Matthew 5:21 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Matthew 5:20-26) Christ now expounds the law for his disciples and sets the standards they are to live by. He does this by taking six examples which show how the Pharisees had limited notions of righteousness to some crudely literal view, and he makes clear that he requires a far higher standard of conduct from his disciples. Their righteousness must indeed exceed that of the Pharisees. At the same time he vindicates the law and restores the original standard which had always been perfect. Christ is not contradicting the law. Some drive a wedge between the Old Testament and New Testament, but Matthew 5 must not be interpreted in this way. The phrase, ‘It is said’ is not about what the Old Testament taught, but about how the Pharisees interpreted it. They took away from it and they added to it. They underestimated the scope of the original commandment and reduced it to a single literal sin which they thought they could avoid, and they added qualifications and exceptions which were not part of the original commandment, which excused them from any violation.Here they limit the law. They fail to see its application to the heart, and because they do not examine their own hearts or include heart sins in the reckoning, they are able to convince themselves they are acceptable to God. This is the habitual trick of the self-righteous. The sixth commandment, like all the commandments, was the head of a whole family of sins. Moses expounded it in Exodus 21 to show that it excluded accidental death, but that it included smiting parents, cursing of parents, and kidnap. It included the consequences that follow acts of violence, but Christ also shows that it included hatred, for that is murder in the heart. That was completely overlooked by the Pharisees.The law of Moses taught that whoever killed, committed murder, was subject to judgment, both from men and from God, both at the hands of human justice and God’s eternal justice. Everybody knew this much, but Christ shows that there was more to the commandment than this. It was a commandment against wrong attitudes as well as wrong actions.