The publicans. — An account of the “publicans” of our Lord’s time will find a more fitting place in the Notes on Matthew 9:9. Here, it may be remarked that our Lord puts Himself, as it were, on the level of those to whom He speaks. They despised the publicans as below them, almost as a Pariah caste, and He speaks, as if He were using their own familiar language, yet with a widely different application. Were they after all above the publicans, if they confined their love to a reciprocity of good offices?
Related Commentaries of Matthew 5:46
Matthew 5:46
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?