But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
13. Every plant ] Not a wild flower, but a cultivated plant or tree; the word occurs here only in N. T.; in LXX. version of O. T. it is used of the vine, the most carefully cultivated plant; 2Ki 19:29; Eze 17:7; Mic 1:6; and in one other passage, Gen 21:33, of the tamarisk. Here the plant cultivated by human hands the vine that is not the true vine of Israel is the doctrine of the Pharisees.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mat 15:13
Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
Plants God has not planted
1. What is meant by plants.
(a) Every doctrine:
(b) Every practice:
(c) Every person.
2. Some plants God never planted.
(a) What is meant by planting? Planting is setting or putting things into the ground, as trees, herbs, flowers. So mystical planting denotes the transplanting (in a spiritual way) this or that person, from a course of open profaneness into a visible profession.
(b) Who is it that plants people in the gospel Church? God, and gospel ministers.
3. Run a parallel between an external planting; and a spiritual planting.
(a) A planter, as one instructed into the mystery of that art, has wisdom and skill in planting which others have not; so a minister of Christ is one God hath taught the mysteries of the gospel unto.
(b) A planter must have a call by the owner of the vineyard; so every minister must be called and regularly empowered.
(c) A planter must have fit and proper instruments for his work.
(d) A planter doth not know infallibly the difference there is in plants.
(e) A skilful planter knows that a wild, ungrateful tree never bears good fruit.
(f) A planter observes the proper season for planting.
(g) He doth not only plant, but water.
(h) He greatly rejoices to see his plants grow, thrive, and bear much fruit.
As to plants.
(a) They must be well-rooted.
(b) They must be pruned and purged.
(c) Some plants, who promised well, prove barren and good for nothing.
(d) Plants that prove utterly barren, are rooted up or cut down.
4. Why shall every plant God hath not planted be rooted up?
(a) Because they are wild plants.
(b) Because all plants that God hath not planted, have no right to be planted in his vineyard.
(c) Because they do but cumber the ground.
(d) Because they are good for nothing but the fire.
The plants which God Himself has planted shall stand and never be rooted up.
(a) Because they are ordained to bring forth fruit:
(b) They are planted into Christ:
(c) The love of God to them is everlasting and unchangeable. (B. Keach.)
On the efficacy of the Gospel in the extirpation of error
I. How far has this prophetic declaration been already accomplished?
II. There are certain circumstances which have impeded the progress of Christianity, and suspended its moral and sanctifying influence.
III. We have reason to believe that the final issue of the gospel kingdom will be very glorious indeed, and that the prediction of the text will then be fulfilled, in a sense hitherto unknown to the world. (Habakkuk Crabbe.)
Rooting up plants
I. That tis the heavenly Fathers own hand that plants every plant that must grow and prosper.
II. That every plant which is planted by any other hand or power, shall not prosper, but be rooted up.
III. That those which see not things so, and cannot leave them to God they bring upon themselves much trouble and unquietness. (John Webster.)
Difficult and questionable rules of conduct
When we speak of principles and rules of life, which every one knows and every one believes, by which the young and the old, the learned and the ignorant, the prince and the labourer, are regulated, and these principles and rules of life are false, or only true in part, the mischief thence arising is incalculable, is immense. These are plants which the heavenly Father hath not planted.
I. Most men are of opinion, that we cannot pass a day without sinning and acting wickedly.
II. We think we cannot be perfect; and with this we not unfrequently excuse all the sins and errors we commit, however various and gross.
III. We argue that we should merrily enjoy life, particularly youth, which so rapidly passes by; we should not embitter it by unseasonable gravity, by unnecessary sorrow or care. This may be true, but the consequences drawn from it with reference to virtue and religion are false.
IV. We say, We are after all, weak naturally corrupt beings, of whom not much is to be expected, and whom God, in His mercy, will not judge with rigour.
V. We say, We should not be particular; we should not aspire to be wiser and better than others. We should regulate ourselves by the persons and the societies, in which and with whom we live.
