The Christian Must Avoid All Hypocritical Behaviour
Overview of Matthew 23:2-12
The teaching of Jesus given here is similarly stated in summary form in Mark 12:38–40 and appears to be an expansion of that text and with Luke repeating Mark’s text in Luke 20:45–47. This discourse is best understood as the climax to the many confrontations that these experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees had with Jesus and which always resulted in their rejection of him as Messiah. Certainly, Jesus had only just given them additional evidence of his Messiahship presented in Matthew 22:42-45 by asking them:
“What’s your opinion about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they said. 43“Why then,” he said, “does David, by inspiration, call him ‘lord,’ saying, 44‘The LORD said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies under your feet’”? (Ps. 110:1). 45If David calls him ‘lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46No one could come up with an answer; and from that day on no one dared question him about anything anymore.”
Despite all the evidence before them, the Pharisees failure in recognizing Jesus as Messiah was a failure to recognize him as the future judge of mankind. Sadly, they had developed such distorted teachings which Jesus had earlier corrected in the Sermon on the Mount so that they led themselves into the hypocritical patterns of behaviour as shown by Jesus in Matthew 23. All these wrong patterns of behaviour are what Jesus directed his followers to completely avoid.
THE TEXT
“The experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. 3So practice what they tell you and do it, but don’t do the things they do, because they don’t practice what they preach. 4They invent heavy burdens, impossible to carry, and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift even a finger to help them bear them! 5Everything they do is just for show in front of other people. For example, they make their Scripture-containing little boxes wide and their tassels long. 6They love the places of honour at banquets, and the most important seats in the synagogues. 7In the marketplaces they expect people to specially greet them as their ‘Rabbi.’ 8But you must not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9You mustn’t call anyone on earth ‘Father.’ Only one person is your Father—He is in heaven. 10Nor should you be called ‘Teacher,’ because you have one teacher—the Messiah. 11The greatest among you should be your servant. 12Those who promote themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be promoted.”
COMMENTS
23:2 “The experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.”
Although there was a prominent stone seat at the front of each synagogue for the most authoritative teacher to sit on, Jesus’ meaning here is figurative so that these religious leaders thought of themselves as being followers of Moses. They presumed that they were his legal successors. So, it is a reference to their assumed authority in the Jewish community.
23:3 “So practice what they tell you and do it, but don’t do the things they do, because they don’t practice what they preach.”
The setting here was at a time when the followers of Jesus would still be attending each local synagogue to listen to the Law being read. However, this does not mean that all teaching of these religionists was correct as shown by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, Jesus was probably using biting irony here to emphasize the hypocrisy of these religionists, especially in their failure to do what was in the Law with correct interpretation of it. In fact, the term "hypocrite" is transliterated from the Greek word hipokritēs, which literally meant stage actors. Those who say one thing, but live something else, are pretenders.
23:4 “They invent heavy burdens, impossible to carry, and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift even a finger to help them bear them!”
This is a reference to the extremely difficult religious rules of the oral law which these religionists made for the common people to follow. Hypocritically they themselves only followed these rules in a perfunctory way, but even worse was their attitude to not helping the people bear these rules and so doing more harm than good.
23:5-6 “Everything they do is just for show in front of other people. For example, they make their Scripture-containing little boxes wide and their tassels long. 6They love the places of honour at banquets, and the most important seats in the synagogues.”
These phylacteries or small leather tefillin boxes contained four passages of Scripture (Ex. 13:2-10, 11-16; Deut. 6;4-9; 11:13-21). They had leather straps attached so they could be tied to the foreheads or wrists of these religionists during morning and evening prayers. The making of their “scripture-containing boxes” larger was done for show as was their expecting to have the most visible and prominent seats at banquets or in the synagogue nearest the platform from where the Law was being read. In other words, they wanted their piety to be seen in all public places.
23:7 “In the marketplaces they expect people to specially greet them as their ‘Rabbi.’”
A little earlier than Jesus’ time the calling of someone “Rabbi” was simply a term of respect. However, the religionists of his time had inflated it and had turned it into a matter of status and which they expected to be applied to themselves so that everyone would show them great honour and that even their own disciples must be 100% obedient to them without ever questioning them.
