The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 245

be viole.ted with impunity, if the othen were wilt (Bl"Am, wi'llest fl>) enter into life; i.&. observed. Some made the gift ofporfection enjoy eternal life. Christ uses a. term equi- to depend on the de.ily reoite.lion of oertain valent to that of the ruler in ver. JG. So. prayers or pMlms, othen on giving due Christ se.id on another ooce.sion to a la.wyo1 hononr to the n.,cred. Amid snoh perplexing who tempted him. "Thie do, and thou rules, the yout.h desires an authoritative she.It live" (Luke x. 28). Thero is no real deoision, which he may put in practice, and life without obedience. Keep the oommand- thus be sure of a he.ppy plaoe in :M:essiah's ments of him who is good. Tho Lo.w was- kingdom-be, as the Jews termed it, "a son given to prepare men to receive Christianity of the age to come." !-nd in proportion a.s they carefully observed Ver. 17.-Why callest thou me good I 1t, so were they made ready to inherit the Snoh is the reading of the reoeived text life which Christ gives. No mere external here, and without any variation in the compliance without faith is here a.pproved., parollel pe.ssages of l\Iurk and Luke. Our but it is laid down that, in order to win Lord takes the rnl~r to t.a.sk for applying eternal life, there must be strict observanca this epithet to him, uuless the youth believed of God's law:3-not some one extraordinary in his Divinity. You think of me only as a performa.ncc, but constant a.ttention to learned Teacher: how, then, oe.n you speak of known duties from the highest motive. me in a term which oe.n really be predicated Fnith, indeed, is belief in a.otion, e.nd is. of no child of man? Christ answers the dea.d and profitleBS if inoperative; so that ruler's a.ddress before he touches the subject true obedience is the outcome of true faith. , of his interrogation, reproving him for using Ver. 18.-Which(,ro(as)? Christ's unswe• a form of words without realizing its full we.s disappointing to the inquirer; it was import. This is e.11 pie.in enough; but many too ve.,,o-ue and general to ealisfy bis thought. good ma.nnacripts, including ~. B, D, etc., He expected to hear (as the rabbis taught) Vulge.te, and other versions, read, Why askest of some special precept or preoepte, difficult Uwu me concerning the good f :M:ost modern of Rccomplishment, and not usue.lly re- editors and the Revised Version he. ve adopted garded, by observance of which he could this reading, which they hold to be genuine, obtain his grent reward. So he e.sks with and to hnve been altered subsequently in laudable persistence," 0/ what sort a.re these order to conform it to the other synoptists. commandments which I have to obey?" He If this is so, it is difficult to see whence is far from thinking of the common duti!l& Mark e.nd Luke obtained their wording, of the Deoe.logue, though doubtless he ha.d unless-which is improbable-our Lord used been taught tbe.t these varied greatly in both interrogations on the same occasion. meri toriouences. Obrist, in reply, notifies, a.a The revised rea.cling expresses Christ's examples, the chief enactments of what we astonishment e.t having this question e.sked; ce.11 the second table of the Decalogue, quot- and it ma.y be taken, a.s Bengel f!llggests, ing the sixth, seventh,eighth,ninth,e.ndlifth. '"'He who is good ought to be interrogated He eunnciates nothing uncommon, nothing about the good ; " or, " What is right to do, new ; e.nd, by prefixing the definite article you ought to know; it can only be obedience .-1, to the enumeration, he m&.kes the whole to the Author of all goodness." There is a subste.ntia.l unity, comprising the moral none good but one, tha.t is, God. Here law of duty to one's neighbour. Perhaps again the reading va.ries. The other synop- Christ confines his list to the second tabl& tiats agree with tbe received text of Matthew, in order to make the man feel his imperfec- except that Luke has ETs e,bs instead of ,Ts tion in these ordinary matters, or to bring ~ 8Eos. Late editors, following I(, B, D, ont his self-righteous spirit. There could etc., have printed. Efs ,.-.-111 6 A')'aBos: one be no doubt that inf1ingement of the first there u who is good, or one is the good. God ta.hie involved the loss of eternal life. Ver. alone is the e.bsolutely good; he alone ca.n 17 virtually includes the spirit of this to.hie. instruct yon and put yon certainly in the It was round these la.et six commandments right way. Persons have been found to chiefly that mbbinioal tra.ditions e.nd inter- e.rgue from this sentence that Christ re- pretations ha.d gathered, so that their pie.in nounces e.il cfoim to be God Almighty. meaning we.s obscured or depraved. Who- But it is not so. He replies to what we.s ever observed the second table in spirit and in the young ma.n's mind. The ruler re- truth, kept also the first (Rom. xiii. 9, 10); garded Jesus e.s me.n only; Jeeus intima.t.es and it is .easier to love one's neighbour than tl,at, in compe.rison with God, no me.n is to love God, as the apostle witnesses (see good. He does not deny the e.pplicability 1 John iv. 20); a.nd without love of our of the epithet to himself, but tUJ'll.B the neighbour there ca.nnot be true love of God. questioner's thoughts to the Source of all Ver. 19.-:e:onour, eto. Lange considers. good.. He will not have himself regarded tbat in this verse we have a summa.ry of simply e.e a pre-eminently good man, but as the two tables, "Honour thy father a.nd Son of God, one wlt.h the Fe.the,. U thou mother," 11umming up the comma.ndmenta ea. ux. 1-30.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 249