Ecclesiastes 7:16,17
Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Righteousness over-much! May one say, is there any danger of that? Is it even possible? Can we be too good?
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It must be confessed, that the sense of this passage is not obvious at first sight.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): One easily perceives how a premature death is the consequence of an excess of wickedness and folly; but, to make destruction a consequence of an excess or over-affectation of wisdom or righteousness, looks like propounding a riddle.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): “Be not righteous over much” is the sheet anchor of the profane, the ungodly, and the formalist!—We cannot wonder, therefore, that this should be one of their favourite texts—held in high estimation…It seems to admit of so many shades of interpretation, as if it would allow any man his own rule and standard. The insincere professor finds an excuse for loving the world in his heart, and meeting it halfway in his practice. He may have a plea for avoiding all the offence of the cross. He may revolt from the most spiritual doctrines and exercises of the Gospel. He has one answer at hand against every warning.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The world is in their hearts and they have no wish to get it out. They have heard some people say that all conversation about God, the soul and eternity is dull Puritan talk, so they have picked up an expression as parrots often do and they say, “No, we do not want to be Puritans. We do not care to be extra precise and righteous over much.”
CHARLES BRIDGES: Such is the rule, as expounded by the votaries of the world. But is it really possible to transgress it, so as to have too much of the substance of religion? We cannot have religious sentiments and principles too strong, if only they have a right object. We cannot love God too warmly, or honour Him too highly, or strive to serve Him too earnestly, or trust Him too implicitly; because our duty is to love Him with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength. And it is surely absurd to warn the carnal man against an excess of spirituality—the earthly-minded man against the over-much seeking of heavenly things.
C. H. SPURGEON: What, then, does it mean?
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This is not meant of true and real righteousness—even moral righteousness—a man cannot be too holy or too righteous; but of a show and ostentation of righteousness, and of such who would be thought to be more righteous and holy than others, and therefore despise those who, as they imagine, do not come up to them; and are very rigid and censorious in their judgment of others, and very severe in their reproofs of them. And many there be, who, by an imprudent zeal for what they judge right, and which sometimes are mere trifles, and by unseasonable reproofs for what is wrong, expose themselves to resentment and danger.
CHARLES BRIDGES: Neither make thyself over-much wise—a wholesome practical rule! Avoid all affectation or high pretensions to superior wisdom. Guard against that opinionative confidence, which seems to lay down the law, and critically finds fault with every judgment differing from our own. The Apostle gives this warning with peculiar emphasis and solemnity—“This I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith,” Romans 12:3. The more humble thou art, the more wary and circumspect thou wilt be; and the more wary, the more safe. A question is put to give energy to the warning—“Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?” Men may be martyrs to trifles magnified unduly. They may bring needless trouble upon themselves, by making conscience of doubtful or subordinate matters.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Either by being too severe in observing, censuring, and punishing the faults of others beyond the rules of equity, without giving any allowance for human infirmity, extraordinary temptations, the state of times, and other circumstances. Or, by being more just than God requires, either laying those yokes and burdens upon a man’s self or others which God hath not imposed upon him, and which are too heavy for him, or condemning or avoiding those things as sinful which God hath not forbidden, which really is superstition, but is here called righteousness abusively, because it is so in appearance, and in the opinion of such persons.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): What is this spirit that condemns? It is a self-righteous spirit. Self is always at the back of it, and it is always a manifestation of self-righteousness, a feeling of superiority, and a feeling that we are all right while others are not. That then leads to censoriousness, and a spirit that is always ready to express itself in a derogatory manner. And then, accompanying that, there is the tendency to despise others, to regard them with contempt.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Doubtless the contempt of the brethren, moroseness, envy, immoderate estimate of ourselves, and other sinful impulses, clearly show that our love is either very cold, or does not at all exist.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Utmost right may be utmost wrong. He is righteous over much that will remit nothing of his right, but exercise great censures for light offences; this is, as one said, to kill a fly upon a man’s forehead with a mallet.
CHARLES BRIDGES: And thus, unless the exercise of wisdom is tempered with humility and reverence, it may be “the pride that goeth before destruction,” Proverbs 16:18.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: We must remember that men who are equally honest may differ.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Be not opinionative, and conceited of thy own abilities. Set not up for a dictator, nor pretend to give law to, and give judgment upon, all about thee. Set not up for a critic, to find fault with every thing that is said and done.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We are well aware that in this age of fleshly indulgence the majority are greatly in danger of erring on the side of laxity, yet in avoiding this sin, others are in danger of swinging to the other extreme and being “righteous over much.”
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It seems to be the besetting sin of mankind and one of the most terrible results of the Fall, that there is nothing difficult as to maintain a balance. In correcting one thing we go to such an extreme as to find ourselves in an equally dangerous position…The light-hearted, glib Christian, and the morbid, ultra-sensitive, over-careful, hypochondriacal Christian are both wrong; and there are many such.
MATTHEW POOLE: Righteousness, as well as other virtues, avoids both the extremes, the excess as well as the deficit.
CHARLES BRIDGES: “Turn not to right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil, ” Proverbs 4:27…We have therefore valuable cautions against all extremes. It is wise for us to “make strait paths for our feet,” Hebrews 12:13—to preserve the mean of a sober scriptural righteousness—to cultivate “that gracious humility, which hath ever been the crown and glory of a Christianly-disposed mind.”
