This passage concerns the outward and inward aspects of a person's communion with God. The Pharisees accuse Jesus and His disciples of violating the oral tradition, which was regarded on a par with the written law. How can the law be fulfilled completely? The sense that a person always remains guilty (unclean) before God led to...
This passage concerns the outward and inward aspects of a person's communion with God. The Pharisees accuse Jesus and His disciples of violating the oral tradition, which was regarded on a par with the written law. How can the law be fulfilled completely? The sense that a person always remains guilty (unclean) before God led to a multiplication of rules and prescriptions. It seemed that eating with unwashed hands (that is, ritually unclean hands) defiled a “clean” person. But what is uncleanness, and can one be cleansed of it simply by ritual washing? It is worth noting that even the Evangelist adds a clarification in verse 2: “...eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands...” He stresses that only for the Pharisees were unwashed hands unclean.
Jesus turns the conversation from outward matters to the human interior. In verses 7–13 He is most likely discussing a concrete situation in which unwillingness to care for one's parents was presented as zealous service to God. God's commandment to honor father and mother cannot be replaced by human inventions, even by a gift for the needs of the Temple. Jesus opposes a system that places norms and rules above human needs. How often even openly selfish actions can be presented as pious! How skillfully a person can use an attractive outward form to conceal emptiness, uncleanness, and evil thoughts! Can outwardly “proper” deeds and actions justify us? Do we know what lives within us? From what, and in what way, can we be cleansed?
Verses 14–23 offer striking testimony to a profound knowledge of human psychology and spiritual life. The center of spiritual life is the heart, as the Bible says more than once. Learning to look precisely into it, to know it and cleanse it, is the right path. The many references to parallel passages in the Old Testament likewise indicate that evil and uncleanness are in the human heart. And God Himself says this: He knows its depths, and yet He, who knows more about us than we know about ourselves, does not turn away from us. He can hardly need concern for washing hands and vessels while evil thoughts live in the heart. Jesus speaks of a person's true uncleanness, and therefore cleansing, too, must be true. Whatever enters from outside does not reach the heart. These were revolutionary statements for orthodox Judaism: it is not ritual observance that exalts a person, but a deep and open relationship with the living God. How can we enter into that relationship?
4
4:28 Now we - Who believe, whether Jews or Gentiles.Are children of the promise - Not born in a natural way, but by the supernatural power of God. And as such we are heirs of the promise made to believing Abraham.
4:29 But as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so it is now also - And so it will be in all ages and nations to the end of the world.
4:30 But what saith the scripture - Showing the consequence of this. Cast out the bondwoman and her son - Who mocked Isaac.In like manner will God cast out all who seek to be justified by the law; especially if they persecute them who are his children by faith. Gen 21:10.
4:31 So then - To sum up all. We - Who believe. Are not children of the bondwoman - Have nothing to do with the servile Mosaic dispensation. But of the free - Being free from the curse and the bond of that law, and from the power of sin and Satan.
5
5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty - From the ceremonial law.Wherewith Christ hath made us - And all believers, free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of legal bondage.
5:2 If ye be circumcised - And seek to be justified thereby.Christ - The Christian institution. Will profit you nothing - For you hereby disclaim Christ, and all the blessings which are through faith in him.
5:3 I testify to every man - Every gentile. That is circumcised - He thereby makes himself a debtor - Obliges.
5:4 Therefore Christ is become of no effect to you - Who seek to be justified by the law. Ye are fallen from grace - Ye renounce the new covenant. Ye disclaim the benefit of this gracious dispensation.
5:5 For we - Who believe in Christ, Who are under the gospel dispensation. Through the Spirit - Without any of those carnal ordinances.Wait for - in sure confidence of attaining. The hope of righteousness - The righteousness we hope for, and full reward of it. This righteousnesswe receive of God through faith; and by faith we shall obtain the reward.
5:6 For in Christ Jesus - According to the institution which he hath established, according to the tenor of the Christian covenant.Neither circumcision - With the most punctual observance of the law.Nor uncircumcision - With the most exact heathen morality.Availeth anything - Toward present justification or eternal salvation.But faith - Alone; even that faith which worketh by love - All inward and outward holiness.
5:7 Ye did run well - In the race of faith. Who hath hindered you in your course, that ye should not still obey the truth?
5:8 This your present persuasion cometh not from God, who called you - to his kingdom and glory.
5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump - One troubler, ver. Gal 5:10, troubles all.
5:10 Yet I have confidence that - After ye have read this. Ye will be no otherwise minded - Than I am, and ye were. But he that troubleth you - It seems to have been one person chiefly who endeavoured to seduce them. Shall bear his judgment - A heavy burden, already hanging over his head.