23:8-9 “But you must not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9You mustn’t call anyone on earth ‘Father.’ Only one person is your Father—He is in heaven.”
Here Jesus warns his disciples that they should not follow “the experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees” and that in fact their assumed authority as teachers is replaced by the authority of Jesus who truly does sit in the seat of Moses as his successor. So, Jesus is the only teacher as God’s primary representative that one should follow.
Such revered teachers within Judaism only became part of “the fathers” after they had died. However, because they had so misinterpreted the Scriptures, Jesus discounts them as having any part with “the fathers”—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others. Certainly, the practice in many denominations of assigning titles to leaders in the Congregation is inappropriate i.e., titles such as “Father,” or “Reverend” etc.
23:10 “Nor should you be called ‘Teacher,’ because you have one teacher—the Messiah.”
Although only the one person—the one God—is their Father, Jesus as His primary representative is the “one teacher.” So, although the Christian arrangement is for many teachers because of the advancing in their biblical knowledge and teaching abilities (1 Cor. 12:28) no such term should become a title for any individual. In this we see verses 9 and 10 as giving lessons in humility for each Christian and as emphasized next in verse 11.
23:11 “The greatest among you should be your servant.”
This does not mean that the Christian should become subservient to other Christians. Certainly, Jesus showed humility and service to others, but never was he servile. Indeed, all Christians are peers and so these are ‘Kingdom standards’ rather than natural law.
23:12 “Those who promote themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be promoted.”
This principle of God’s bringing down those who are self-exalted and raising up the humble is stated in Proverbs 25 as:
“Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among his great men; it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before his nobles” (Prov. 25:6, 7).
So, this principle is not only how ‘Kingdom standards’ will work in the future Kingdom of God when God will equalize everyone (Isa. 2:11-12; 5:15; Ezek. 17:24; 21:26b), but how the mindset of the Christian should now be one of humility. Indeed, the Christian must be inwardly what he appears to be outwardly. Any hypocrisy in his or her motives may keep the outside clean, while the inside is filthy; but if the heart and spirit are made new, there will be newness of life so one harmonizes what one is inwardly and outwardly.
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Overview of Matthew 23:2-12
The teaching of Jesus given here is similarly stated in summary form in Mark 12:38–40 and appears to be an expansion of that text and with Luke repeating Mark’s text in Luke 20:45–47. This discourse is best understood as the climax to the many confrontations that these experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees had with Jesus and which always resulted in their rejection of him as Messiah. Certainly, Jesus had only just given them additional evidence of his Messiahship presented in Matthew 22:42-45 by asking them:
“What’s your opinion about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they said. 43“Why then,” he said, “does David, by inspiration, call him ‘lord,’ saying, 44‘The LORD said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies under your feet’”? (Ps. 110:1). 45If David calls him ‘lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46No one could come up with an answer; and from that day on no one dared question him about anything anymore.”
Despite all the evidence before them, the Pharisees failure in recognizing Jesus as Messiah was a failure to recognize him as the future judge of mankind. Sadly, they had developed such distorted teachings which Jesus had earlier corrected in the Sermon on the Mount so that they led themselves into the hypocritical patterns of behaviour as shown by Jesus in Matthew 23. All these wrong patterns of behaviour are what Jesus directed his followers to completely avoid.
THE TEXT
“The experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. 3So practice what they tell you and do it, but don’t do the things they do, because they don’t practice what they preach. 4They invent heavy burdens, impossible to carry, and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift even a finger to help them bear them! 5Everything they do is just for show in front of other people. For example, they make their Scripture-containing little boxes wide and their tassels long. 6They love the places of honour at banquets, and the most important seats in the synagogues. 7In the marketplaces they expect people to specially greet them as their ‘Rabbi.’ 8But you must not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9You mustn’t call anyone on earth ‘Father.’ Only one person is your Father—He is in heaven. 10Nor should you be called ‘Teacher,’ because you have one teacher—the Messiah. 11The greatest among you should be your servant. 12Those who promote themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be promoted.”
COMMENTS
23:2 “The experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.”
Although there was a prominent stone seat at the front of each synagogue for the most authoritative teacher to sit on, Jesus’ meaning here is figurative so that these religious leaders thought of themselves as being followers of Moses. They presumed that they were his legal successors. So, it is a reference to their assumed authority in the Jewish community.
