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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 23:25 - 23:28
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_23:25-28
25"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like the whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
Mat_23:25 "hypocrites" See Special Topic at Mat_6:2.
▣ "you clean the outside of the cup" They were very concerned with ceremonial cleanliness, but their attitudes and motives were far from God (cf. Isa_29:13). They were defiled from within (i.e., the heart, cf. Mar_7:15; Mar_7:20). The new standard of righteousness (i.e., the new covenant, cf. Jer_31:31-34; Eze_36:22-38) was not human performance, but faith in Christ's righteousness to be purchased on Calvary and confirmed on Easter Sunday!
Mat_23:27 "whitewashed tombs" The citizens of Jerusalem would paint the graves white before feast days lest a pilgrim accidentally touch them and become ceremonially unclean for seven days, and hence unable to participate in the feast even after traveling a long distance (cf. Num_19:16; Num_31:19). These freshly painted tombs were analogous to the outward religiosity of the Jewish leaders.