It should be remembered that Christ was addressing the newly appointed inner circle of disciples, the Twelve, in particular, and all others who were prospective citizens of the newly established kingdom (see on v. 1). Christ here sets forth in unmistakable language the lofty standard of citizenship.

The “righteousness” of citizens of the kingdom of heaven must surpass that of the scribes, the official expositors of the law, and of the Pharisees, who affected superior piety (see p. 51). It was as if, in an athletic contest, the disciples as amateurs were pitted against professionals and champions, and told that the least they must do is to excel the champions.

 The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees consisted in external adherence to the letter of the law; Christ called for insight into, and cooperation with, the underlying principles of the law. Like some modern religionists, the scribes made allowance for the weaknesses of human nature, so minimizing the seriousness of sin. Thereby they made it easy to disobey God, and encouraged men to do so (cf. GC 572). They taught that a man is to be judged by a majority of his deeds; that is, if his “good” deeds are in excess of his evil deeds, God will adjudge him righteous (Mishnah Aboth 3. 16, Soncino ed. of the Talmud, pp. 38, 39). To compensate for evil acts, they prescribed a system of works-righteousness, by means of which a person might earn sufficient merit to outweigh the unfavorable balance in his record. The Pharisees thought their system of works-righteousness a certain passport to heaven; in fact, that was their reason for being Pharisees. Here, Jesus brands their system as inadequate to qualify men so much as to step within the kingdom. Efforts to attain righteousness through formal acts or supposedly meritorious deeds are less than worthless (see Rom. 9:31-33).

See pp. 51, 52, 55.

Gr. ou mē, an emphatic double negative.