Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 5:25-26

"Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art with him in the way; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the last farthing." — Matthew 5:25-26 (ASV)

Agree with your adversary quickly. This is still an illustration of the sixth commandment. To be in hostility, to go to law, to be litigious, is always a violation, on one side or the other, of the law requiring us to love our neighbour; and our Saviour regards it as a violation of the sixth commandment.

While you are in the way with him, He says, that is, while you are going to the court, before the trial has taken place, it is your duty, if possible, to come to an agreement. It is wrong to carry the contention to a court of law. See 1 Corinthians 6:6–7.

The consequence of not being reconciled, He expresses in the language of courts: The adversary shall deliver you to the judge, and he to the executioner, and he shall throw you into prison. He did not mean to say that this would be literally the way with God; but that His dealings with those that harboured these feelings, and would not be reconciled with their brethren, were represented by the punishment inflicted by human tribunals. That is, He would hold all such as violators of the sixth commandment and would punish them accordingly.

There is no propriety in the use sometimes made of this verse, in regarding God as the "adversary" of the sinner and urging him to be reconciled to God while in the way to judgment. Nor does the phrase you shall by no means come out from there until you have paid the uttermost farthing. refer to the eternity of future punishment. It is language taken from courts of justice to illustrate the truth that God will punish men according to justice for not being reconciled. It will be eternal, indeed, but this passage does not prove it.

Your adversary. A man that is opposed to us in law. It here means a creditor; a man who has a just claim on us.

In the way with him. While you are going before the court. Before the trial comes on.

The officer. The executioner, or, as we should say, the sheriff.

The uttermost farthing. The last farthing. All that is due. The farthing was a small coin used in Judea, equal to two mites. It was equal to about seven mills of our money [three halfpence].