Matthew 22:10

So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Both bad and good.—The words imply, as in the parable of the Drag-net (Matthew 13:47-48), (1) the universality of the offer of the gospel, so that none were shut out through any previous sins; (2) that the assembly of the guests so gathered answers to the visible Church of Christ in which the evil are mingled with the good, waiting for the coming of the King “to see the guests.”

The wedding was furnished.—Some of the most ancient MSS. give “the bride-chamber was furnished;” but it looks like a gloss or explanatory note.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:1-14 The provision made for perishing souls in the gospel, is represented by a royal feast made by a king, with eastern liberality, on the marriage of his son. Our merciful God has not only provided food, but a royal feast, for the perishing souls of his rebellious creatures. There is enough and to spare, of every thing that can add to our present comfort and everlasting happiness, in the salvation of his Son Jesus Christ. The guests first invited were the Jews. When the prophets of the Old Testament prevailed not, nor John the Baptist, nor Christ himself, who told them the kingdom of God was at hand, the apostles and ministers of the gospel were sent, after Christ's resurrection, to tell them it was come, and to persuade them to accept the offer. The reason why sinners come not to Christ and salvation by him, is, not because they cannot, but because they will not. Making light of Christ, and of the great salvation wrought out by him, is the damning sin of the world. They were careless. Multitudes perish for ever through mere carelessness, who show no direct aversion, but are careless as to their souls. Also the business and profit of worldly employments hinder many in closing with the Saviour. Both farmers and merchants must be diligent; but whatever we have of the world in our hands, our care must be to keep it out of our hearts, lest it come between us and Christ. The utter ruin coming upon the Jewish church and nation, is here represented. Persecution of Christ's faithful ministers fills up the measure of guilt of any people. The offer of Christ and salvation to the Gentiles was not expected; it was such a surprise as it would be to wayfaring men, to be invited to a royal wedding-feast. The design of the gospel is to gather souls to Christ; all the children of God scattered abroad, Joh 10:16; 11:52. The case of hypocrites is represented by the guest that had not on a wedding-garment. It concerns all to prepare for the scrutiny; and those, and those only, who put on the Lord Jesus, who have a Christian temper of mind, who live by faith in Christ, and to whom he is all in all, have the wedding-garment. The imputed righteousness of Christ, and the sanctification of the Spirit, are both alike necessary. No man has the wedding-garment by nature, or can form it for himself. The day is coming, when hypocrites will be called to account for all their presumptuous intruding into gospel ordinances, and usurpation of gospel privileges. Take him away. Those that walk unworthy of Christianity, forfeit all the happiness they presumptuously claimed. Our Saviour here passes out of the parable into that which it teaches. Hypocrites go by the light of the gospel itself down to utter darkness. Many are called to the wedding-feast, that is, to salvation, but few have the wedding-garment, the righteousness of Christ, the sanctification of the Spirit. Then let us examine ourselves whether we are in the faith, and seek to be approved by the King.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bad and good - All descriptions of people. None are good by nature; if they were they would not need the gospel; but some are worse than others, and they have special need of it. None can be saved without it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good—that is, without making any distinction between open sinners and the morally correct. The Gospel call fetched in Jews, Samaritans, and outlying heathen alike. Thus far the parable answers to that of "the Great Supper" (Lu 14:16, &c.). But the distinguishing feature of our parable is what follows:

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Matthew 22:14".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So these servants went out into the highways,.... Turned from the Jews, and went among the Gentiles, preaching the Gospel to them; particularly the Apostle Paul, with Barnabas, and others:

and gathered together all, as many as they found, both good and bad: the Persic version reads it, "known or unknown". The Gospel ministry is the means of gathering souls to Christ, and to attend his ordinances, and into his churches; and of these that are gathered by it into churches, and to an attendance on outward ordinances, some are good and some bad, as the fishes gathered in the net of the Gospel are said to be, in Matthew 13:47 which may either express the character of the Gentiles before conversion, some of them being outwardly good in their civil and moral character; closely adhering to the law and light of nature, doing the things of it, and others notoriously wicked; or rather, how they proved when gathered in, some being real believers, godly persons, whose conversations were as became the Gospel of Christ; others hypocrites, empty professors, having a form of godliness, and nothing of the power of it; destitute of grace in their hearts, and of holiness in their lives; and the whole sets forth the diligence of the servants, in executing their master's orders, with so much readiness and exactness:

