Matthew 15:5, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to a confrontation in which Pharisees and scribes came to accuse Jesus over ceremonial washings treated as more sacred than the law, and it exposes their rule that a person could declare the support owed to father or mother a gift dedicated to God and to the temple and thereby evade the duty to care for them. Calling it a gift did not excuse the neglect but made the command to honor father and mother ineffective and void, concealing failure in duty to parents beneath a show of religious liberality and perverting the plain moral obligation. It shows how human interpretations, injunctions and traditions were used to obscure God's plain commands and weaken the force of His law, so that strict keeping of ritual rules and outward piety did not amount to obedience. Those humanly devised rules were exalted above God's commandments and even the Ten Commandments, until truth was so mixed with error and Scripture so wrested from its true meaning that few understood God's true requirements, and the lesson is to take heed individually to what God has said and turn from human tradition to Christ's teaching.

Context and Meaning

The verse belongs to a confrontation in which a delegation of Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus seeking grounds to accuse Him. That dispute centered on ceremonial washings, which people treated as more sacred than the law itself. The many rules surrounding those washings distracted attention from the central principles of the law.

The verse exposes the practice of declaring resources that could have supported a father or mother to be a gift dedicated to God or to the temple. By that declaration a person evaded the duty to care for parents, claiming to be excused from honoring and helping them. Calling it a gift did not excuse the neglect. Such a human rule set aside and made ineffective and void God's command to honor father and mother.

That practice concealed neglect of duty to parents beneath a show of religious liberality. It perverted God's law, distorted His teaching, and reversed the plain moral obligation. The deceptive teaching could take root and shape character. Those who taught it stand denounced as deceivers.

Tradition Nullifying God's Law

Human interpretations, injunctions, traditions and commandments were used to obscure God's plain commands and undermine them, making obedience appear as a burdensome round of ceremonies and weakening respect for God and the force of His law. Strict enforcement of ritual rules did not amount to obedience when those rules set aside God's commands, and teaching human commandments in place of God's word is exposed by the example of claiming that what could have helped father or mother had been dedicated as a gift to God and therefore excused neglect of honoring and helping them. That example belongs among the meaningless forms and maxims of the learned teachers, part of multitudinous rabbinical traditions and ceremonies with their reiterated Thou shalt and Thou shalt not, where the requirements of society collided with the requirements of God and the words of men were exalted above the Word of God, requiring departure from the will of God. In His youth Jesus moved independently of it and made no direct attack upon it, refusing to become a student in their schools or place Himself under their instruction, refusing to observe or rehearse sentiments and formalities that had not God for their foundation, and shutting them out of His mind to give them no place to influence Him. He did this to prevent evil from gaining a foothold rather than correcting it afterward, to avoid by example leading others where they would be corrupted, and to avoid needless conflict with the teachers that would weaken His later influence with the people.

Humanly devised religious rules and rabbinical traditions were exalted above God's commandments and the precious truths of God's Word concerning salvation, treated as more valuable than God's word and given greater force than the Word of God and even the Ten Commandments. Customs and traditions handed down from generation to generation through the rabbis were made all-essential, so the precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God. Those teachings hindered Christ's few followers and disciples, keeping them back from advancing in knowledge and from becoming efficient workers, and diminishing their spiritual growth, knowledge, usefulness and effectiveness.

Customs received from tradition were repeated and accumulated from age to age and generation to generation until truth was so mixed with error that truth was made to serve in the enemy's lines to strengthen error. Age does not turn error into truth, even when the oldest error is pleaded because of its age. For this they were called blind and ignorant of the Scriptures and of the power of God. He came to take away traditions and maxims, to remove the rubbish, to rescue truth from error and restore it to its native loveliness, and to give recovery of sight to the blind and liberty to the bruised.

The most learned rabbis had heaped human tradition onto their interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures until few understood the true requirements of God or practiced pure principles, and all who went to the religious teachers expecting proper education according to the Word became confused. They turned from the greatest Teacher the world has ever known to the traditions, maxims and sayings of men, misinterpreting and wresting the Scriptures from their true meaning and making desperate efforts to harmonize their disobedience with the Scriptures. Their hypocritical devotion and outward piety exalted human traditions while claiming to uphold God's law, and left them unprepared to recognize the Messiah.

Warning and Application

Just as the Pharisees of old set aside filial love and duty to father and mother, later religious leaders did the same by placing monastic claims above obligation to parents. They induced children to enter the cloister without parental knowledge or consent and contrary to parental commands, teaching them to trample parental sorrow and love in order to go to Christ. In this way they steeled the hearts of children against their parents, made homes desolate, and deprived parents of the society of their sons and daughters.

The same condemnation rests on those who are disloyal to God, transgress His holy Sabbath, and cavil over the plainest statements of the Word while clinging to the traditions and maxims and sayings of men. The lesson is to take heed individually to what God has said, to know what is truth, and to make a change from human tradition to Christ's teaching, which should have been done but was not done. Those who have been called out of darkness into light as a peculiar, royal, holy people must therefore not let tradition stop their mouth or put falsehood in it. They must speak the truth as it is in Christ Jesus without mixing in self and human ideas and opinions.

In His youth Jesus moved independently of the multitudinous traditions and ceremonies where the requirements of society collided with the requirements of God and the words of men were exalted above the Word of God. He would not become a student in their schools or place Himself under their instruction, and He would not observe or rehearse their sentiments and formalities that had not God for their foundation. He shut them out of His mind and gave them no place to influence Him, in order to prevent evil from gaining a foothold rather than correcting it afterward. He did so also to avoid by His example leading others to place themselves where they would be corrupted, and to avoid needlessly conflicting with the teachers in a way that would weaken His later influence with the people. Children are therefore safer with little acquaintance with worldly customs and with hearts open to heavenly impressions through nature and the Old Testament as their school and lesson book, rather than becoming confused by going to religious teachers expecting proper education according to the Word.