VI. We have false conceptions concerning daily repentance. How frequent we hear it said: If I sin every day, I however repent every day, and at any rate we must repent daily. VII. It is imagined that a certain devotion, or rather, certain acts of Divine worship can supply the defect of a virtuous life, or atone for the disorderly life we lead, and the sins which we commit. Or,
VIII. We rely upon Divine grace, and by it hope to be saved, though we are not so virtuous and holy as we ought to be. (Zollikoper.)
The weeding of the garden
I. Plants that God has not planted.
1. Some have been planted by the ministers hand. Some conversions are of human, not Divine, origin.
2. Some were planted by their fathers and mothers. They have got a kind of family religion.
3. Many professors of religion are self-planted.
II. Their uprooting. It sometimes comes in this life.
III. The work of self-examination. Am I a plant of Gods planting?
1. If I am of the Lords planting, there was a time when I had to be taken out of the place where I once grew.
2. If planted by God there will be sorrow that we were ever anything else.
3. We have learnt our utter helplessness.
4. We are all planted on one soil, and indeed on one rock. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gods plants grow everywhere
Other plants which the Heavenly Father hath not planted have their zones of vegetation, and die out of certain degrees of latitude, but the seed of the kingdom is like corn, an exotic nowhere, for wherever man lives it will grow, and yet an exotic everywhere, for it came down from heaven. (Dr. Maclaren.)
Plants not planted by God are very beautiful
If you go into the fields, there are many plants that grow there that are quite as lovely as those in the garden. Look at the foxglove and the dog rose; look at many of the blossoms we pass by as insignificant, they are really beautiful; but they are not plants that have ever been planted. Now, how many we have in our congregations that are really beautiful; yet they are none of Gods planting-men and women whose character is upright, whose manners ate amiable, whose life is irreproachable. They are not immoral, they neither cheat nor lie; but they are exemplary; their disposition is kind, tender-hearted, and affectionate. Yes, but there must be something more than this, for Jesus says, Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Though it be a lovely plant, though it seem to be a fair flower externally, yet since the root of it hath sucked its nourishment out of the wild wastes of sin, whether of infidelity or of lawlessness, it is evil in the eye of God, and it must be plucked up. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Wild plants fruitful
Further, how many there are of our wild wood plants that even bring forth fruit. The schoolboy in the country can tell us that the wood is an orchard, and that often he has had many a luscious meal from those wild fruits that grew there. Yet, mark you, though the birds may come and satisfy their hunger from those wild fruits, and though the seeds may be in the winter the sparrows garner, and the linnets storehouse, yet they are not planted, and they do not come under the description of the text-plants that have been planted. So, too, there may be some of you who really do some good in the world. Without you a mothers wants might not be provided for; from your table many of the poor are fed. Oh! this is good, this is good; I would that all of you did more of it, but I pray you remember that this is not enough; there must be Gods planting in you, or else the fruits you bring forth will be selfish fruits. You will be like Israel who was denounced as being an empty vine, because, forsooth, he brought forth fruit unto himself. Charity is good. Noble charity, be thou honoured among men! But there must be faith, and if we have no faith in Christ, though we give our bodies to be burned, and bestow our goods to feed the poor, yet where Christ is, we certainly can never come. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Many of those wild plants have very strong roots
If you were to go and try to dig them up, you would have a task before you not easily accomplished. Look at the wild dock: did you seek to pull it up? Piece after piece it breaks away, and you have to send some sharp instrument deep into the soil before you can root it out, and even then, if there be but a piece left, it springs up and thrives again. Oh how many there are who have as much tenacity of life in their false confidence, as there is in the dock-in its root! Some of you cannot shake. I never have a doubt, said one, I never had a doubt or a misgiving. You remember Robert Hall said, Allow me to doubt for you, sir, because he knew the man to be an ill-liver. And so we have some-they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men; they speak with an air of satisfaction: their language sounds like assurance, but it is presumption; it looks like confidence in Christ, but it is confidence in themselves. And such will strike their roots very deep, and they will be very strong indeed, so that you cannot shake them; yet, alas for them! they are not plants of the Lords right-hand planting, and therefore the sentence is passed; and ere long it shall be executed without pity-they shall be rooted up. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Uprooted plants
1. That system of philosophy which ignores Divine Truth, or contradicts the plain statements of Gods Word, cannot endure.