23:3 “So practice what they tell you and do it, but don’t do the things they do, because they don’t practice what they preach.”
The setting here was at a time when the followers of Jesus would still be attending each local synagogue to listen to the Law being read. However, this does not mean that all teaching of these religionists was correct as shown by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, Jesus was probably using biting irony here to emphasize the hypocrisy of these religionists, especially in their failure to do what was in the Law with correct interpretation of it. In fact, the term "hypocrite" is transliterated from the Greek word hipokritēs, which literally meant stage actors. Those who say one thing, but live something else, are pretenders.
23:4 “They invent heavy burdens, impossible to carry, and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift even a finger to help them bear them!”
This is a reference to the extremely difficult religious rules of the oral law which these religionists made for the common people to follow. Hypocritically they themselves only followed these rules in a perfunctory way, but even worse was their attitude to not helping the people bear these rules and so doing more harm than good.
23:5-6 “Everything they do is just for show in front of other people. For example, they make their Scripture-containing little boxes wide and their tassels long. 6They love the places of honour at banquets, and the most important seats in the synagogues.”
These phylacteries or small leather tefillin boxes contained four passages of Scripture (Ex. 13:2-10, 11-16; Deut. 6;4-9; 11:13-21). They had leather straps attached so they could be tied to the foreheads or wrists of these religionists during morning and evening prayers. The making of their “scripture-containing boxes” larger was done for show as was their expecting to have the most visible and prominent seats at banquets or in the synagogue nearest the platform from where the Law was being read. In other words, they wanted their piety to be seen in all public places.
23:7 “In the marketplaces they expect people to specially greet them as their ‘Rabbi.’”
A little earlier than Jesus’ time the calling of someone “Rabbi” was simply a term of respect. However, the religionists of his time had inflated it and had turned it into a matter of status and which they expected to be applied to themselves so that everyone would show them great honour and that even their own disciples must be 100% obedient to them without ever questioning them.
23:8-9 “But you must not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9You mustn’t call anyone on earth ‘Father.’ Only one person is your Father—He is in heaven.”
Here Jesus warns his disciples that they should not follow “the experts on Jewish teachings and the Pharisees” and that in fact their assumed authority as teachers is replaced by the authority of Jesus who truly does sit in the seat of Moses as his successor. So, Jesus is the only teacher as God’s primary representative that one should follow.
Such revered teachers within Judaism only became part of “the fathers” after they had died. However, because they had so misinterpreted the Scriptures, Jesus discounts them as having any part with “the fathers”—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others. Certainly, the practice in many denominations of assigning titles to leaders in the Congregation is inappropriate i.e., titles such as “Father,” or “Reverend” etc.
23:10 “Nor should you be called ‘Teacher,’ because you have one teacher—the Messiah.”
Although only the one person—the one God—is their Father, Jesus as His primary representative is the “one teacher.” So, although the Christian arrangement is for many teachers because of the advancing in their biblical knowledge and teaching abilities (1 Cor. 12:28) no such term should become a title for any individual. In this we see verses 9 and 10 as giving lessons in humility for each Christian and as emphasized next in verse 11.
23:11 “The greatest among you should be your servant.”
This does not mean that the Christian should become subservient to other Christians. Certainly, Jesus showed humility and service to others, but never was he servile. Indeed, all Christians are peers and so these are ‘Kingdom standards’ rather than natural law.
23:12 “Those who promote themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be promoted.”
This principle of God’s bringing down those who are self-exalted and raising up the humble is stated in Proverbs 25 as:
“Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among his great men; it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before his nobles” (Prov. 25:6, 7).
So, this principle is not only how ‘Kingdom standards’ will work in the future Kingdom of God when God will equalize everyone (Isa. 2:11-12; 5:15; Ezek. 17:24; 21:26b), but how the mindset of the Christian should now be one of humility. Indeed, the Christian must be inwardly what he appears to be outwardly. Any hypocrisy in his or her motives may keep the outside clean, while the inside is filthy; but if the heart and spirit are made new, there will be newness of life so one harmonizes what one is inwardly and outwardly.
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