The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 401

expounded the Low. Therefore the Lord enjoined obedience to their precepts. But we must mark the word "therefore." They were to be obeyed because they sat in Moses' seat-as the successors, in some sense, to his. authority, as the expounders of his Law. Bo far they were to be obeyed; but not, the Lord himself elsewhere cautions us, in their misinterpretations, in their contrivances for evading the plain meaning of the Law, in their many quibbles and their endless distinctions. We see here that the Lord bids us obey constituted authorities in all things lawful. Those who are set over us may not always be orthodox in their opinions ; their characters may not always command our respect; but the very fact that they are set over us makes it our duty to treat them with respect and to obey their directions, whenever such obedience is not inconsistent with our duty to God. Submission to our superiors, even if they are unworthy of their position, is an exercise of humility, and agreeable to the will of God; for "the powers that be are ordained of God : whosoever there- fore resisted the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." We observe that the Lord does not here condemn the priests. They do not seem, as a body, to have taken a prominent place in the oppo&ition to bis teaching. The chief priests, who were Sadducees, did so. But we are told, early in the history of the Acts of the Apostles, that "a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." "The priests' lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth." But in our Lord's time a separation had been made between the d □ ties of the teacher and the priest. The scribes taught the people; the priests ministered in the temple. The scribes, puffed up with their minute knowledge of the letter of the Law, were intensely antagonistic to the holy Teacher who brought out its spiritual meaning. The priests, excepting always their Sadducean leaders, do not seem to have been so hostile. They were occupied with their temple ministrations; they were, as a body, not recognized as public teachers, and were probably not so influential as the scribes, not brought so prominently before the eyes of the people. The Lord came to fulfil the Law. He attended the great festivals; he bade the leper whom he healed to show himself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded. He did not interfere with the ministrations of the priests, nor does he here censure their life and conduct. The chief priests were hostile to him, probably because he exercised authority in the temple which they regarded as their own domain, and diminished their revenues by expelling the traffickers from the sacred precincts. 'l'he scribes opposed the Lord, so did the chief priests; in both cases from selfish motives. Let llll beware of selfishness, and fight against it. It poisons the very life of the soul; it sets men against the Lord; it leads them to say in their hearts, "Not thy will, bnt mine be done." 2. Their conduct. (1) "They say, and do not," the Lord said. They made the Law a heavy burden, a yoke which men were not able t-0 bear, by their practice of" making a fence round the Law." Such were their rigid and wearisome regulations about the observance of the sabbath, and the minute rules concerning the washing of vessels mentioned by St. Mark (vii. 4). But they themselves would not help to move that burden with one of their fingers. The teacher who lives a holy, self-denying life helps men by bis example to bear the burden which he lays upon them. His conduct proves the reality of his convictions; it shows the strength of the motives which he enforces, the power of that grace which he preaches. Preaching, without practice, as in the case of the scribes, has little sanctifying influence, cannot much help men to deny themselves and lead a godly life. A life of real self-denial is the most con- vincing sermon. (2) All their works they did "for to be seen of men." They did not care for that inward purity of heart which does not win human praise. 'l'hey strove to catch the eyes of men by the outward show of devotion. They delighted in phylacteries larger than usual, in borders and fringes more conspicuous than those commonly worn. There was no harm in wearing the phylactery or the fringe ; the one was certainly ordered by the Law, probably also the other. 'l'he harm lay in the desire to attract attention, in the craving for display, in the tendency to exalt these outward things above inner spiritual religion. (3) They coveted pre-eminence; they eagerly desired the chief places at feast or at synagogue; they liked to hear themselves called "Rabbi, Rabbi." Their religion was outside show ; they had no real love for God, no desire for spiritual holiness. II. THE CONTRAST. 1. The disciples of Christ must not seek for titles of honour, 406 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oH, :r.xm. 1-39.