View Matthew 19 in the note window.
1: He departed - and from that time walked no more in Galilee.(Mk 10:1).
2: Multitudes followed him, and he healed them there - That is,
wheresoever they followed him.
3: The Pharisees came tempting him - Trying to make him contradict
Moses. For every cause - That is, for any thing which he dislikes
in her. This the scribes allowed.
4: He said, Have ye not read - So instead of contradicting him, our
Lord confutes them by the very words of Moses. He who made them,
made them male and female from the beginning - At least from the
beginning of the Mosaic creation. And where do we read of any
other? Does it not follow, that God's making Eve was part of
his original design, and not a consequence of Adam's beginning
to fall? By making them one man and one woman, he condemned
polygamy: by making them one flesh, he condemned divorce.
5: And said - By the mouth of Adam, who uttered the words.(Ge 2:24).
7: Why did Moses command - Christ replies, Moses permitted (not
commanded) it, because of the hardness of your hearts - Because
neither your fathers nor you could bear the more excellent way.(De 24:1,Mt 5:31,Mk 10:2,Lu 16:18).
9: And I say to you - I revoke that indulgence from this day, so
that from henceforth, Whosoever, &c.
11: But he said to them - This is not universally true; it does
not hold, with regard to all men, but with regard to those only
to whom is given this excellent gift of God. Now this is given
to three sorts of persons to some by natural constitution,
without their choice: to others by violence, against their
choice; and to others by grace with their choice: who steadily
withstand their natural inclinations, that they may wait upon
God without distraction.
12: There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the
kingdom of heaven's sake - Happy they! who have abstained from
marriage (though without condemning or despising it) that they
might walk more closely with God! He that is able to receive
it, let him receive it - This gracious command (for such it is
unquestionably, since to say, such a man may live single, is
saying nothing. Who ever doubted this?) is not designed for
all men: but only for those few who are able to receive it.
O let these receive it joyfully!
13: That he should lay his hands on them - This was a rite which
was very early used, in praying for a blessing on young persons.
See (Ge 48:14,20).
The disciples rebuked them - That is, them that brought them:
probably thinking such an employ beneath the dignity of their
Master. (Mk 10:13,Lu 18:15).
14: Of such is the kingdom of heaven - Little children, either in a
natural or spiritual sense, have a right to enter into my kingdom.(Mt 18:3).
16: And behold one came - Many of the poor had followed him from
the beginning. One rich man came at last.(Mk 10:17,Lu 18:18).
17: Why callest thou me good - Whom thou supposest to be only a
man. There is none good - Supremely, originally, essentially, but
God. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments - From a
principle of loving faith. Believe, and thence love and obey.
And this undoubtedly is the way to eternal life. Our Lord
therefore does not answer ironically, which had been utterly
beneath his character, but gives a plain, direct, serious answer
to a serious question.
19: (Ex 20:12). &c
20: The young man saith, All these have I kept from my childhood
- So he imagined; and perhaps he had, as to the letter; but not as
to the spirit, which our Lord immediately shows.
21: If thou desirest to be perfect - That is, to be a real
Christian: Sell what thou hast - He who reads the heart saw his
bosom sin was love of the world; and knew he could not be saved
from this, but by literally renouncing it. To him therefore he
gave this particular direction, which he never designed for a
general rule. For him that was necessary to salvation: to us
it is not. To sell all was an absolute duty to him; to many of
us it would be ali absolute sin. The young man went away - Not
being willing to have salvation at so high a price.
24: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
(a proverbial expression,) than for a rich man to go through
the strait gate: that is, humanly speaking, it is an absolute
impossibility. Rich man! tremble! feel this impossibility; else
thou art lost for ever!
25: His disciples were amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? - If
rich men, with all their advantages, cannot? Who? A poor man;
a peasant; a beggar: ten thousand of them, sooner than one that
is rich.
26: Jesus looking upon them - To compose their hurried spirits.
O what a speaking look was there! Said to them - With the utmost
sweetness: With men this is impossible - It is observable, he does
not retract what he had said: no, nor soften it in the least
degree, but rather strengthens it, by representing the salvation
of a rich man as the utmost effort of Omnipotence.
28: In the renovation - In the final renovation of all things: Ye
shall sit - In the beginning of the judgment they shall stand,(2Co 5:10).
Then being absolved, they shall sit with the Judge,(1Co 6:2):
On twelve thrones - So our Lord promised, without expressing any
condition: yet as absolute as the words are, it is certain there
is a condition implied, as in many scriptures, where none is
expressed. In consequence of this, those twelve did not sit on
those twelve thrones: for the throne of Judas another took, so
that he never sat thereon.
29: And every one - In every age and country; not you my apostles
only; That hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or wife, or
children - Either by giving any of them up, when they could not
be retained with a clear conscience or by willingly refraining
from acquiring them: Shall receive a hundred - fold - In value,
though not in kind, even in the present world.
30: But many first - Many of those who were first called, shall
be last - Shall have the lowest reward: those who came after them
being preferred before them: and yet possibly both the first and
the last may be saved, though with different degrees of glory.(Mt 20:16,Mk 10:31,Lu 13:30).
