Matthew 23:15, commentary and pictures

Spoken in the temple courts on the last day of public teaching to expose the rulers, it warns that traveling far with great zeal to win even one convert to one's own party can leave him twice as fit for ruin and judgment as his teachers, by turning him from salvation through Christ and divine truth to superstition, falsehood and human commandments. It denounces the scribes and Pharisees as blind hypocrites whose outward profession and self-righteous zeal hid hearts without humility and love. Their fault was straining over little matters while neglecting the weightier demands of the law — justice, mercy, faith and love — condemning small faults severely while lightly passing over their own far greater wrongs. Their corrupt teaching and example acted like unholy leaven, molding other minds and hardening followers still further, shutting them out of the kingdom and leaving the fruitless pretender with less hope than an open sinner. The denunciation stands as a warning to every age against exalting human authority to rule the conscience, for the same woes will fall on priests, rulers and all in sacred trust who do a like work unless they repent, reform character, and seek others' salvation in humility, sympathy, love and freedom from binding human control.

Words and Temple Setting

The woe was spoken in the temple courts on the final day of public teaching. Then the character of the rulers and elders was exposed to warn and condemn them. To compass sea and land means to travel far and work hard with great zeal to win even a single convert to one's own party. That zeal to gain proselytes did not make them faithful guides.

To make the proselyte twofold more the child of hell is to make him twice as fit for hell as his teachers. It is to make him more devoted to evil than they were themselves. It is to lead him further into evil and ruin than themselves, farther into sin and condemnation. It is to make him even more liable to divine judgment than his teachers.

Their proselytizing did not bring people to salvation through Christ. It shut people out from the kingdom of heaven and shut them away from the kingdom. It refused the light brought by Jesus and made converts responsible for the light they rejected. It turned people from divine truth toward superstition and falsehood, by deception and opposition to truth. It taught human commandments as contrary to pure truth, through dishonest practices.

Hypocrisy Christ Exposed

The woe is a direct denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites guilty of the very sins condemned, whose zeal to travel far to win even one convert only made that convert twice as fit for ruin as themselves. It belongs to a chapter exposing people spiritually blinded and unable to discern the relative importance of what they should understand. That blindness showed in focusing on minor matters while neglecting the weightier concerns of the law, and no amount of outward religious care can make up for failing to put right principles into practice.

Their fault was neglecting justice, mercy, faith and love while claiming to serve God, a wrong principle that made them deserving of the woes pronounced. While very scrupulous about little matters, even making a man an offender for a word, they were not actuated by right principles, did not reveal justice, mercy and the love of God, and gave no practical evidence of love for their brethren. Their outward religious zeal, profession and self-righteousness hid hearts lacking humility and love. Such vain pretense is hated, and the denunciations fell heavily upon all hypocrisy, while even those who had spent life in sin but come to God in penitence with a sense of sinfulness are accepted and treated with tenderness. To practice evil under a cloak of godliness brings especially severe judgment, leaving more hope for an open sinner than for one whose profession bears no good fruit and lies under a curse like a fruitless tree.

The same hypocrisy acts imperiously, deals unjustly with the Lord's heritage, tampers with conscience, and by subtle reasoning makes imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt. It condemns with great severity wrongs that do not begin to compare with its own sin in cherishing and working on false principles, while lightly passing over very serious wrongs of its own. The rebuke therefore exposes impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, for rejection of counsel and despising of mercy bring condemnation. It exposes professed devotion to God joined with action opposing His purposes, with hypocrisy and failure to recognize sin leaving men ready to question God's justice in judging persistent rebellion. The same scathing rebukes stand against religious leaders today for impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, and warn all who claim to represent Christ while their lives deny Him.

The denunciation was fearless, exposing dishonest practices and teaching of human commandments as contrary to pure truth. It was spoken with burning earnestness and words of terrible severity against abominations seen in the church and in the world, refusing to allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity. Yet the sharp exposure of hypocrisy was without irritated temper, and searching denunciation was consistent with meekness and gentleness, with divine grace alone able to correct objectionable tendencies.

Ruin of Misled Converts

Zeal to win converts did not make the scribes and Pharisees faithful guides, for they traveled far and worked hard to make even one proselyte, yet their hypocrisy, false religion, and rejection of salvation through Christ led those they taught further into evil and condemnation. They shut people out of the kingdom of heaven and refused the light brought by Jesus, so the convert became twofold a child of hell and even more liable to divine judgment than his teachers. Their corrupt example and teaching therefore harmed those they sought to win instead of bringing them to salvation.

Their hypocrisy works like unholy leaven spreading from soul to soul, molding other minds and reproducing the same evil until followers become still more hardened. One who has pledged to represent Christ but fails to keep strict guard over himself and lets the barriers against sin be broken down is overcome by specious temptation and develops a blemish of character whose evil influence molds others, so that the moral palsy of sin destroys his own soul and reproduces the same evil in others. Those who violate right motive and right principle and seek crooked paths, crooked practices, scheming and dishonesty to injure the cause act against Jesus and betray Him and let the synagogue of Satan triumph. By making crooked paths for their feet they turn the lame out of the way, and by going farther in resistance when reproved they leave an example that deceived, deluded souls in enmity will follow and carry out, becoming twofold more hardened unless they repent and are converted, when impenitent ones will receive sentence at a tribunal from which there is no appeal.

