And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
All Commentaries on Luke 1:6 Go To Luke 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Righteous (just) before God. Many appear just before men, but few before God, because men look upon the countenance, but God on the heart and conscience. S. Francis says truly, "Each man is what he is before God, and no more."
Walking in all the commandments, &c. Commandments, i.e. the moral precepts of the Decalogue. Ordinances, i.e. the ceremonial precepts.
God gave to the Hebrews by Moses precepts of three kinds1. Moral precepts, which are contained in the two tables of the law2. Judgments which relate to justice and human polity, and chiefly concern princes3. Statutes, decrees ceremonial, pertaining to the sacrifices and rites observed in the worship of God. These are called here and elsewhere Justications, Vulgate: first, because those who observe them do what is most right and just, that is to say, perform the service and worship which is most rightfully due to God. Secondly, because by the observance of these men formerly under the old law were justified legally; for those who fulfilled them were considered just persons by the Synagogue, and that not only before man but before God, if they performed those things from the true love of God. For the doers of the law are justified, Romans 2:13.
Blameless. Sine querelâ, Vulgate; άμεμπτοι, Greek. Mark here that the faithful can, yea, ought to observe all the commandments of God; wherefore it is possible to keep them, and not impossible, as Calvin blasphemously asserts, who in this place makes a wonderful exhibition of himself, and all but says that Luke the Evangelist is a liar.
Further, blameless may be interpreted as "without mortal sin," for no just man in this life can avoid all venial sins.
