Matthew5chapter 5

the salt of the earth: Salt preserved and seasoned, and the covenant of salt in Leviticus 2:13 and Numbers 18:19 meant a bond kept faithful. Dead Sea salt carried minerals, so the salt could leach out. The warning is of a disciple who keeps the name without the substance, fit to be "trampled by men."

Matthew 5:14-16

the light of the world: Jesus calls himself "the light of the world" at John 8:12, and here he gives the title to his disciples, who carry his light. "A city on a hill cannot be hidden," and Galilee's hill towns, lit at night, were seen for miles.

put it under a basket: The basket is the household grain measure, which Adam Clarke puts at a little more than an English peck. Clarke cites ancient writers who say that only people plotting harm at night kept a lamp hidden that way. Christ lit the lamp, says Chrysostom, and disciples keep it burning.

let your light shine before men: Adam Clarke renders the words literally as thus let your light shine, which ties the command to the lamp in verse 15. Hilary of Poitiers says the disciple is not told to seek glory, and concealed work shines to the honour of God. Augustine places the test in the heart.

Matthew 5:17-18

I have come to abolish: Jesus came "to fulfill" the Law and the Prophets, never "to abolish" them, and the antitheses work this out. The words "not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen" name the smallest letter, yod. Fulfilment runs three ways, prophecy met, types completed and the law's moral aim kept.

not a stroke of a pen: Augustine calls the phrase a strong figure of completeness, taken from the smallest marks of writing. Jerome notes that heaven and earth will in fact pass away, since new heavens and a new earth are promised. Chrysostom says Christ himself fulfilled the law with all exactness.

the least of these commandments: Even the least commandments carry weight in the kingdom, and rank there is measured by faithfulness to them. The verse answers any reading of verse 17 that would let a disciple set aside part of the law. Doing and teaching are named together, so the standard is practice first.

unless your righteousness exceeds: The third sounding of the righteousness thread sets a demand that outward law-keeping cannot meet: "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees." Their righteousness was measured in visible acts, such as tithing mint and cumin at 23:23, while the antitheses that follow expose the heart.

Matthew 5:21-22

it was said to the ancients: The first of six antitheses takes the command "Do not murder" to its root, placing murder's seed in anger and contempt. "Raca" is an Aramaic word of contempt, and the word fool carries the same scorn. The rising penalties, judgment, the Sanhedrin and the fire of hell, mark rising seriousness.

anyone who is angry with his brother: Some manuscripts add the words without a cause, and Jerome judged them an addition that removes the force of the command. Adam Clarke notes that the Vatican manuscript lacks the phrase. Augustine and John Wesley allow anger at a brother's offence, and they forbid anger at the brother himself.

Matthew 5:23-24

offering your gift at the altar: The scene puts a worshipper at the altar, gift in hand, who remembers a brother's grievance. Jesus ranks reconciliation above the offering: "leave your gift there before the altar." The same priority returns in chapter 6, where alms, prayer and fasting are done for God and never for show.

First go and be reconciled to your brother: Jerome points out that the brother holds the grievance, which lays a heavier duty on the worshipper. John Gill notes that at the pilgrim feasts all Israel was gathered in one place, so the brother could be found quickly. Mark 11:25 gives the converse, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note.

Matthew 5:25-26

Reconcile quickly with your adversary: The picture is a debtor marched to the judge, and urgency is the point. Read plainly it is wisdom about settling a dispute before it hardens into a case. Many commentators also hear final judgment beneath the practical advice, the accusation better settled while there is still time.

until you have paid the last penny: Adam Clarke explains the coin from Mark 12:42, where two of the smallest coins make one penny. Jerome makes the same reckoning from the widow's gift. John Gill reads the sentence as a picture of a creditor who will not relent and a debtor who has no means of release.

Matthew 5:27-28

The second antithesis takes "Do not commit adultery" inward as the first took the command against murder. The words "already committed adultery with her in his heart" expose what the commandment meant. The verse addresses the man who looks, and the church has often needed reminding which party it corrects.

looks at a woman to lust after her: Augustine notes that the look is turned on a woman with the aim of lusting, which is full consent to the desire. He counts three steps: suggestion, pleasure and consent. Jerome likewise sets the first stirring, which he does not hold to be the crime, apart from the settled passion.

Matthew 5:29-30

your right eye causes you: The command to "gouge it out" and "cut it off" names the most valued members and is read as hyperbole for radical dealing with sin. Hell renders gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, a site of child sacrifice in 2 Kings 23:10, by tradition a refuse ground.

if your right hand causes you to sin: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the hand as the organ of action, to which the eye of verse 29 excites. Albert Barnes explains that the right hand is named because it is among the most valued members. So the dearest things are to be given up before sin is allowed.

