Monday, 24 February 2025
for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 7:29
Note: You can listen to today’s commentary courtesy of our friends at “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen).
You can also read this commentary, scrolling with music, courtesy of our friends at “Discern the Bible” on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).
For a direct link to the CG translation of Matthew 7, go to this link for (YouTube) or this link for (Rumble).
“For He was teaching them as having authority, and not as the scribes” (CG).
In the previous verse, it noted that the people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching. Next, it explains why it was so, saying, “For He was teaching them as having authority.”
Of the coming Messiah, Isaiah prophesied –
“Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Isaiah 53:1, 2
Jesus didn’t come with great looks. We have no idea what His oratory skills were like, meaning the eloquence of the delivery of His messages. However, the content of what He said stunned those who listened to Him. They were outstruck as they considered His words.
Matthew says He was as having “authority.” The word is new, eksousía, coming from ek, “out or from,” and which intensifies eimí, “to be, being as a right or privilege” HELPS Word Studies says of this word, “authority, conferred power; delegated empowerment (‘authorization’), operating in a designated jurisdiction.”
It was the empowered nature of His words, stating them as if authoritative. Taking the roots of the word eksousía, one can see the intent. His words were “out-being.” The authority, the “out-being” He possessed, was transferred to the content of His words. This then is set in contrast to the next words, “and not as the scribes.”
The scribes may have been handsome, rich, very eloquent, etc., but their words lacked the “out-being” necessary to convince the people of what they taught. They treated the Mosaic code as a means to an end. Jesus has not done that. He has spoken of the end of the code, noting that it was authoritative and applicable until He fulfilled it (Matthew 5:17, 18).
He then explained the true weight of the law, meaning how God viewed it in relation to His people. From there, He continued to explain things in a manner that no person had ever done so before, revealing things that were expected of the people that they had never considered as such. The scribes did not, nor could they.
They had placed their hopes in Moses and forgotten that Moses prophesied of another who would come. John 5 notes this several times. Thus, Jesus set Himself apart from the other teachers. Not only did He speak with authority, but He did so claiming that He was the authority that Moses pointed to.
Life application: Churches around the world look for pastors with charisma. They seek out people with exceptional oratory skills as well. They will have big bands with long musical shows each Sunday.
Christian TV is filled with this kind of stuff. And yet, those who know the Bible well enough can tell that what is presented is lipstick on a pig. Having excellent elocution doesn’t mean the content is proper or authoritative. But, because of such oration, people who are uninformed will believe it and follow them.
Praising God through music is something the Bible not only condones but promotes. However, it is to be based on alignment with Scripture, not emotion with Jesus tossed in as a bonus. We all need to be careful to not get caught up in what is unimportant in our church-seeking lives.
Rather, we should be looking for adherence to the word and a proper exposition of it before all else. But we cannot do this if we don’t know the word. Read your Bible.
Lord God, help us to be responsible about knowing Your word. May we diligently make it a priority every day of our lives. Help us to not get caught up in sensationalism or hype, but to be careful, contemplative, cautious, and conservative in our approach to Your precious word. Amen.
Matthew 7 (CGT)
1 Not you judge, that not you may be judged. 2 For in what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and in what measure you measure, it will be remeasured to you. 3 And why you see the chip, the ‘in the eye’ of your brother, and in your eye, a beam not you examine? 4 Or how you will say to your brother, “You permit – I may eject the chip from your eye,” and behold, the beam in your eye. 5 Hypocrite! First, you eject the beam from your eye, and then you will thoroughly see to eject the splinter from your brother’s eye. 6 You give not the holy to the dogs, nor you shall cast your pearls before the pigs, lest they ever will tread them in their feet and, having turned, they shall dissever you.
7 You ask, and it will be given you. You seek, and you will find. You knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For all ‘the asking’ he receives, and ‘the seeking’ he finds, and ‘the knocking’ he will have opened. 9 Or what man, he is, from you, whom his son if he may ask him bread, not stone he will give him? 10 And if fish he may ask, not serpent he will give him? 11 Therefore, if you – being evil – you have known to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father, the ‘in the heavens,’ He will give good to those asking Him. 12 Therefore, all as what you may determine that men, they should do to you, thus also you, you do to them. For this, it is, the Law and the Prophets. 13 You enter through the narrow gate. Because wide the gate and spacious the way, the ‘leading to the destruction,’ and many, they are, those entering through it. 14 For narrow the gate and having been compressed the way, the ‘leading to the life,’ and few, they are, those finding it.
15 And you caution from the false prophets who – they come to you in clothes of sheep, and inwardly they are wolves – rapacious. 16 From their fruits you will recognize them. Not any, they gather from thorns a grape or from thistles figs? 17 Thus, every good tree, it produces good fruit. And the rotten tree, it produces evil fruit. 18 Not it is able, a good tree, bad fruit to produce, nor a rotten tree good fruit to produce. 19 Every tree not producing good fruit, it is exscinded, and it is cast into fire. 20 Hence, from their fruits you will know them.
21 Not all, the “saying to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’” he will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of My Father the ‘in heavens.’ 22 Many, they will say to Me in that ‘the day,’ “Lord, Lord, not the ‘Your name’ we prophesied, and the ‘Your name’ we ejected demons, and the ‘Your name’ we performed many miracles?” 23 And then, I will assent to them that, “Never I knew you! You depart from Me – Those working lawlessness!”
24 Therefore, everyone – whoever he hears these, My words, and he does them, I will liken him to a sagacious man who, he built his house upon the rock. 25 And the rain, it descended. And the floods, they came. And the winds, they blew. And they fell towards the house, that. And it fell not, for it had been founded upon the rock. 26 And all the hearing – these, My words – and not doing them, he will be likened to a moronic man who – he built his house upon the sand. 27 And the rain, it descended. And the floods, they came. And the winds, they blew. And they struck towards the house, that. And it fell, and the falling of it, it was great.
28 And it was when Jesus, He had completed the words, these, the crowds – they were outstruck at His teaching. 29 For He was teaching them as having authority, and not as the scribes.