Verily I say unto you, you shall by no means come out of there, till you have paid the last penny.
All Commentaries on Matthew 5:26 Go To Matthew 5
John Chrysostom
AD 407
The Lord is urgent with us to hasten to make friends with our enemies while weare yet in this life, knowing how dangerous for us that one of our enemies should die before peace is made with us. For if death bring us while yet at enmity to the Judge, he will deliver us to Christ, proving us guilty by hisjudgment. Our adversary also delivers us to the Judge, when he is the first to seek reconciliation; for he who first submits to his enemy, brings him in guilty before God.
“The officer,” that is, the ministering Angel of punishment, and he shall cast you into the prison of hell.
Or, If you will make your peace yet in this world, you may receive pardon of even the heaviest offences; but if once damned and cast into the prison of hell, punishment will be exacted of you not for grievous sins only, but for each idle word, which may be denoted by “the very last farthing.”.
Or, the prison is worldly misfortune which God often sends upon sinners.
Or, He here speaks of the judges of this world, of the way which leads to this judgment, and of human prisons; thus not only employing future but present inducements, as those things which are before the eyes affect us most, as St. Paul also declares, “If thou doest evil fear the power, for he beareth not the sword in vain.”