By rejecting light and using the same excuses as earlier opponents, such zealous religious effort did not bring people to salvation but shut them away from the kingdom, caused them to regard truth as error and be led astray, and made them responsible for the light they rejected. Seeking authority over others in this way, with outward religious zeal and self-righteousness hiding hearts lacking humility and love, obstructs entrance to God's kingdom, causes spiritual harm, and can lead to the loss of souls.

The condition of the religious pretender who bears no good fruit to God's glory is worse and has less hope than that of an open sinner, like a fruitless tree under a curse. Outward zeal and religious profession do not make a person righteous when they lead others into deeper evil, and practicing iniquity under a cloak of godliness brings especially severe judgment under Christ's burning denunciations of hypocrites. The fruitless fig tree represents the pretender whose profession bears no good fruit and is under God's curse, whose corrupt life and influence make his condition worse than that of an open sinner who has more hope. Vain pretense is hated, and denunciation falls heavily on all hypocrisy, yet those who have spent life in sin but come to God in penitence with a sense of sinfulness are treated with tenderness and accepted even when they have been the chief of sinners. They stand in a more favorable position for the perfection of Christian character than those who have had great light and have failed to improve upon it, since professing to have light far in advance of others while works do not correspond with profession brings condemnation, and neglecting to improve granted light and opportunities is what leaves men and women in darkness.

Warning to Later Church

The denunciation of blind leaders and the warning against following them were recorded to speak to people of every age and nation and to stand as an admonition to future generations. It was spoken in the temple on the final day of teaching when the character of the rulers and elders was exposed to warn and condemn them. The warning was preserved because the same danger would continue beyond the Jewish dispersion through all ages of the church.

It condemns the exaltation of human authority to rule the conscience, warning that religious leaders who claim authority can lead others away from truth. Such abuse of authority to rule the conscience would continue in the church through all ages. Religious leaders can use lawful authority for unlawful ends, so that when priests and rulers become wicked, obedience to them comes into conflict with obedience to God.

The same woes pronounced on the scribes and Pharisees will verily fall on all engaged in a like work unless they repent. Were Christ upon the earth today the same woes would be pronounced upon priests and rulers for impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness. This includes those in positions of responsibility and trust and in sacred positions who misrepresent Christ's righteousness while supposing they are doing God's service, and whose conduct makes them examples of the hypocrisy that brings such denunciation. They must reform character or face the same condemnation, for they will be denounced by the Lord as surely as the Pharisees were denounced. Their overbearing and imperious spirit, wrong course of action, and lack of principle show spiritual blindness with dimmed spiritual eyesight, neglecting God's great and sacred work, not actuated by right principles, not revealing justice, mercy, and the love of God, and not giving practical evidence of love for the brethren. While very scrupulous about little matters, making a man an offender for a word, they deal unjustly with the Lord's heritage, tamper with the conscience, and by subtle reasoning make imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt, lightly passing over very serious wrongs while condemning with great severity wrongs that do not begin to compare with their own sin in cherishing and working on false principles. Righteousness exalts a nation and sin brings it to ruin, as true of individuals as of nations.

The warning also applies to those who claim to represent Christ while their lives deny him, through rejection of counsel and despising of mercy. It applies to those who claim to serve God while acting imperiously, neglecting justice, mercy, and love, and condemning minor faults while excusing serious wrongs of their own. Neglecting granted light and turning from a holy calling places people in a more unfavorable position for judgment than that pronounced on the Jews for their course.

A Pharisaic spirit persists when established, restrictive methods and the use of power hinder the work instead of advancing it and leave too little room for present truth to spread. The corrupt spirit spreads through pride, contentiousness, self-appointed authority, and human methods that displace Scripture and divine instruction rather than lead people to God. The Pharisees are a pattern for religious leaders who react angrily when their authority is questioned, denounce those proclaiming a warning as servants of Satan, and stir others to persecute them. An exacting, intolerant spirit and rejection of the Lord's reproof bring judgment, and those who persist place the stumbling block of their own iniquity before their eyes, as shown when the warnings had no effect on the men first addressed.

Call to Faithful Ministry

Those who would lift others must first reform themselves, following in humility and self-denial instead of outward religious zeal and self-righteousness that hide hearts lacking humility and love. Such self-seeking grasping for authority over others obstructs entrance to God's kingdom, causes spiritual harm, and can lead to the loss of souls. The work of helping must therefore seek the salvation of others through sympathy, love, patience, and courtesy rather than force.

The traveling of sea and land to gain a convert is to be turned to right use, going to great lengths with prayer and support to establish memorials for God. That going is to be driven by unselfish love rather than selfishness. Faithful service requires standing free from any binding influence, in God-given manhood with freedom of speech and freedom of faith. When wrong sentiments and false statements are heard that are known to be untrue, they are to be openly protested and corrected instead of being listened to in silence and verified as if true, with no harmonizing with wrong plans and no being held speechless or cowered into silence by a masterful spirit. This follows the pattern of burning earnestness and words of terrible severity in denouncing the abominations seen in the church and in the world, refusing to let people be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity.

Searching exposure of hypocrisy is consistent with meekness and gentleness, for the sharp rebuke was given without irritated temper. Divine grace alone can correct objectionable tendencies.