Ye make clean the outside, &c.— 6. The sixth woe is denounced for their hypocrisy: they were at great pains to appear virtuous, and to have a decent external conduct, while they neglected to beautify their inward man with goodness, which, in the sight of God, is an ornament of great price, and renders men dear and valuable to all who know them. Within, they—means the cup and platter;—are full of extortion and excess; which you swallow down without the least scruple: instead of extortion and excess, some would read, rapine and intemperance, αρπαγης, και ακρασιας. The last word takes in not only all kinds of outward intemperance, particularlyin eating and drinking, but all intemperate or immoderate desires, whether of honour, gain, or sensual pleasures. Dr. Heylin observes well, that the censure here isdoubled,takingintemperanceinthecommonsense.Thesemiserablemen,procured unjustly what they used intemperately: no wonder tables so furnished prove a snare, as many find by sad experience. Luxury punishes fraud, and feeds disease with the fruits of injustice. Thou blind Pharisee, continues our Lord, Matthew 23:26. Cleanse first, &c. that is, "Take care that what is within the cup, and not so much exposed to view, be clean; and then thou mayest with propriety bestow pains in cleansing the outside of the cup." But though in this clause our Lord still makes use of the metaphor, he reasons according to the thing intended by it, thus, "Cleanse first thy mind, thy inward man from evil dispositions and affections, and of course thy outward behaviour will be virtuous and good."
Matthew 23:25-36
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.#rl