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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Matthew 12:7 - 12:7
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But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice - (Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6-8, etc.). See on Mat 9:13.
ye would not have condemned the guiltless - that is, Had ye understood the great principle of all religion, which the Scripture everywhere recognizes - that ceremonial observances must give way before moral duties, and particularly the necessities of nature - ye would have refrained from these captious complaints against men who in this matter are blameless. But our Lord added a specific application of this great principle to the law of the sabbath, preserved only in Mark: “And he said unto them, the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mar 2:27). A glorious and far-reaching maxim, alike for the permanent establishment of the sabbath and the true freedom of its observance.