2. In the various departments of science those views which are the offspring of glaring misconception or of uncertain hypothesis, necessarily possess the element of perishability.
3. A like course of reasoning may be applied to the different religions of the world. Consider some of the plants which the Father hath planted:-
1. Every disciple of Christ.
2. The Church.
3. The Bible.
4. In the garden there are also many tender little plants which, though not conspicuous, are equally the object of the Fathers solicitude.
5. God is pledged to establish the good and to eradicate the evil. The rose will not always have its thorn. (J. T. Lamont.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Every plant] Every plantation. So I render , and so it is translated in the Itala version which accompanies the Greek text in the Codex Bezae, omnis plantatio, and so the word is rendered by Suidas. This gives a different turn to the text. The Pharisees, as a religious body, were now a plantation of trees, which God did not plant, water, nor own: therefore, they should be rooted up, not left to wither and die, but the fellers, and those who root up, (the Roman armies,) should come against and destroy them, and the Christian Church was to be planted in their place. Since the general dispersion of the Jews, this sect, I believe, has ceased to exist as a separate body, among the descendants of Jacob. The first of the apostolical constitutions begins thus: , . The Catholic Church is the plantation of God, and his chosen vineyard.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Every plant may be understood of doctrines, practices, or persons. These scribes and Pharisees are a wretched generation, that are got into the sheepfold not at the door; my Father never sent them, they are crept in at the windows, they are plants got into my garden, which my Father never planted there, and they must be rooted up.
Let them alone, they are incorrigible, and blinded by their own interest against any conviction or instruction: as, Hos 4:17, Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone: so these men are joined to their superstitious traditions; I will not concern myself with them. They are pretended leaders of the blind, Rom 2:19, but themselves are blind. I pity the poor people, for while the blind lead the blind they both fall into a ditch. An ignorant and unfaithful ministry is the greatest plague God can send amongst a people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. But he answered and said, Everyplant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rootedupThey are offended, are they? Heed it not: their corruptteaching is already doomed: the garden of the Lord upon earth, toolong cumbered with their presence, shall yet be purged of them andtheir accursed system: yea, and whatsoever is not of the planting ofMy heavenly Father, the great Husbandman (Joh15:1), shall share the same fate.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But he answered, and said,…. As being unconcerned at their rage, and having nothing to fear from them; and being well satisfied, that what he had said was right, and would produce proper effects, he gave his disciples this for answer:
every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up; which may be understood either of things, or of persons: it may have regard to doctrines and ordinances; and the meaning be, that whatever doctrine is not delivered by God, or whatever ordinance is not instituted by him; whatever is not of heaven, but of man, of man’s devising, and of human imposition, as the traditions of the elders, must be opposed and rejected; and sooner or later will be utterly rooted up, and destroyed; as will all the false notions, corrupt worship, and errors, and heresies of men, in God’s own time: or it may respect persons. There are some plants, which are planted by Christ’s Father, which is in heaven; these are the elect of God, who are trees of righteousness; the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. These are planted by the river of God’s love, in the person of Christ, in the likeness of his death and resurrection; they are transplanted out of a state of nature, are ingrafted into Christ, have the graces of the Spirit implanted in their souls, and are themselves planted in the courts of the Lord, in a Gospel church state; and being watered with the dews of grace, appear to be choice plants, plants of renown, pleasant ones, very fruitful, and which shall never perish, or be rooted, and plucked up, but there are others, like these Pharisees, hypocrites, formal professors, and heretics, who pretend to much religion and holiness, make a show of the leaves of profession, but have not the fruit of grace; these get into churches, and are outwardly and ministerially planted there; but being never rooted in Christ, nor partake of his grace, in time they wither, and die away; or persecution arising because of the Word, or truth being dispensed in so clear and glaring a light, that they cannot bear it; they are offended with it, and so are detected, discovered, and rooted up and it is necessary that truth should be freely spoken, as it was here by Christ, that such plants might be rooted out; for these words are said by Christ in justification of his conduct. So the Jews speak of God, as a planter, and of rooting up what he does not like.
