Historic pastoral reading
Holiness is not the same thing as tidy rooms. Soap is good; it is not the gospel.
Matthew 23:25-26
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
The text
WEB
25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
KJV
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
What kind of text
- Gospel
- Woe saying
- Hypocrisy
Jesus talks about clean cups to expose a clean outside with a greedy inside.
How Christians have read this
Common misuse
Used as if housework were a biblical rank next to godliness.
What the next verse does
The woes keep going after outward religion.
Older commentary
Matthew Henry
Henry on Matthew 23: clean the inside of the cup first. Outward polish is not holiness.
Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon mocked whitewashed religion. Soap is good; it is not the gospel.