all of them are abolished. This is the grand and effectual method to teach men to
violate the law of God. But those who make any one of the commandments void,
that they may keep in its place a tradition of the elders, are doing exactly the
work that our Lord has here solemnly warned men against.
"He shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven;" or, as Campbell
renders, "shall be of no esteem in the reign of heaven." This is, doubtless, the
idea of the Saviour. This is the penalty of a violation of the least precept of the
law of God. But how much more fearful must it be to break the commandments
and to teach men that they have all been abolished!
"But whosoever shall do and teach them." Here we may learn what it is to
fulfill the law of God. It is to do and to teach the commandments. "The same shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Or, as rendered by Campbell, "shall
be highly esteemed in the reign of heaven." Here is the ample commission; here
is the vast reward of those who teach and keep the commandments of God.
Surely, no man ever enjoined obedience to the law of God with such force as did
our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us hear his words again:-
"But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded saying, Honor thy
father and mother; and, He that curseth father
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or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or
his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honor
not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the
commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Matt.15:3-6.
These words disclose to us the sacredness of God's commandments in the
mind of the Lord Jesus. He did not deny that he violated the traditions of the
Jews, but he boldly arraigned their traditions, and condemned them as worthless
in the sight of God. And not only as worthless, but also as sinful, inasmuch as
they contradict and make void the commandments of God. The tradition in
question was very venerable with the Jews, inasmuch as they supposed that it
had been handed down from Moses; thus being equally ancient and sacred in
their estimation with the commandment which it so effectually made void. On
such authority the Jews thought themselves fully justified in an open violation of
the fifth commandment. Nay, they even supposed that the observance of this
tradition was more acceptable to God then the observance of the commandment
itself.
At the present time we have a case precisely parallel. The professed church
of this day hold a tradition which they say came from Christ and his apostles. On
the authority of this tradition they
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suppose that they are amply justified in violating the fourth commandment. Like
the Jews they even think that they are serving God more acceptably by keeping
a tradition that contradicts his commandment, than they would be in keeping the
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commandment itself. The rebuke which Christ applied to the Jews, falls with all
its force upon the heads of such: "Thus have ye made the commandment of God
of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you,