“The holy, blessed God (say they e), “plants” trees in this world; if they prosper, it is well; if they do not prosper,
, “he roots them up”, and plants them even many times.”
And elsewhere it is said f,
“let the master of the vineyard come, and consume its thorns: the gloss on it is, the holy, blessed God; for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, is the house of Israel, and he will consume, and take away the thorns of the vineyard.”
e Zohar in Gen. fol. 105. 3. f T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 83. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Every plant. As the indifferent success of the doctrine had wounded their weak minds, Christ intended to remedy this evil. Now the remedy which he proposes is, that good men ought not to be distressed, or entertain less reverence for the doctrine, though to many it be an occasion of death. It is a mistaken view of this passage which some have adopted, that all the inventions of men, and every thing that has not proceeded from the mouth of God, must be rooted up and perish; for it was rather to men that Christ referred, and the meaning is, that there is no reason to wonder if the doctrine of salvation shall prove deadly to the reprobate, because they are always carried headlong to the destruction to which they are doomed.
By the persons that have been planted by the hand of God we are to understand those who, by his free adoption, have been ingrafted into the tree of life, as Isaiah also, when speaking of the Church renewed by the grace of God, calls it a branch planted by the Lord, (Isa 60:21.) Now as salvation depends solely on the election of God, the reprobate must perish, in whatever way this may be effected; not that they are innocent, and free from all blame, when God destroys them, but because, by their own malice, they turn to their destruction all that is offered to them, however salutary it may be. To those who willingly perish the Gospel thus becomes, as Paul assures us, the savor of death unto death, (2Co 2:16😉 for, though it is offered to all for salvation, it does not yield this fruit in any but the elect. It belongs to a faithful and honest teacher to regulate every thing which he brings forward by a regard to the advantage of all; but whenever the result is different, let us take comfort from Christ’s reply. It is beautifully expressed by the parable, that the cause of perdition does not lie in the doctrine, but that the reprobate who have no root in God, when the doctrine is presented to them, throw out their hidden venom, and thus accelerate that death to which they were already doomed.
Which my heavenly Father hath not planted. Hypocrites, who appear for a time to have been planted like good trees, are particularly described by Christ; for Epicureans, who are noted for open and shameful contempt of God, cannot properly be said to resemble trees, but the description must be intended to apply to those who have acquired celebrity by some vain appearance of godliness. Such were the scribes, who towered in the Church of God like the cedars in Lebanon, and whose revolt might on that account appear the more strange. Christ might have said that it is right that those should perish who disdainfully reject salvation; but he rises higher, and asserts that no man will remain steadfast, unless his salvation be secured by the election of God. By these words he expressly declares, that the first origin of our salvation flows from that grace by which God elected us to be his children before we were created.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted.The disciples could hardly fail to connect the words with the parable which they had heard so lately. The system and the men that they had been taught to regard as pre-eminently religious were, after all, in their Masters judgment, as the tares and not as the wheat (Mat. 13:37-38). So far as they were a sect or party, His Father had not planted them. They, too, were left, according to the teaching of that parable, to grow until the harvest, but their end was surethey should be rooted out. The words which proclaim their doom were, however, intentionally general in their form. In that divine judgment which works through the worlds history, foreshadowing the issues of the last great day, that doom is written on every system, party, sect which originates in mans zeal, in narrowness, in self-will. It has not been planted by the Father, and therefore it is doomed to perish.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Every plant Every doctrine. These traditions are a plant not planted by God, but by men, and they will be rooted up. Tradition can never stand as God’s word, much less against God’s word.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But he answered and said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant, will be rooted up.” ’
Jesus reply here may well have had the parable of the tares (darnel) in mind (Mat 13:38-40). Every plant which has not been planted by His heavenly Father must be rooted up, (for those planted by the Lord see Psa 1:3; Isa 60:21; Isa 61:3; For rooting up see Eze 17:9). When it came to God’s truth there was no place for the Pharisees unless they changed their whole attitude. Men must now turn from the ritual which had been built up to a full response to the Kingly Rule of Heaven. Thus unless the Pharisees came under the Kingly Rule of Heaven by responding to Him, they would have to be removed from their place.
