Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Christ kindles into vehement indignation against them because they are deadly plagues of the Church, and He means to shake off by violence the flatteries in which hypocrites indulge and drag them to the judgment seat of God. He calls them serpents both in nature and in habits, and threatens a punishment they cannot escape unless they speedily repent.
AI summary
Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets,.... To try them, whether they would show the respect to prophets, they pretended to have for them; by building and beautifying their sepulchres; by exclaiming against their forefathers for shedding their blood; and by declaring, that had they lived in their days, they would not have joined with them in it; and to make it appear, that these...
The sternest language Jesus ever used to wicked men, because at heart they were filled with evil designs beneath their pretense of piety. But this does not authorize ministers now to use such language: Christ knew hearts and had authority we do not have; we address characters, not persons, and cannot declare with certainty who will be lost.
AI summary