Matthew Henry

For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

“The sanction of this law in the fifth commandment, is, a promise, that thy days may be long; but our Saviour waives that, lest any should thence infer it to be only a thing commendable and profitable, and insists upon the penalty annexed to the…”

But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he need not honor his…

“This was making the command of God of no effect. Note, Whatever leads to, or countenances, disobedience, does, in effect, make void the command; and they that take upon them to dispense with God's law, do, in Christ's account, repeal and disannul it.”

You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:

“The eye of man can perceive open profaneness, but it is only the eye of Christ that can discern hypocrisy, Luke xvi. And as it is a sin which his eye discovers, so it is a sin which of all others his soul hates.”

‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

“In vain do they worship me. Their worship does not attain the end for which it was appointed; it will neither please God, nor profit themselves. If it be not in spirit, it is not in truth, and so it is all nothing.”

Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen and understand.

“Christ must favour them at their pleasure with a discourse in private. But Christ had a regard to the multitude; he soon despatched the scribes and Pharisees, and then turned them off, invited the mob, the multitude, to be his hearers: thus the poor are…”

Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen and understand.

“Though Christ rejects the wilfully ignorant who care not to be taught, he can have compassion on the ignorant who are willing to learn, Heb. v. 2 .”

Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Are You aware that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

“Perhaps the disciples themselves stumbled at the word Christ said, which they thought bold, and scarcely reconcileable with the difference that was put by the law of God between clean and unclean meats; and therefore objected this to Christ, that they might themselves be better…”

But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.

“(2.) Those that are of the spirit of the Pharisees, proud, formal, and imposing, what figure soever they make, and of what denomination soever they be, God will not own them as of his planting. By their fruit you shall know them. (3.)”

But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.

“What things are unscriptural, will wither and die of themselves, or be justly exploded by the churches; however in the great day these tares that offend will be bundled for the fire. What is become of the Pharisees and their traditions?”

Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

“Now the prophecy was fulfilled, Isa. xxix. And it is easy to imagine what will be in the end hereof, when the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and the people love to have it so, Jer. v. 31 .”

“Do you still not understand?” Jesus asked.

“"Are ye yet so, after ye have been so long under my teaching?" Had they been but of yesterday in Christ's school, it had been another matter, but to have been for so many months Christ's constant hearers, and yet to be without understanding, was…”

“Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated?

“It may be a piece of cleanliness, but it is not point of conscience, to wash before meat; and we go upon a great mistake if we place religion in it.”

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man.

“Now here we have, [1.] The corrupt fountain of that which proceeds out of the mouth; it comes from the heart; that is the spring and source of all sin, Jer. viii. It is the heart that is so desperately wicked ( Jer. xvii.”

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

“When Christ and his disciples could not be quiet among them, he left them, and so left an example to his own rule ( ch. x. 14 ), Shake off the dust of your feet.”

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

“The dark corners of the country, which lay most remote, shall have their share of his benign influences; and as now the ends of the land, so afterward the ends of the earth, shall see his salvation, Isa. xlix.”

And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”

“If Christ had not now made a visit to these coasts, though the mercy was worth travelling far for, it is probable that she had never come to him.”

“O woman,” Jesus answered, “your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

“And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. We have here that famous story of Christ's casting the devil out of the woman of Canaan's daughter; it has something in it singular and very surprising, and which looks favourably upon the poor Gentiles…”

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and tested Jesus by asking Him to show them a sign from heaven.

“7, 8 , and yet unanimous in their opposition to Christ; because his doctrine did equally overthrow the errors and heresies of the Sadducees, who denied the existence of spirits and a future state; and the pride, tyranny, and hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who were…”

But He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky…

“Can ye not discern the signs of the times? [1.] "Do you not see that the Messiah is come?" The sceptre was departed from Judah, Daniel's weeks were just expiring, and yet they regarded not.”

“Watch out!” Jesus told them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

“But now they forgot; we will hope it was because their minds and memories were filled with better things. Note, Christ's disciples are often such as have no great forecast for the world.”

Aware of their conversation, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you debating among yourselves about having no bread?

“This should serve to excuse a fault, Peradventure it was an oversight. See how easily Christ forgave his disciples' carelessness, though it was in such a material point as taking bread; and do likewise. But that which he chides them for is their little faith.”

How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

“How is it that you do not understand? Note, Christ's disciples may well be ashamed of the slowness and dulness of their apprehensions in divine things; especially when they have long enjoyed the means of grace;”

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He questioned His disciples: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

“Or, (2.) As a title peculiar to him as Mediator. He is made known, in Daniel's vision, as the Son of man, Dan. vii. I am the Messiah, that Son of man that was promised.”

“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?”

“The disciples had themselves been better taught than others; had, by their intimacy with Christ, greater advantages of getting knowledge than others had.”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

“Peter's answer is short, but it is full, and true, and to the purpose; Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Here is a confession of the Christian faith, addressed to Christ, and so made an act of devotion.”