God’s solution, however, is simple (if difficult) and is described here. Look at what comes out of the inner man in behaviour. If that is right other things will begin to fall into place. But if that is wrong, all the rest is a waste of time. There can be no true religion without true morality. God’s solution, however, is simple (if difficult) and is described here. Look at what comes out of the inner man in behaviour. If that is right other things will begin to fall into place. But if that is wrong, all the rest is a waste of time. There can be no true religion without true morality.
Here then was a clear indication that Pharisaic belief as a whole was not of God’s planting. What was required therefore was a turning back to the Scriptures. It was those who responded to God’s true Servant, and who obeyed Him and His words, who would become ‘trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord’ (Isa 61:3). For they would reveal the true righteousness. They would be the ‘sons of the Kingly Rule’ who were planted by God (Mat 13:38), who would ‘seek first the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness’ (Mat 6:33). It was they, who served God from the heart, who were really doing what God wanted.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 15:13. Every plant, &c. Every plantation, , that is to say, doctrine. The metaphor was familiar in the time of our Lord, and is still used by the Jewish writers, with whom to pull up plantations signifies “to deny articles of faith.” See Heylin and Wetstein.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 15:13 . The correct interpretation is the ordinary one (being also that of Ewald and Keim), according to which is taken as a figurative way of expressing the teaching . The fact of Jesus having attacked their teaching , in Mat 15:11 , had given offence to the Pharisees. Consequently He now explains why it is that He does not spare such teaching: every doctrine, He says, that is not of God, that is merely human in its origin, will pass away and perish , as the result, that is, of the Messianic reformation which is in the course of developing itself. Nothing is said about the Pharisees personally (whom Chrysostom supposes to be included in what is said about the teaching) till Mat 15:14 . This in answer to Fritzsche, Olshausen, de Wette, Hilgenfeld, Bleek, who find in the words a prediction of the extirpation of the Pharisees (“characters of this stamp will soon have played out their game,” de Wette). What is expressed figuratively by means of , , is the same thing that, in Mat 15:9 , is designated literally as .
On , planting (Plat. Theag . p. 121 C; Xen. Oec. vii. 20, xix. 1), i.e. in this instance: something planted , comp. Ignatius, ad Philad. III. ad Trall. xi , where, however, it is not used with regard to false teaching, but with reference to false teachers. In classic Greek the form is , or .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
Ver. 13. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted ] viz. By election, and watered by vocation. These Pharisees were reprobates, designed to detection here, and to destruction hereafter. Therefore as it is no wonder, so it is no matter, though they “stumble at the word, being disobedient, since hereunto they were appointed,”1Pe 2:81Pe 2:8 . Let them “stumble, and fall, and be broken, and snared, and taken,” Isa 8:15 . Christ is to reprobates a “rock of offence;” but such a rock as that, Jdg 6:21 , out of which goeth fire and consumeth them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13. ] The plant is the teaching of the Pharisees, altogether of human, and not of divine planting. That this is so, is clear by following, and by the analogy of our Lord’s parabolic symbolism, in which seed, plant , &c., are compared to doctrine , which however in its growth becomes identified with, and impersonated by, its recipients and disseminators. See this illustrated in notes on the parable of the sower, ch. 13 ‘ , natur: , cur.’ Bengel. On this verse see Joh 15:1-2 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 15:13 . , etc.: the disciples were afraid, but Jesus was indignant, and took up high ground. for , a plant, “not a wild flower but a cultivated plant” (Camb. G. T.), refers to the Rabbinical tradition; natural figure for doctrine, and so used both by Jesus and Greeks ( vide Schttgen and Kypke). Kypke remarks: “pertinet huc parabola ”. : the statement in the relative clause is really the main point, that the tradition in question was a thing with which God as Jesus conceived Him had nothing to do. This is an important text for Christ’s doctrine of the Fatherhood as taught by discriminating use of the term . The idea of God implied in the Corban tradition was that His interest was antagonistic to that of humanity. In Christ’s idea of God the two interests are coincident. This text should be set beside Mat 12:50 , which might easily be misunderstood as teaching an opposite view. . This is what will be, and what Jesus wishes and works for: uprooting, destruction, root and branch, no compromise, the thing wholly evil. The response of the traditionalists was crucifixion.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Every plant. Implying the scribes, &c, by the Figure of speech Hypocatastaais. See note on “dogs”, Mat 15:26, and on “leaven” (Mat 16:6).
