Matthew 22

      21. Render to Cæsar. The use of Cæsar's coin as the current money was an acknowledgment of Cæsar. Let them return his coin when demanded. Unto God the things that are God's. Obedience in moral and spiritual things. Faith, love, obedience and liberal giving for God's work. We are to obey the human government over us, and to obey God. When the first requires us to disobey God, we are to obey him, whatever may be the peril. Acts 5:29 .

      23. The same day came the Sadducees. See note on Matt. 3:7. They were materialists. Who say there is no resurrection. They denied the immortality of the soul. See Acts 23:8 .

      24. Moses said. Deut. 25:5 .

      25-28. Whose wife shall she be of the seven? They state a fictitious case that they suppose will make the doctrine of the resurrection ridiculous.

      29. Ye do err. "Not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God."

      30. Are as the angels of God. The physical relations of earthly marriage do not belong to spiritual beings. The saints when raised are like the angels. This does not deny personal intercourse or spiritual relationships, but the existence of fleshly ties.

      31. As touching the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees doubted some of the prophetic books, but accepted Moses; hence, the Lord appeals to Moses to show that he taught future existence, or the resurrection, which is the sense in which the latter phrase is used.

      32. I am the God of Abraham. Exod. 3:6 . God does not say, "I was," but "I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob." The present tense shows that he is still the God of the departed patriarchs, and that they are still in existence. Queen Victoria is not the queen of Bacon, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, but only of her living subjects. The Savior teaches that the soul is resurrected when it leaves the body, and that there is no unconscious state between death and the final resurrection of the body.

      34. The Pharisees . . . gathered. Compare Mark 12:28-34 Luke 10:25-28

      35. A lawyer. An expounder of the law of Moses. A scribe (see Mark ). Tempting him. Trying him.

      36. Which is the great commandment? This was a question which, with some others, divided the Jewish teachers into rival schools, and was a constant bone of contention--one of "those strivings about the law," against which Paul warns Titus ( Titus 3:9 ). The Jews divided their commandments into greater and lesser, but were not agreed in particulars. Some pronounced the law of circumcision the greater; others, that of sacrifices, or ablutions, or phylacteries. The Talmud reckoned the positive laws of Moses at 248, the negative at 365, in all 613. To keep so many laws, said the Jews, is an angel's work. So they had much question which was the great commandment, so that they might keep it in lieu of keeping the whole.

      37, 38. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, etc. Freely quoted from Deut. 6:5 . A demand for supreme love for God. This is the first and great. Great, because it embraces all others; first, in that it precedes the second that he is about to name. He who loves God supremely cannot live in disobedience to him.

      39. The second is like. The first command sums up what man owes to God; the second, what he owes to his fellow-man. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Lev. 19:18 . One who loves God supremely, will not live in disobedience; one who loves his neighbor as himself, will seek the welfare of those around him.

      41. While the Pharisees were gathered. Compare Mark 12:35-37 Luke 20:21-44 .

      42. What think ye of Christ? The great question still. Whose son? They reply, the "Son of David," a correct but incomplete answer, as he shows by their own Scriptures.

      43. Call him Lord. David then, by inspiration, calls his own Son his Lord, which shows that he is more than David's Son.

      44. The Lord. Jehovah. Said to my Lord. The Christ. Found in Psalm 110:1 . This psalm is quoted also in Acts 2:34 Acts 2:35 Acts 2:1 1 Cor. 15:25 Hebrews 1:13 Hebrews 5:6 Hebrews 7:17 Hebrews 1:21 Hebrews 10:13 .

      45. How is he his son? The answer is not given here, but plain. Christ, the Son of David, according to earthly descent, is the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh.

      46. No man was able, etc. Henceforth the Pharisees argued no more, but only sought his death.