Chapter VII.
18. "Let your light," [67] says He, "so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." If He had merely said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works," He would seem to have fixed an end in the praises of men, which hypocrites seek, and those who canvass for honours and covet glory of the emptiest kind. Against such parties it is said, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ;" [68] and, by the prophet, "They who please men are put to shame, because God hath despised them;" and again, "God hath broken the bones of those who please men;" [69] and again the apostle, "Let us not be desirous of vainglory;" [70] and still another time, "But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another." [71] Hence our Lord has not said merely, "that they may see your good works," but has added, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven:" so that the mere fact that a man by means of good works pleases men, does not there set it up as an end that he should please men; but let him subordinate this to the praise of God, and for this reason please men, that God may be glorified in him. For this is expedient for them who offer praise, that they should honour, not man, but God; as our Lord showed in the case of the man who was carried, where, on the paralytic being healed, the multitude, marvelling at His powers, as it is written in the Gospel, "feared and glorified God, which had given such power unto men." [72] And His imitator, the Apostle Paul, says, "But they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed; and they glorified [73] God in me."
19. And therefore, after He has exhorted His hearers that they should prepare themselves to bear all things for truth and righteousness, and that they should not hide the good which they were about to receive, but should learn with such benevolence as to teach others, aiming in their good works not at their own praise, but at the glory of God, He begins now to inform and to teach them what they are to teach; as if they were asking Him, saying: Lo, we are willing both to bear all things for Thy name, and not to hide Thy doctrine; but what precisely is this which Thou forbiddest us to hide, and for which Thou commandest us to bear all things? Art Thou about to mention other things contrary to those which are written in the law? "No," says He; "for think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
[67] Lumen; Vulgate, lux. Christ presupposes His righteousness to have become the principle of their life. "They were to stand forth openly and boldly with the message of the New Testament" ( Lange).
[68] Gal. i. 10.
[69] Ps. liii. 5.
[70] Gal. v. 26.
[71] Chap. vi. 4.
[72] Matt. ix. 8.
[73] Gal. i. 23, 24. Vastabat...glorificabant; Vulgate, expugnabat...clarificabant.
Chapter VIII.
20. In this sentence the meaning is twofold. [74] We must deal with it in both ways. For He who says, "I am not come [75] to destroy the law, but to fulfil," means it either in the way of adding what is wanting, or of doing what is in it. Let us then consider that first which I have put first: for he who adds what is wanting does not surely destroy what he finds, but rather confirms it by perfecting it; and accordingly He follows up with the statement, "Verily I say unto you, [76] Till heaven and earth pass, one iota or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." For, if even those things which are added for completion are fulfilled, much more are those things fulfilled which are sent in advance as a commencement. Then, as to what He says, "One iota or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law," nothing else can be understood but a strong expression of perfection, since it is pointed out by means of single letters, among which letters "iota" is smaller than the others, for it is made by a single stroke; while a "tittle" is but a particle of some sort at the top of even that. And by these words He shows that in the law all the smallest particulars even are to be carried into effect. [77] After that He subjoins: "Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." Hence it is the least commandments that are meant by "one iota" and "one tittle." And therefore, "whosoever shall break and shall teach [men] so,"--i.e. in accordance with what he breaks, not in accordance with what he finds and reads,--"shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven;" and therefore, perhaps, he will not be in the kingdom of heaven at all, where only the great can be. "But whosoever shall do and teach [men] so," [78] --i.e. who shall not break, and shall teach men so, in accordance with what he does not break,--"shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." But in regard to him who shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven, it follows that he is also in the kingdom of heaven, into which the great are admitted: for to this what follows refers.
[74] Here begins the second part of the Sermon. In it our Lord sets forth His relation as a lawgiver to the Mosaic law, especially as currently interpreted according to the letter only (Meyer, Alford etc.).
[75] Veni; Greek, elthon.
[76] A decisive assertion of authority. Asseveratio gravissima ei propria, qui per se ipsum et per suam veritatem asseverat (Bengel). The prophet's most emphatic statement was, "Thus saith the Lord." Christ speaks in His own name, as the fount of authority (v. 20 and often: John iii. 3, xiv. 12, etc.).
[77] "Christ's words are decisive against all those who would set aside the Old Testament as without significance, or inconsistent with the New Testament" (Alford). Christ declares the New to be rooted in the Old; its consummation, not its destruction. The essence and purport of the law, the "whole law," was fulfilled by Him (Meyer). Theophylact well compares the law to a sketch, which Christ (like the painter) does not destroy, but fills out.
[78] Sic; Greek, houtos; Vulgate, hic.