You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
All Commentaries on Matthew 23:26 Go To Matthew 23
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Or, He means that the Jews whenever they were to enter the temple or to offer sacrifice, or on any festivals, used to wash themselves, their clothes, and their vessels, but none cleansed himself from his sins; but God neither commends bodily cleanliness, nor condemns the contrary. But suppose foulness of person or of vessels were offensive to God, which must become foul by being used, how much more does He not abhor foulness of conscience, which we may, if we will, keep ever pure?.
Note, that speaking of tithes He said, “These things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone:” for tithes are a kind of alms, and what wrongis it to give alms? Yet said He it not to enforce a legal superstition. But here, discoursing of things clean and unclean, He does not add this, but distinguishes and shows that external purity of necessity follows internal; "the outside of the cup and platter” signifying the body, the inside the soul.