and the wedding was furnished with guests; that is, the wedding chamber, or the place where the wedding was kept, and the marriage dinner was prepared, and eat; so the Syriac renders it, , "the house of the feast", or where the feast was kept; and so the Ethiopic version: the Persic version reads it, "the house of the nuptial feast": which designs the house and church of God, into which large numbers of the Gentiles were brought, by the ministry of the apostles; so that it was filled with persons that made a profession of Christ and his Gospel.

Geneva Study Bible

So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both {c} bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

(c) The general calling offers the gospel to all men: but those who enter in have their life examined.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 22:10. Ἐξελθόντες] from the palace of the king out into the highways.

συνήγαγον] through their invitation, which was accepted.

πονηρ. τε καὶ ἀγαθ.] not “locutio quasi proverbialis,” Bengel, but they proceeded on the principle of not inquiring whether the parties in question were at the time morally bad or good, provided they only accepted the invitation. The separation between the bad and the good was not to be made by them, but subsequently by the king himself, and that according to a higher standard. Accordingly, the separation takes place in Matthew 22:11 ff., where the man who has no wedding garment represents the πονηροί.

ὁ γάμος] not equivalent to νυμφών, but the wedding (i.e. the marriage feast, as in Matthew 22:8; comp. Hom. Od. iv. 3, Il. xviii. 491), was full of guests. The emphasis, however, is on ἐπλήσθη.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 22:10. πονηρούς τε καὶ ἀγαθούς: not in the mood to make distinctions. τε connects πον. and ἁγαθ. together as one company = all they found, of all sorts, bad or good, the market-place swept clean.—ἐπλήσθη, was filled; satisfactory after the trouble in getting guests at all.—νυμφὼν, the marriage dining-hall; in Matthew 9:15 the brideshamber.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. So those servants went out into the highways] Strictly, into the places where different roads branch off. The “servants” are the earliest Christian missionaries, Paul, Silas, Barnabas and others, who went in their journeys to such meeting-places of the nations at Rome, Antioch and Corinth.

bad and good] Who will always co-exist in the Church on earth.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 22:10. Συνήγαγον, brought together) partly by calling them as they had been commanded, and partly by employing unjustifiable compulsion.—πονηρούς τε καὶ ἀγαθοὺς, both bad and good) A proverbial mode, as it were, of expression.[957]

[957] This is the aspect of the Church in the present day. It was not exactly such instructions as these that the King had given to His servants, Matthew 22:9. No one is good before his call: but when the call has been duly accepted, all things are well.—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Highways; ὁδοὺς: the roads. Not "the partings of the ways," whither they had been ordered to go. Some see here an intimation of the imperfection of the work of human agents; but it is very doubtful if any such allusion is intended. More probably τὰς ὁδοὺς is only a synonym for τὰς διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν. Both bad and good. The visible Church contains a mixed company, as Christ indicated by more than one parable; e.g. the draw net, the tares, etc. (ch. 13.). The bad are named first, in order to show the infinite graciousness of the king. In the earliest times converts were baptized with very little preparation and without any probation, as we see in the case of the eunuch, the jailor, and many more mentioned in the Acts; and doubtless many were insincere and soon lapsed. When we read of whole households being baptized, and in later times of whole nations receiving Christian initiation, there must have been little individual preparation of heart or cleansing of conscience, and the missioner had to take for granted much which more careful examination would have proved to be fallacious. The mention of this mixture of bad and good in the company introduces the final scene. The wedding. The Sinaitic, Vatican, and other manuscripts read "marriage chamber" (νυμφὼν). So Tischendorf and Westcott and Herr. But the received text is well founded, and seems more natural. Guests; ἀνακειμένων: literally, recliners; Vulgate, discumbentium; so called from the customary attitude at meals. Matthew 22:10

Vincent's Word Studies

Was furnished (ἐπλήσθη)

The Greek is stronger; was filled: so Rev.