5 

5:14 For the love of Christ - To us, and our love to him.Constraineth us - Both to the one and the other; beareth us on with such a strong, steady, prevailing influence, as winds and tides exert when they waft the vessel to its destined harbour.While we thus judge, that if Christ died for all, then are all, even the best of men, naturally dead - In a state of spiritual death, and liable to death eternal. For had any man been otherwise, Christ had not needed to have died for him.

5:15 And that he died for all - That all might be saved.That they who live - That all who live upon the earth. Should not henceforth - From the moment they know him. Live unto themselves - Seek their own honour, profit, pleasure. But unto him - In all righteousness and true holiness.

5:16 So that we from this time - That we knew the love of Christ. Know no one - Neither ourselves, nor you, neither the rest of the apostles, Gal 2:6, nor any other person.After the flesh - According to his former state, country, descent, nobility, riches, power, wisdom. We fear not the great. We regard not the rich or wise. We account not the least less than ourselves. We consider all, only in order to save all.Who is he that thus knows no one after the flesh? ln what land do these Christians live? Yea, if we have known even Christ after the flesh - So as to love him barely with a natural love, so as to glory in having conversed with him on earth, so as to expect only temporal benefits from him.

5:17 Therefore if any one be in Christ - A true believer in him. There is a new creation - Only the power that makes a world can make a Christian. And when he is so created, the old things are passed away - Of their own accord, even as snow in spring.Behold - The present, visible, undeniable change! All things are become new - He has new life, new senses, new faculties, new affections, new appetites, new ideas and conceptions. His whole tenor of action and conversation is new, and he lives, as it were, in a new world. God, men, the whole creation, heaven, earth, and all therein, appear in a new light, and stand related to him in a new manner, since he was created anew in Christ Jesus.

5:18 And all these new things are from God, considered under this very notion, as reconciling us - The world, Co2 5:19,to himself.

5:19 Namely - The sum of which is, God - The whole Godhead, but more eminently God the Father. Was in Christ, reconciling the world - Which was before at enmity with God. To himself - So taking away that enmity, which could no otherwise be removed than by the blood of the Son of God.

5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ - we beseech you in Christ's stead - Herein the apostle might appear to some "transported beyond himself." In general he uses a more calm,sedate kind of exhortation, as in the beginning of the next chapter. What unparalleled condescension and divinely tender mercies are displayed in this verse! Did the judge ever beseech a condemned criminal to accept of pardon? Does the creditor ever beseech a ruined debtor to receive an acquittance in full? Yet our almighty Lord, and our eternal Judge, not only vouchsafes to offer these blessings, but invites us, entreats us, and, with the most tender importunity, solicits us, not to reject them.

5:21 He made him a sin offering, who knew no sin - A commendation peculiar to Christ. For us - Who knew no righteousness, who were inwardly and outwardly nothing but sin; who must have been consumed by the divine justice, had not this atonement been made for our sins. That we might be made the righteousness of God through him - Might through him be invested wi th that righteousness, first imputed to us, then implanted in us, which is in every sense the righteousness of God.

5 

5:23 Thy brother hath aught against thee - On any of the preceding accounts: for any unkind thought or word: any that did not spring from love.

5:24 Leaving thy gift, go - For neither thy gift nor thy prayer will atone for thy want of love: but this will make them both an abomination before God.

5:25 Agree with thine adversary - With any against whom thou hast thus offended: while thou art in the way - Instantly, on the spot; before you part. Lest the adversary deliver thee to the judge - Lest he commit his cause to God. Luk 12:58.

5:26 Till thou hast paid the last farthing - That is, for ever, since thou canst never do this. What has been hitherto said refers to meekness: what follows,to purity of heart.

5:27 Thou shalt not commit adultery - And this, as well as the sixth commandment, the scribes and Pharisees interpreted barely of the outward act. Exo 20:14.

5:29 If a person as dear as a right eye, or as useful as a right hand, cause thee thus to offend, though but in heart. Perhaps here may be an instance of a kind of transposition which is frequently found in the sacred writings: so that the Mat 5:29 may refer to Mat 5:27, Mat 5:28; and the Mat 5:30 to Mat 5:21-22. Mat 5:29, Mat 5:27, Mat 5:28, Mat 5:30, Mat 5:21, Mat 5:22. As if he had said, Part with any thing, however dear to you, or otherwise useful, if you cannot avoid sin while you keep it.Even cut off your right hand, if you are of so passionate a temper, that you cannot otherwise be restrained from hurting your brother. Pull out your eyes, if you can no otherwise be restrained from lusting after women. Mat 18:8; Mar 9:43.

5:30 See note at Mat 5:29.

5:31 Let him give her a writing of divorce - Which the scribes and Pharisees allowed men to do on any trifling occasion. Deu 24:1; Mat 19:7; Mar 10:2; Luk 16:18.

5:32 Causeth her to commit adultery - If she marry again.

5:33 Our Lord here refers to the promise made to the pure in heart of seeing God in all things, and points out a false doctrine of the scribes, which arose from their not thus seeing God.What he forbids is, the swearing at all,

1. by any creature,
2. in our ordinary conversation:

5:36 For thou canst not make one hair white or black - Whereby it appears, that this also is not thine but God's.

5:37 Let your conversation be yea, yea; nay, nay - That is, in your common discourse, barely affirm or deny.