Matthew 5:17 - Meaning and Application

The people Christ preached to, and the ones he wanted to help through these instructions to his disciples, had two main ways of thinking about religion. First, they looked to the Old Testament Scriptures as their rule, and Christ shows them they were right in that. Second, they looked to the scribes and Pharisees as their example, and Christ shows them they were wrong in that. The scribes were Jewish teachers of the law, and the Pharisees were a strict religious group, but their example was not safe to follow.

Christ’s teaching matched the Old Testament exactly, here called “the law and the prophets.” The prophets explained the law, and together they formed the standard of faith and life that Christ found already honored in the Jewish church. He did not come to pull that standard down, but to keep it standing. He says plainly, “Do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets” (Matthew 5:17).

This was meant to calm both kinds of people. Devout Jews should not fear that Christ would damage the honor of the Scriptures they loved and had found to be true and pure. At the same time, careless Jews should not hope that the Messiah had come to free them from God’s commands while still giving them God’s promises. Christ commands nothing that the law of nature or the moral law had not already required, and he forbids nothing those laws had already taught. He came to fulfill, not destroy.

Christ fulfills the law in several ways. First, he obeyed it perfectly, because he was under the law (Galatians 4:4). He honored his parents, kept the Sabbath, prayed, gave to the poor, and never broke God’s law in any way. Second, he made the promises of the law and the predictions of the prophets come true, and they all pointed to him. The covenant of grace, which is God’s way of saving sinners by promise, was the same in substance then as now, with Christ as its mediator, the one who brings God and people together. Third, he answered the types and symbols of the law, especially the ceremonial law. He did not make them useless, but proved their meaning by being the reality behind the shadows.

He also filled out what was incomplete in the law and the prophets. The word used here means “to fill up.” If the law is like a vessel with some water already in it, Christ did not pour it out, he filled it to the top. If it is like a rough sketch of a picture, Christ brought it to completion by his teaching and by what he did. In this way, he carried forward the same purpose the law had always served. The gospel does not fight against the main aim of the Jewish faith, it brings that aim to its highest point. The gospel is a time of reforming and improving, not throwing out God’s truth.

Christ also teaches that the law will remain in force. He says, “Till heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the least stroke of a letter will by any means pass from the law until all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). That means God’s word will stand until everything God has planned is completed. God is working in providence and grace to fulfill Scripture, and he will not let even the smallest part of his word fail. Heaven and earth would pass away before one word of God would fall to the ground.

This shows God’s care for even the smallest parts of his law. He guards the little things, the tiny letters and marks, because whatever belongs to him and bears his stamp will be preserved. Human laws admit their own weakness, but God stands by every part of his law. Nothing in it is too small for his care.

Christ then warns his disciples to guard the law carefully and explains the danger of ignoring it (Matthew 5:19). Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees were praised as teachers, but they would not be honored as teachers in Christ’s kingdom. By contrast, anyone who does and teaches these commands, as Christ’s disciples would, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

There are some commands that are smaller than others, though none are truly unimportant. The Jews counted the command about taking the mother bird from her nest as one of the least (Deuteronomy 22:6, 22:7), yet even that command had serious purpose and meaning. It is dangerous, in belief or behavior, to weaken even the smallest command of God. To break them means trying to shrink their reach or lessen their force, and that is a serious offense before a jealous God. To set aside any of the Ten Commandments is more than ordinary disobedience, it is making God’s law empty (Psalm 119:126).

The farther such corruption spreads, the worse it becomes. It is bad enough to break a command, but it is worse to teach others to do so. Christ is clearly speaking about the teachers who then sat in Moses’ seat, the place of official teaching, and who twisted Scripture with their comments. Ideas that weaken true godliness and the heart of religion are bad when held privately, but they are far worse when taught and spread as if they were God’s word.

He who teaches this way will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, in the gospel church. He is so far from being fit to teach there that he should not even be counted a true member of it. The prophet who teaches such lies will be “the tail” in that kingdom (Isaiah 9:15). When truth stands on its own, such false teachers, even if people praise them like the Pharisees, will have no standing with the wise and godly.

Nothing makes ministers more shameful and low than twisting God’s law (Malachi 2:8, Malachi 2:11). Those who make sin seem smaller, encourage it, and mock strictness in religion and serious worship, are the worst part of the church. But those are truly honored in Christ’s church who use both their lives and their teaching to promote pure and serious practical religion. They both do and teach what is good. If teachers do not live as they teach, they tear down with one hand what they build with the other. They prove themselves false, and they tempt people to think all religion is a lie.

But those who speak from real experience, and live up to what they preach, are truly great. They honor God, and God will honor them (1 Samuel 2:30). In the life to come, they will shine like stars in the kingdom of our Father.

Christ’s righteousness, the right way of living he came to establish, must be greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). This was shocking to people who thought the scribes and Pharisees had reached the highest level of religion. The scribes were the best-known teachers of the law, and the Pharisees were the most respected religious group. Both sat in Moses’ seat (Matthew 23:2), meaning they claimed authority to teach God’s law. Because of their reputation, people thought they were already more than good enough, and did not feel bound to be as holy as they were. So it was a great surprise to hear that they must be better than them, or they would not enter heaven. Jesus states this firmly: “I say to you, it is so.”

The scribes and Pharisees were enemies of Christ and his teaching, and they were also harsh and oppressive. Even so, there was something praiseworthy in them. They fasted, prayed, and gave alms often. They carefully kept the ceremonial commands, and they made it their business to teach others. They had such influence with the people that, if only two men were to go to heaven, one would be a Pharisee. Yet Jesus tells his disciples that the religion he came to establish does not merely reject their evil, it goes beyond even their good. We must do more than they did, and do it better, or we will fall short of heaven.

They were selective in how they handled the law and gave most weight to its outward rites. But we must keep God’s law in full, and not think it enough to give the priest our tithe while withholding our hearts from God. They cared about the outside only, but we must pay attention to inward holiness. They wanted people’s praise, but we must seek God’s approval. They were proud of their religious acts and trusted in them as if they made them righteous. But we, after doing all we can, must humble ourselves and say, “We are unworthy servants,” and trust only in Christ’s righteousness. In that way, we can go beyond the scribes and Pharisees.