Matthew 5:19

Matthew 5:19. An application of the truth just announced.

Whosoever, therefore, because of this permanent character of the law.

Shall break, or at any time may break, one of these least commandments, the smallest part of this law, or, in the wider sense, of this revelation which God has made, and shall teach men so, by example or precept, shall be called, recognized as, least in the kingdom of heaven, in the new dispensation He was proclaiming. Such are not excluded, because not opposing the law as a whole, but only some of its minutiae. ‘Least' may allude to the Jewish distinction between great and small commandments, a distinction revived by the Romanists, but which cannot exist in God's law. The positive declaration which follows corresponds. The subsequent part of the chapter, especially the next verse, shows that our Lord does not command a strict observance of the letter of the ceremonial law. He there condemns those most scrupulous on these points. The fulfilment and the keeping of the law here required are explained by the fuller light shed upon it by the Saviour's exposition.

He shall be called great. ‘He' is emphatic here.