Matthew 5:20

Matthew 5:20. The scribes and Pharisees, by minute explanations of the law, had made it very burdensome. The people, oppressed by this, longed for deliverance. Some hoped for it through an abolition of the law, but our Lord opposes this further, by His exposition of the real demands of the law.

Except your righteousness, your obedience, rectitude, shall exceed, abound more than, that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. He exacts more than these so exact and exacting in their' righteousness.' Less a charge of hypocrisy or wickedness than a declaration that they, with all their care, had not yet understood the real spirit of the law. Their scrupulous literal obedience was only a perversion of the law. Christ only unfolds its true meaning, first, by saying that the way to obey it is not that of the Pharisees. Christ is the way to obedience. His words here are to awaken a sense of the need of Him, to enable us to attain to this ‘righteousness.' The rest of the chapter contains five contrasts between the true fulfilment of the law and the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees. We include Matthew 5:31-32, respecting divorce, under the second contrast (seventh commandment).