5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, 6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. (Matthew 23:5-7 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
In these words our blessed Saviour admonishes his disciples and the multitude to take heed of imitating the Pharisees in their ostentation and hypocrisy, in their ambition and vain-glory; and he instances, in three particulars, wherein they expressed it:
1. All their works, says Christ, they do to be seen of men. To do good works that men may see them, is a duty; but to do all or any of our works to be seen of men, is hypocrisy.
2. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments. These phylacteries were certain scrolls and labels of parchment, in which were written the ten commandments, and some sections of the law; these they tied to their foreheads, and pinned upon their left sleeve, that the law of God might be continually before their eyes, and perpetually in their remembrance. This ceremony they judged God prescribed them, Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes De 6:1 By enlarging the borders of their garments, our Saviour points at the fringes and blue ribbons which the Jews did wear upon their garments, in obedience to the command, wear upon their garments, Nu 15:37-38. As the threads in those fringes and ribbons close woven together, did represent the connection, complication, and inseparable conjunction of God’s commandments among themselves; so the wearing of these fringes was to put them in mind of the law of God, that which way soever they turned their eyes, they might meet with some pious admonition to keep the law of God. Now the vain-glorious Pharisees, that they might be thought more mindful of the law of God than other men, did make their phylacteries broader, and their fringes thicker and longer than other men.
3. They fondly affected and ambitiously contended for the first and uppermost seats in all conventions, as at feast, and in the synagogues, and loved to have titles of honour, such as rabbi, master, father, and doctor, put upon them. Now that which our Saviour condemns, is the Pharisees fond affection of these little things, and unduly seeking their own honour and glory. It was not their taking, but their loving, the uppermost rooms at feasts, that Christ condemns.
From the whole, Note, 1. That hypocrites are fond of affecting ceremonial observations and outward parts of commanded duties, neglecting the substance of religion itself. These Pharisees were carrying a library of God’s law on their clothes, scarce a letter of it in their hearts. They wore the law of God, as frontlets before their eyes, but not engraven on the tables of their hearts.
Observe, 2. That the nature of hypocrisy is to study more to seem religious in the sight of men, than to be religious indeed before God. The hypocrite is the world’s saint, and not God’s: he courts the world’s acceptation more than the divine favour and approbation.