inner man first, and then the gifts and service of the external man will be acceptable. — Give yourselves first to the Lord, and then He will be pleased with your gifts. See that your persons are first accepted, and then yom* works will be acceptable. To the pure all things are pure. ' Let the expression in this sense be compared with Rom. xii. i. Psalm li. 17. 2 Cor. viii. 6.
42. — IWoe unto you.'] Here, as in other places, the stem and severe language of our Lord deserves notice. Gracious and loving as He was, He could rebuke when there was need. Nothing seems so odious in His eyes as hypocrisy.
[Te tithe mint, dc] This expression means that the Pharisees pretended to such excessive scrupulosity about giving a tenth of all their possessions to the service of the temple and to the maintenance of the ceremonial law, that they were not content with tithing their com. They even tithed their garden herbs. Yet all this time they entirely neglected the plain duties of jus tice to man, and real love to God.
The neglect of distinction between that which is great and that which is smaU, that which is first and that which is second, that which is essential and that which is non-essential, has been the source of enormous evil in every age of the Church. It is a distinction which the never-dying school of the Pharisees is unable to draw.
48. — [Ye love the uppermost seats, do.] Let it be noted, that am- bition and the love of precedence are common marks of the formalist and the self-righteous. To exalt themselves under pretence of honouring the Church, and to obtain power under cover of obtaining respect for their own order, has been the practice of Pharisees all over the world and in every age of the Church of Christ.
Our Lord, in this verse, exposes the hollowness of the motives by which His enemies were actuated. Self, and self-aggrandize- ment, were the tme spring of all their conduct
Aii.—{Ye are as graves which appear not.] There is a remarkable dinerence between the comparison which our Lord draws here and that which He draws in St. Matt xxiii. 27, where He likens the Pharisees to whitened sepulchres.
In the comparison before us He rebukes the cunning with which they concealed their own inward corruption, so that men were not aware of it — In the one in St Matthew He exposes the false profession which they made outwardly to the eye, in haying a beautifdl semblanoe of religion, while there was nothing
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