John Calvin Commentary Malachi 2:4

"And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant may be with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts." — Malachi 2:4 (ASV)

Here he addresses the priests in particular; for though the whole people resisted God with great haughtiness, yet the priests surpassed them. And we know how ready people are to turn to evil whatever benefits God may bestow on them. It has then been a common evil in humanity from the beginning of the world, to exalt themselves and to raise their crests against God when they found themselves adorned with His benefits. But we know that the more anyone is bound to God, the more thankful they ought to be, for our gifts are not our own, but the benefits by which God binds us to Himself.

As Paul says, “What do you have that is your own? You then have no reason to glory” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

This evil, however, has always prevailed among people—that they have defrauded God of His glory and have turned the favors received from Him into an occasion for pride. But it is an evil very commonly seen in all governors. For those who are raised to a high dignity no longer think that they are human, but take great liberty for themselves when they find themselves so much exalted above others. Thus kings and those in authority seem to themselves to be above the common order of humanity and presumptuously disregard all laws; they think that everything is lawful for them, as no one opposes their willfulness.

The same thing is also to be seen in teachers. For when God favored the priests with the highest honor, they became blinded by that favor of God, as will be seen later, so that they thought themselves to be, as it were, demigods. And the same thing has taken place in the kingdom of Christ.

For how have such great impieties arisen under the Papacy, except because pastors exercised tyranny and not just government? For they have not regarded the purpose for which they were called to their office. But since the name of pastor is in itself honorable, they have dared to raise themselves above the clouds and to assume for themselves the authority of God Himself.

Hence, they have dared to bind consciences by their own laws, to change the whole truth, and to corrupt the whole worship of God; and from this also followed the scandalous sale of justice. How have these things happened? Because priests were regarded as angels come down from heaven; and this same danger is always to be feared by us.

This, then, is the vice to which the Prophet now refers. He shows that the priests had no reason to think they could shake off the yoke. “You shall know,” he says, “that this command belongs to you.” We indeed see what they objected to Jeremiah: “The law shall not depart from the priests, nor counsel and wisdom from the elders” (Jeremiah 18:18).

These are the weapons by which the Papists today defend themselves. When we present plain proofs against them from Scripture, they find themselves clearly reproved and convicted by God’s word. But here is their Ajax’s shield, under which they hide all their wickedness, repeating, as it were, from the ungodly and wicked priests what is related by Jeremiah: “‘The law shall not depart from the priests.’ We are the Church; can it err? Is not the Holy Spirit dwelling in our midst? ‘I am with you always, to the end of the world’ (Matthew 28:20). Did Christ intend to deceive His Church when He said this to His Apostles? And we are their successors.” The Prophet now gives the answer: “You shall know,” he says, “that this command belongs to you.”

And he adds, not without severity, “that my covenant may be with Levi”; as if he had said:

“Why are you so elated? For God cannot get a hearing for Himself, yet you say that the covenant with Levi is not to be void, as though God had put Levi in His own place and divested Himself of all authority when He appointed that tribe and made you ministers of the temple and teachers of the people. Is He nothing? What was God’s purpose when He honored you with that dignity? He certainly did not mean to reduce Himself to nothing; on the contrary, His will was that His own right should remain entire and complete.

When, therefore, I reprove your vices and show that you have become vile and, as it were, dung, that you are defiled by everything disgraceful—when I make these things openly known—I do not violate the covenant made with Levi. God then justly summons you before His tribunal and strips you of your honor, so that the covenant He made with Levi may be confirmed and ratified.”

This is, as I have said, a severe derision.

But we may learn a useful truth from this. The Prophet briefly teaches us that the priestly office takes away nothing from God’s authority, who requires a pure and holy worship, and that it in no way lessens the authority of the law, for sound doctrine ought always to prevail. So today, when we resist the Papal priests, we do not violate God’s covenant; that is, it is no departure from the order of the Church, which ought always to remain sacred and inviolable.

We do not then, on account of people’s vices, subvert the pastoral office and the preaching of the word; but we assail the people themselves, so that due order may be restored, that sound doctrine may obtain a hearing among humanity, that the worship of God may be pure, which these unprincipled men have violated.

We therefore boldly attempt to subvert the whole of the Papacy, with this full confidence, that we lessen nothing from the authority of teaching, nor in any way defraud the pastoral office. Rather, order in the Church, the preaching of the truth, and the very dignity of pastors cannot exist unless the Church is purged from its defilements, and its filth removed.

Thus we must also say of those unprincipled men who are too closely connected with us, or too near us—and I wish they were entirely extinct in the world! But how many pests conceal themselves under this covering, or under this mask: “What! Are we not the ministers of the word?” So say you who are without any principle. I wish you were in your dung or in your cells, where formerly you corrupted the world too much.

But now the devil has brought you forth into the Church of God, so that you may corrupt whatever had previously remained sound. Since, then, there are many today who boast of this honor—that they are ministers of the word, and pastors, and that they teach the gospel—they ought to be checked by this answer of the Prophet: that when all their corruptions are fully and truly cleansed away, then the compact which God wills to be valid with His Church and with the ministers of His word will be confirmed and ratified.

He then adds an explanation—