Luke 16:16-18 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The law and the prophets were in force until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached The gospel dispensation takes place, and humble, upright men, receive it with inexpressible earnestness. Dr. Whitby's paraphrase on this passage shows its connection with the preceding paragraph, thus: “It is not to be wondered that you now hear from John and me higher precepts of charity and contempt of the world, than you find in the law or prophets, which moved you to your duty by promises of temporal blessings in the land of Canaan; since now the kingdom of heaven is preached, and every one that enters into it forces his way by breaking through the love of temporal concerns and sensual pleasures. For, to give you another instance (see Luke 16:18) of a like nature, whereas the law admitted of divorces at the pleasure of the husband, by reason of the hardness of your hearts, the gospel forbids this now on any other score than that of fornication, which, from the nature of the sin, dissolves the marriage. Yet, that you may not cavil at me as a dissolver of the law, I declare that all the moral precepts of it shall obtain and be of perpetual obligation under the gospel dispensation.” Every man presseth into it The intention of this clause, says Dr. Campbell, “is manifestly to inform us, not how great the number was of those who entered into the kingdom of God, but what the manner was in which all who entered obtained admission. The import, therefore, is only, Every one who entereth it, entereth it by force. We know that during our Lord's ministry, which was (as John's also was) among the Jews, both his success, and that of the Baptist, were comparatively small. Christ's flock was literally, even to the last, ποιμνιον μικρον, a very little flock. It was not till after he was lifted up upon the cross, that, according to his own prediction, he drew all men to him.” See on Matthew 11:12. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass For the whole system of created nature to be destroyed, than for one tittle of the law to fail, or the least precept of it to be set aside as faulty. See note on Matthew 5:18. Whosoever putteth away his wife, &c. And far from doing any thing to lessen or abate the force of it, I rather assert it in its utmost extent and spirituality, forbidding all divorces, except for the cause of adultery, and even looking on a woman so as to desire her. See on Matthew 5:28; Matthew 5:32.