plant. Greek. phuteia. Occurs only here.
heavenly. Greek. ouranios. See note on Mat 6:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] The plant is the teaching of the Pharisees, altogether of human, and not of divine planting. That this is so, is clear by following, and by the analogy of our Lords parabolic symbolism, in which seed, plant, &c., are compared to doctrine, which however in its growth becomes identified with, and impersonated by, its recipients and disseminators. See this illustrated in notes on the parable of the sower, ch. 13 , natur: , cur. Bengel. On this verse see Joh 15:1-2.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 15:13. But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
He had not any peculiar tenderness towards them, they were no plants of his Fathers planting: they deserved to be rooted up, and their teaching was so utterly false that, if he had offended against it, he was glad to have done so.
Mat 15:14. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
The bad teacher and he that is badly taught, for they are both responsible, shall both fall into the ditch. No man can lay the sin of his being misdirected entirely upon his priest or his teacher. He had no business to have submitted to him. At the same time, it is a very serious responsibility for a man who knows not God to attempt to teach the things of God. I know a man who, in a certain place of worship was deeply convinced of sin the arrows of God stuck in him, and, being in great distress, he went to the minister and told him how he felt the burden of his guilt. The minister said to him, My dear friend, I really had no intention of making you uneasy what was it I said? I will get the sermon I am very sorry, but really I do not know anything about it. The man said, You told us we must be born again. Oh!, said the minister, that was done for you when a child your parents did it. You know sir, we must be converted. Well, really I do not understand it. I am afraid I have disturbed you unnecessarily. Our friend, however, was not to be put off so; he sought and found a Saviour. But how dreadful a thing it is when the blind lead the blind: they shall both fall into the ditch.
Mat 15:15. Then answered Peter and said unto him Declare unto us this parable.
And Jesus said Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. There is no defilement about that. Cleanliness is to be observed, but not the mere act of washing just for the sake of it, every time you eat bread, which defiles not a man; but oh! what defilement there is in evil thought, In anger which breeds murder, in lust which leads to adultery and fornication, in covetousness which begets theft, and in a false heart which leads to false witness, and in a profane mind which leads to blasphemy. Oh! that God would cleanse our secret thoughts, the very center of our hearts, for until the fountain is made clean, the stream that comes from it cannot be pure.
Mat 15:21-22. Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me O Lord, thou son of David: my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But he answered her not a word. How painful that silence must have been! In what suspense she was.
Mat 15:23. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away: for she crieth after us.
They were under a mistake. She did not cry after them: she knew better then that: she cried after the Lord, after the great Son of David, not after them, but, however, she disturbed them.
Mat 15:24. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Christs personal ministry was confined to the Jews. He came as a Saviour to redeem all mankind, but as a preacher he was a minister to the circumcision, and he came to speak only to Israel.
Mat 15:25. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
Her prayer got shorter, and she grew more intense, more energetic, more determined to win the blessing. Lord help me.
Mat 15:26-28. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the childrens bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters table. Then Jesus answered and said unto to her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou will. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Oh! can you exercise a like faith in Christ? If so you shall get a like blessing. Only believe in him, only make up your mind, and, however great the mercy, it cannot be too great for him to give, and believe that he will give it, rest on him to bestow it, and you shall have it. God grant that many may receive it at this very hour.
