Agree with thine adversary. — The imagery is changed, and returns to that of human tribunals, which has met us in Matthew 5:22. The man whom we have wronged appears as the “adversary,” the prosecutor bringing his charge against us. The impulse of the natural man at such a time, even if conscious of wrong, is to make the best of his case, to prevaricate, to recriminate. The truer wisdom, Christ teaches, is to “agree” — better, to be on good terms with — show our own good will, and so win his. The whole teaching, it is obvious, is addressed to one who has done wrong. The treatment of a false charge involves different considerations.
The officer. — In this case, the officer of the court, the gaoler.
In the application of the words, the judge is clearly God, and the officers, those (angels or others) who execute His judgment, and the “adversary,” those whom we have wronged, leaving the wrong unredressed. In 1 Peter 5:8 the devil is described as the great “adversary,” and that meaning is, perhaps, not excluded, though it is not prominent, here. Any evil deed becomes in the end as an accusing Satan, bearing its witness against us; and Satan himself is the embodiment of all such accusers.