NOTES for Mat 23:13-22
The denunciations directed against the Pharisees and teachers of the Law are better compared to road signs warning that there is a cliff beyond this bend or that ice may lie ahead. In other words, these words should serve primarily as a warning of spiritual danger, rather than as an occasion to share the Saviour's anger against particular people.
In Russian, the word “Pharisee” has lost all its positive connotations and retained only negative ones. Yet these were highly educated people, many of whom became disciples of Jesus. We must not forget this.
In this passage, Christ speaks of those for whom the temple is more important than God. And how often this happens to us as well. How often people whose upbringing has endowed them with the finest aesthetic sensibility nourish their church life solely on the beauty of ritual. And how often people go to church only for companionship that saves them from the loneliness of the metropolis—or indeed from loneliness of any kind—forgetting that God is the most important thing in the Church.