This exposition consisted of readings from Mat 13:1-23; Mat 15:13-28. 1Co 3:17-23.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Mat 15:13. , plant) Doctrine, or rather man. The is so by nature, the by care.-, …, Father, etc.) See Joh 15:1-2.-, shall he rooted up) And this shall be the result of their being offended with Christ. Such a plant, however fair in appearance, is without Christ (extra Christum).
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Every: Mat 13:40, Mat 13:41, Psa 92:13, Isa 60:21, Joh 15:2, Joh 15:6, 1Co 3:12-15
Reciprocal: Jdg 17:13 – General 1Ki 14:15 – root up Israel 2Ki 4:39 – a wild vine Ecc 3:2 – a time to plant Amo 4:5 – for Mar 11:20 – General Act 5:38 – for Rom 6:5 – planted 2Ti 2:18 – overthrow Rev 22:18 – If
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
PARTY SPIRIT
But he answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
Mat 15:13
We need this lesson just as the disciples needed it, that they might not be startled by the fading away of much which had seemed to them fair and vigorous.
I. The opposition of sects.The disciples learnt gradually from Christs lips that they were called and chosen out to preach to their own countrymen to bind together in one publicans and sinnersJews, Galileans, Samaritans. With this message they were to go forth to Jew and Gentile. As they bore it, they soon discovered that the natural and necessary antagonists of it were the sects, Sadducees, Pharisees, etc. Then, when they found how mighty this sect-principle was, and what numbers were pledged to it, they must have recollected the words which had been spoken to them: Every plant, which My heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted out.
II. Party spirit.There is a plant in your heart and mine which our heavenly Father has not planted, and which must be rooted out. It is that same plant of self-seeking, of opinionativeness, of party-spirit, which has shed its poison over the Church and over the world. It springs in us from that same root of unbelief in One who is the Head of us all, Whose life is the common life of all, out of which all sects and parties have proceeded. If once by His grace we are delivered from that presumption, we shall not doubt that He has taken care of His own name and His own kingdom in this earth of ours.
The Rev. F. D. Maurice.
Illustration
The plain meaning of our Lords words is, that false doctrine, like that of the Pharisees, was a plant to which no mercy should be shown. It was a plant which His heavenly Father had not planted, and a plant which it was a duty to root up, whatever offence it might cause. To spare it was no charity, because it was injurious to the souls of men.It mattered nothing that those who planted it were high in office, or learned: if it contradicted the Word of God, it ought to be opposed, refuted, and rejected. His disciples must therefore understand that it was right to resist all teaching that was unscriptural, and to let alone and forsake all instructors who persisted in it.Sooner or later they would find that all false doctrine will be completely overthrown and put to shame, and that nothing shall stand but that which is built on the Word of God.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5:13
Jesus was willing to stake his right to speak and the correctness of what he said on the outcome. Every plant not planted by his Father was to be rooted up. If the work of Jesus was not authorized of God, then it would not stand and he would be exposed as an impostor. On the other hand, if his work holds fast it will prove him to have been a true teacher and one over whom the Pharisees had no reason to stumble. This statement had special reference to the church or kingdom that he was about to set up, for in Eze 34:29 a “plant” is predicted and the context there (verses 20-31) plainly shows that it has reference to the church.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 15:13. Every plant. This refers to the teaching and traditions of the Pharisees, although the persons became identified with their false doctrine.
Which my heavenly father planted not. The Pharisees claimed Divine authority for their teaching; our Lord declares by implication that it was wholly human and as such should be rooted up, taken away and destroyed, to make room for a plant of His planting, the purer doctrine of the kingdom. It was a declaration of a purpose to oppose the Pharisees. To us it is a promise, with a terrible side indeed, but bidding us take courage when we see false and corrupt religion flourishing; it shall be rooted up.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 13
Every plant, &c. These traditions were of human origin.