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Mat_22:14. Γάρ ] introduces the reason of the ἐκεῖ ἔσται , κ . τ . λ . For, so far from the mere calling availing to secure against eternal condemnation, many, on the contrary, are called to the Messiah’s kingdom, but comparatively few are chosen by God actually to participate in it. This saying has a somewhat different purport in Mat_20:16; still in both passages the ἐκλογή is not, in the first instance, the judicial sentence, but the eternal decree of God; a decree, however, which has not selected the future subjects of the kingdom in any arbitrary fashion, but has destined for this honour those who, by appropriating and faithfully maintaining the requisite δικαιοσύνη (see on Mat_22:11 f.), will be found to possess the corresponding disposition and character. Comp. Mat_25:34. Similarly, too, in Mat_24:22; Luk_18:7. It was, however, only a legitimate consequence of the contemplation of history from a religious point of view, if the Christian consciousness felt warranted in attributing even this amount of human freedom to the agency of God (Eph_1:4; Php_2:13), and had to be satisfied, while maintaining the human element no less than the divine, with leaving the problem of their unity unsolved (see on Rom_9:33, Remark).
Teaching of the parable: When the Messianic kingdom is about to be established, instead of those who have been invited to enter it, i.e. instead of the people of Israel, who will despise the (according to the plural) repeated invitations, nay, who will show their contempt to some extent by a violent behaviour (for which God will chastise them, and that before the setting up of the kingdom, Mat_22:7), God will order the Gentiles to be called to His kingdom. When, however, it is being established, He will single out from among the Gentiles who have responded to the call such of them as turn out to be morally disqualified for admission, and condemn them to be punished in Gehenna.
The first invitation, and which is referred to in the τοὺς κεκλημένους of Mat_22:3, is conveyed through Christ; the successive invitations which followed were given through the apostles, who, Mat_22:9, likewise invite the Gentiles. Comp. Mat_28:19; Act_1:8; Act_13:46.
Observe in connection with τότε , Mat_22:8, that it is not intended thereby to exclude the calling of the Gentiles before the destruction of Jerusalem; but simultaneously with this event the work of conversion was to be directed in quite a special manner toward the Gentiles. The destruction of Jerusalem was to form the signal for the gathering in of the fulness of the Gentiles (Rom_11:25). Thus the τότε marks a grand epoch in the historical development of events, an epoch already visible to the far-seeing glance of Jesus, though at the same time we are bound to admit the discrepancy that exists between this passage and the very definite statement regarding the date of the second advent contained in Mat_24:29. As is clear from the whole connection, we must not suppose (Weisse) that the man without the wedding garment is intended to represent Judas; but see on Mat_22:12. What is meant is a Christian with the old man still clinging to him. Comp. on Rom_13:14; Gal_3:27; Eph_4:24; Col_3:12.
REMARK.
The part of the parable extending from Mat_22:11 onwards was certainly not spoken, so far as its immediate reference is concerned, with a view to the Pharisees, but was essential to the completeness of the truths that were being set forth, inasmuch as, without that part, there would be no reference to the way in which the holiness of God would assert itself at the setting up of the Messianic kingdom. And the more this latter point is brought out, the more applicable did it become to the case of the Pharisees also, who would be able to infer from it what their fate was to be on that day when, even from among those who will be found to have accepted the invitation, God will single out such as appear without the garment of δικαιοσύνη , and consign them to the punishment of hell