Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 15:4

"For God said, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death." — Matthew 15:4 (ASV)

God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and thy mother — At first, it might seem as if our Lord Himself, just like the Pharisees, had taught people to think lightly of the commandment He now emphasizes. He had called on people to forsake their father and mother for the sake of the gospel (Matthew 4:18, 22) and had excluded from discipleship those who loved father and mother more than Him (Matthew 10:37). We should not ignore the difficulty this presents.

However, the answer is not difficult to find. In our Lord’s teaching, a lower, natural duty was to give way in exceptional cases to a higher, supernatural one; otherwise, it remained in full force. In the teaching of the Pharisees, by contrast, the natural duty, enforced by a direct divine commandment, was made to yield to a rule that was purely human, arbitrary, and conventional. The two cases were not analogous but stood on an entirely different basis.