Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 15:4-6

"For God said, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is given [to God]; he shall not honor his father. And ye have made void the word of God because of your tradition." — Matthew 15:4-6 (ASV)

Our Lord explains His question and presses home His accusation. God had bound the son and daughter to honor their parent, and this unquestionably included rendering to father and mother such help as they might need. From this duty, there could be no escape without breaking the plain command of God. It was always right, by the law of nature, to be grateful to parents, and by the law of Moses it was always a deadly sin to revile them. In Exodus 21:17, we read, He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. Father and mother are to be held in reverence and cherished with love, and the precept that ordains this is called the first commandment with promise. There could be no mistake as to the meaning of the divine law, yet the base teachers of the period had invented a method of excusing men from the performance of so obvious a duty.

These wretched tradition-lovers taught that if a man cried, “Corban! A gift,” and thus nominally set apart for God what his parents sought from him, he must not afterwards give it to them. If in anger or even in pretense, he placed what was requested by father or mother under a ban, he became free from the obligation to aid his parents. It is true he was not required by the Rabbis to carry out his vow and actually give the money or the goods to God, but as he had invoked the sacred name, he must on no account hand over the gift to his parents. So a hasty word would release any child from his duty to aid his father or his mother, and then he might pretend that he was very sorry for having said it, but that his conscience would not permit him to break the ban. Vile hypocrites! Advocates of the devil! Was ever a device more shallow? Yet thus they made the commandment of God of none effect.

For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, Whoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatever you might be profited by me; And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.

Whatever might be said about the tradition of men, God's commandment must be regarded. That stands first, and therefore our Lord demanded of these scribes and Pharisees an answer to his charge that they had overridden and overlaid a commandment of God by a tradition of their own.

If a father and mother, in great need, said to their son, "Help us, for we are lacking bread," and he answered, "I cannot give you anything, for all I have is dedicated to God," the Rabbis taught that he might be exempted from relieving his parents, although they also said that, the next day, he might undo the dedication of his property and employ it exactly as he pleased.

He might use the fact that he had said, "That shekel is for God," as a reason for not giving it to his father who was in need; and then, the very next day, he might take that shekel and spend it exactly as he chose. So God's commandment to honor, love, and aid our parents was set aside by their tradition.

For God commanded, saying, Honour your father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever you might be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.

They actually taught that a man might escape the happy duty of supporting his father and mother, the first duty surely of a son, by saying, "I have dedicated so much of my goods to the Temple and the worship of God that I cannot afford it."

There are not many in these days who talk that way. They generally cannot afford to dedicate anything to the Temple because they are keeping their father and mother; they go the other way. But one way or another, men will, if possible, escape from moral or religious duty.

Now God does not love that we should bring one duty to Him smeared with the blood of another; and for a man to give his money to the Temple, which he should have given to his father and mother, was a violation of the strict law of God and could not possibly be acceptable to Him. Thus they made void the law of God by their traditions.