The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 316

Vars. 15-29.-----.S'ermon on the 'ITWU,nt : 8. Wise and foolish builders. The righteous- nas required in God's kingdom is the ~ubject of our Lord's teaching in this sermon, After contrasting this with various spurious forms of righteousness, be shows the ruin that results from false pretensions. This be does by means of three figures: I. The mere pretender is like a wolf in sheep's clothing; you cannot turn a wolf into a sheep by merely putting on it from the outside a fleece. 2. Or he is like a thorn-bush that has artificial flowers and fine fruits stuck on to it. It may for a time excite the admiration of the ignorant, but the tree r11mains wholly unaffected. 3. Or he is like a man who builds a superb mansion, sparing neither pains nor cost upon it, and yet neglecting the one essential that it should have-a foundation. Two objections may be taken to this simile, the first a trifling one. (1) It may be said no man is such a. fool ae to build in the situation here described. This, though the objection of a pedant, serves to bring out a point in the comparison. What no man would be fool enough to do with a house, many and many a man is fool enough to do in matters of religion. So ineradicable is the feeling that there all is mere show, that the rashness no man would be guilty of in practical matters is almost universal in religion. (2) Our Lord here indicates that the wise ma.n is he who not only hea.rs, but does, while in the scene from the last day which he introduces he seems to make no account of doing. By this seeming inconsistency he_ brings out his meaning more exactly. There must be works, fruits, a shining light, a fleece; there must be a visible manifestation, the inward influence of the words of Christ must become apparent in the life; but there need not be a loud profession of Christ's name--a crying, "Lord, Lord I" a doing of wonderful works. The pretentious religion he seeks to expose abounds in these, It may be identical in appearance with the true righteousness. But the works i': the one case are done for the sake of persuading either the pretender or others that he 1s a good and godly person; in the other case they are the natural, spontaneous, necessary out- 11.ow of what is within, and would surely be done though there were no judgment to be passed on them. They are produced as the apple tree produces apples-because it is its nature to do so. To gather up the practical teaching of this passage, we see- L TH.AT OUB LORD WABNB AGAINST TRUSTING TO APPEARANCES. He indicates that there is a stronger tendency to this in religion than in secular life, and more unspar- ingly and thoroughly does be tear off the mask of the hypocrite than the fiercest assailant of Christianity has ever done. The tendency to display, though we some- times smile at the ways in which it manifests itself in others, is no venial faul~; it_ is _a species of dishonesty which gradually corrodes the whole character. In rel1g10n it 1e damaging in various ways. I. There is a large class among us, the class of _respectable people, whose whole character and habits have been so formed under the mfl.uenc~ of BOCial opinion that wheu they wish to ascertain what is right or wrong, ~hey thmk whether it will shock people or not. They unconsciously reverse our Lord's Judga:ent; and to them the poor wretch who has fallen under the power of some evil habit, and ruined his prospects in life, is a far more hopeless and pitiable object than the hard- bearted., self-righteou11r respectable sinner. who ha, not a tenth Dart of the other', OH, vu. 1-29.] THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 811