Matthew 5:31-32

Jesus tightens the allowance of Deuteronomy 24:1, permitting divorce only "except for sexual immorality," porneia, and naming remarriage after any other divorce as adultery. The verse enters a live dispute between Hillel's school, which allowed divorce for almost any cause, and Shammai's, which confined it to serious sexual sin.

except for sexual immorality: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain that the husband brings adultery by driving her toward a second marriage. Augustine reads the exception as a check on putting a wife away lightly, since Moses allowed the certificate because of hard hearts. Adam Clarke finds no other case in which Jesus allows divorce.

Matthew 5:33-37

The fourth antithesis answers a system that ranked oaths by heaven, earth, Jerusalem or one's head below oaths by God's name, though each touches God. Some read this as forbidding every oath, others as aimed at the evasive oaths of the day, since Jesus answers under oath at 26:63-64.

not to swear at all: Augustine traces a chain of habit, in which readiness to swear grows into a custom of swearing and the custom falls into perjury. He notes that Paul used oaths only in writing, where there is time for care. Jerome adds that a person swears by what he reveres.

the city of the great King: John Gill traces the footstool language to Isaiah 66:1 and notes that oaths by the earth were common among the Jews. Cyril of Alexandria warns against honouring creation above itself. He reads the earthly Jerusalem as a type of the Jerusalem above, and notes that God swears only by himself.

you cannot make a single hair white or black: Albert Barnes explains that to swear by the head was to stake one's life on the truth of a claim. John Gill cites Jewish oaths by the life of the head. Chrysostom draws the point that a man is not master even of himself, so his head is no pledge.

Anything more comes from the evil one: The words can be read as coming from evil or from the evil one, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown grant that both renderings are correct. Augustine counts an oath among things necessary, never among things good, so a believer uses one only when hearers will not otherwise believe.

Matthew 5:38-39

The law of Exodus 21:24, "Eye for eye and tooth for tooth," was a judicial limit capping revenge at the injury. The fifth antithesis addresses personal retaliation while the courts still enforced it. A slap "on your right cheek" is an insult more than a mortal attack.

not to resist an evil person: John Gill limits the evil here to a man who has done an injury, since sin, false teaching and Satan are all to be opposed. Chrysostom reads the word as the evil one, whose prompting stands behind the attacker. Wesley says the verb pictures troops drawn up for battle.

Matthew 5:40-42

wants to sue you: The tunic is the inner garment and the cloak the outer one a poor man slept in, so the disciple gives what the law protected. The words "if someone forces you to go one mile" answer angareia, a soldier's right to press a civilian to carry a load a mile.

go with him two miles: Adam Clarke traces the verb for forcing to the royal couriers of Persia, who could press horses, ships and men into service. Chrysostom sees a rising scale, since after the coat and cloak the disciple gives the labour of his body. Augustine calls forced labour a third kind of wrong.

do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you: Augustine reads the command as giving only what can be given rightly, and names money sought to oppress the innocent as a request to refuse. John Wesley bounds the giving by duties to creditors, family and the household of faith. Albert Barnes would rather help the undeserving than refuse need.

Matthew 5:43-45

"Love your neighbor" is the command of Leviticus 19:18, while "Hate your enemy" stands nowhere in the law. The sixth antithesis commands love for enemies. The reward is sonship, "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven," the family likeness shown in loving as he loves.

pray for those who persecute you: Albert Barnes separates two kinds of love. One approves another person's conduct, and the other wishes him well while disapproving what he does, and the command asks for the second. Augustine takes up the curses in the Psalms, such as Psalm 109, and reads them as foretelling what would come.

that you may be sons of your Father in heaven: John Gill guards the clause against a reading in which imitation makes a person God's child, since sonship comes by adoption. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as showing oneself a son by resembling the Father. Adam Clarke notes that some manuscripts read like instead of sons.

Matthew 5:46-48

tax collectors do the same?: Tax collectors and Gentiles love those who love them, so matching their standard earns no reward. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" closes the antitheses, and teleios names completeness and maturity. The verse sets the aim of the chapter, a whole love that resembles the Father's character.

if you greet only your brothers: The greeting in view is spoken, as John Gill explains, an inquiry after a person's welfare. Adam Clarke reports that more than a hundred manuscripts read friends here, and he keeps brothers as closer to the Jewish form of address. John Wesley applies it to Christians divided into parties.

as your heavenly Father is perfect: John Wesley and Adam Clarke read the verb as future. Wesley ties the word to the holiness of the chapter, which the Lord calls happiness at its start and perfection at its close. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the verse as naming the kind of excellence that marks the disciples.