Sanctified by the temple

June 9, 2020 10:44 am

Sanctify meaning: "Set apart as or declare holy; consecrate."

Matthew 23:17 King James Version (KJV)
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

Matthew 5:24 
Leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

What does it mean to leave your gift at the altar?

"In the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ says something that has long puzzled me and provoked a great deal of thought: “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way."  9.28.2014 Nathaniel Bright ((Then come and offer your gift.)): "It was because the temple was the place of God's presence that what was therein was consecrated."

Reference: Matthew 23:17 "Which is greater?" 23-1 link

 This is deep and very meaningful. Here are a few profound deep commentaries that sheds light on this passage of scripture/topic.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary.
"5:21-26 "The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meaning. Christ showed the full meaning of this commandment; according to which we must be judged hereafter, and therefore ought to be ruled now. All rash anger is heart murder. By our brother, here, we are to understand any person, though ever so much below us, for we are all made of one blood. Raca, is a scornful word, and comes from pride: Thou fool, is a spiteful word, and comes from hatred. Malicious slanders and censures are poison that kills secretly and slowly. Christ told them that how light soever they made of these sins, they would certainly be called into judgment for them. We ought carefully to preserve Christian love and peace with all our brethren; and if at any time there is a quarrel, we should confess our fault, humble ourselves to our brother, making or offering satisfaction for wrong done in word or deed: and we should do this quickly; because, till this is done, we are unfit for communion with God in holy ordinances. And when we are preparing for any religious exercises, it is good for us to make that an occasion of serious reflection and self-examination. What is here said is very applicable to our being reconciled to God through Christ. While we are alive, we are in the way to his judgement-seat; after death, it will be too late. When we consider the importance of the case, and the uncertainty of life, how needful it is to seek peace with God, without delay!"

Pulpit Commentary
Verse 17. - Ye fools. Jesus adds to "blind" the epithet "fools," which implies not only the irrationality and absurdity of their practice, but also its moral delinquency, the fool in sapiential language being the sinner. The temple that sanctifieth the gold. Our Lord shows the absurdity of this sophistical distinction. It was because the temple was the place of God's presence that what was therein was consecrated. The gold was nothing without the temple; the temple, the originally holy, is superior to the gold, the derivatively holy, and an oath that calls the temple to witness is surely obligatory.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
"23:13-33 The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospel of Christ, and therefore to the salvation of the souls of men. It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from him. Yet it is no new thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloak to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckoned double iniquity. They were very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and the good of souls, but that they might have the credit and advantage of making converts. Gain being their godliness, by a thousand devices they made religion give way to their worldly interests. They were very strict and precise in smaller matters of the law, but careless and loose in weightier matters. It is not the scrupling a little sin that Christ here reproves; if it be a sin, though but a gnat, it must be strained out; but the doing that, and then swallowing a camel, or, committing a greater sin. While they would seem to be godly, they were neither sober nor righteous. We are really, what we are inwardly. Outward motives may keep the outside clean, while the inside is filthy; but if the heart and spirit be made new, there will be newness of life; here we must begin with ourselves. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was like the ornaments of a grave, or dressing up a dead body, only for show. The deceitfulness of sinners' hearts appears in that they go down the streams of the sins of their own day, while they fancy that they should have opposed the sins of former days. We sometimes think, if we had lived when Christ was upon earth, that we should not have despised and rejected him, as men then did; yet Christ in his Spirit, in his word, in his ministers, is still no better treated. And it is just with God to give those up to their hearts' lusts, who obstinately persist in gratifying them. Christ gives men their true characters."

Christ concluded "an oath based on the temple was binding." How many people put their hands on the bible and proceed to lie. How wicked that fallen nature can be. In the end we cannot/should not be Pharisees or hypocrites. The temple, the originally holy, is superior to the gold. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;" How many people are truly aware of this? Profound !!! "We sometimes think, if we had lived when Christ was upon earth, that we should not have despised and rejected him, as men then did." So many reject him in truth and in spirit! So many are deceived and lost! Idols have no agreement with the body of Christ. 2 Corinthians 6:15

See these religious leaders were teachers of the law and they had a heavy weight on them teaching sitting in Moses seat. Especially since the affiliation God has/had with Israel. 

At last but not least as the wonderful Henry Matthew stated: "We ought carefully to preserve Christian love and peace with all our brethren; and if at any time there is a quarrel, we should confess our fault, humble ourselves to our brother, making or offering satisfaction for wrong done in word or deed: and we should do this quickly; because, till this is done, we are unfit for communion with God in holy ordinances."

Finalized June 10, 2020 9:33 am

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