{b} All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

(b) Provided always that they deliver the doctrine of Moses which they profess, which thing the metaphor of the seat shows, which they occupied as teachers of Moses' teaching.

People's New Testament

23:3 Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. While in Moses' seat, presenting the law of Moses. He has elsewhere taught that the traditions they added were to be rejected (Mt 15:3-6).

Do not ye after their works. Do not follow their examples. The law of Moses was still in force, for the Christian dispensation was not ushered in until Christ died, and hence was still to be obeyed, but the wicked example of its teachers was to be rejected.

Wesley's Notes

23:3 All things therefore - Which they read out of the law, and enforce therefrom.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. All therefore-that is, all which, as sitting in that seat and teaching out of that law.

they bid you observe, that observe and do-The word "therefore" is thus, it will be seen, of great importance, as limiting those injunctions which He would have them obey to what they fetched from the law itself. In requiring implicit obedience to such injunctions, He would have them to recognize the authority with which they taught over and above the obligations of the law itself-an important principle truly; but He who denounced the traditions of such teachers (Mt 15:3) cannot have meant here to throw His shield over these. It is remarked by Webster and Wilkinson that the warning to beware of the scribes is given by Mark and Luke (Mr 12:38; Lu 20:46) without any qualification: the charge to respect and obey them being reported by Matthew alone, indicating for whom this Gospel was especially written, and the writer's desire to conciliate the Jews.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-12 The scribes and Pharisees explained the law of Moses, and enforced obedience to it. They are charged with hypocrisy in religion. We can only judge according to outward appearance; but God searches the heart. They made phylacteries. These were scrolls of paper or parchment, wherein were written four paragraphs of the law, to be worn on their foreheads and left arms, Ex 13:2-10; 13:11-16; De 6:4-9; 11:13-21. They made these phylacteries broad, that they might be thought more zealous for the law than others. God appointed the Jews to make fringes upon their garments, Nu 15:38, to remind them of their being a peculiar people; but the Pharisees made them larger than common, as if they were thereby more religious than others. Pride was the darling, reigning sin of the Pharisees, the sin that most easily beset them, and which our Lord Jesus takes all occasions to speak against. For him that is taught in the word to give respect to him that teaches, is commendable; but for him that teaches, to demand it, to be puffed up with it, is sinful. How much is all this against the spirit of Christianity! The consistent disciple of Christ is pained by being put into chief places. But who that looks around on the visible church, would think this was the spirit required? It is plain that some measure of this antichristian spirit prevails in every religious society, and in every one of our hearts.