Whoever doesn’t receive you, nor hear your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Most certainly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you. Yes, and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations. But when they deliver you up, don’t be anxious how or what you will say, for it will be given you in that hour what you will say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
“Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most certainly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man has come.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! Therefore don’t be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed; and hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
“Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin? Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father’s will, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
“Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me. He who doesn’t take his cross and follow after me, isn’t worthy of me. He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 39, 40 You shall not so much as revenge an injury:…
You shall not so much as revenge an injury: and by the mixing of these beasts’ natures together, he will not have our wisdom to be malicious, nor our simplicity mad, but a certain form of good nature as exquisitely framed of both of them, as may be.
Christ showeth how the ministers must behave themselves under the cross.
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You shall be in great dangers.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–40 14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear…
14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Ver. 14. And whosoever shall not receive you] Two sure signs of reprobate goats: 1. Not to receive Christ’s ministers to house and harbour, accounting themselves happy in such an entertainment. 2. Not to hear their words. The most good is done by God’s ministers commonly at first coming. Then some receive the word with admiration, others are daily more and more hardened: as fish, though fearful, stir not at the great noise of the sea, whereunto they are accustomed; and as birds that build in a belfry startle not at the tolling of the bell.
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Shake off the dust of your feet] In token that you sought not theirs but them, and that you will not carry away so much as any of their accursed dust; and that you will not have any communion at all with them, wait no longer upon them; that the dust of those feet (that should have been beautiful) shall be fatal and feral to them; that God shall henceforward beat them here as small as dust with his heavy judgments, as with an iron mace, Psa 2:9; and that hereafter he shall shake them off as dust, when they come to him for salvation at the last judgment.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 Our Lord having hitherto instructed his twelve apostles as…
Our Lord having hitherto instructed his twelve apostles as to the places whither they were to go, the work they had to do, and the methods he would have them observe, now comes to arm them against their difficulties, and the temptations they were like to meet with.
I send you forth (saith he)
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as sheep in the midst of wolves. It is most probable that our Saviour speaks this with reference to what they were like to meet with when he should be taken from them, for we do not read of any great opposition which they at present met with.
I send you, ( saith he),
as sheep, which are feeble creatures in themselves, and without any natural armour to defend themselves,
in the midst of wolves, which are rapacious creatures, and have a particular enmity to sheep: amongst enemies who will have as great an inclination from their malice to devour you, as wolves have from their nature to devour sheep.
Be ye therefore wise as serpents. It is said of the serpent, Gen 3:1, that he was more subtle than any beast of the field. Naturalists observe, yet, a great natural sagacity in the serpent, which they note in several particulars. It is hard to say that Christ aimed at this or that particular thing wherein the sagacity of serpents appeareth; he only proposes the serpent as a pattern of subtlety, and commendeth prudence to them so far as it consisteth with innocency, for it followeth,
harmless as doves. Amongst the beasts of the field there is none more innocent than a sheep; amongst the birds of the air none more innocent than a dove; to both these our Lord compares his disciples.
This text teacheth us:
1. That wisdom may dwell with prudence.
2. That all true prudence must be attended with innocency.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 40 Our Saviour, in this and the following verses, arms…
Our Saviour, in this and the following verses, arms his apostles against all the difficulties, dangers, and discouragements, which they might meet with in the course of their ministry: he tells them, he sent them forth as sheep amongst wolves; intimating thereby unto them, that the enemies of the gospel have as great an inclination, from their malicious nature, to devour and destroy the ministers of Christ, as wolves have from their natural temper to devour sheep: he therefore recommends to them prudence and innocence; be ye wise as serpents, to avoid the world’s injuries, and harmless as doves, in not revenging them. The ministers of Christ must not be altogether doves, lest they fall into dangers; nor altogether serpents, lest they endanger others. For as piety without policy is too simple to be safe, so policy without piety is too subtle to be good. Our Saviour in this text teacher us that wisdom and innocency should dwell together. Offend none by word or example.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v16 All these verses relate to the sufferings of Christ's…
All these verses relate to the sufferings of Christ's ministers in their work, which they are here taught to expect, and prepare for; they are directed also how to bear them, and how to go on with their work in the midst of them. This part of the sermon looks further than to their present mission; for we find not that they met with any great hardships or persecutions while Christ was with them, nor were they well able to bear them; but they are here forewarned of the troubles they should meet with, when after Christ's resurrection, their commission should be enlarged, and the kingdom of heaven, which was not at hand, should be actually set up; they dreamed of nothing then, but outward pomp and power; but Christ tells them, they must expect greater sufferings than they were yet called to; that they should then be made prisoners, when they expected to be made princes. It is good to be told what troubles we may hereafter meet with, that we may provide accordingly, and may not boast, as if we had put off the harness, when we are yet but girding it on.
We have here intermixed, I. Predictions of trouble: and, II. Prescriptions of counsel and comfort, with reference to it.
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I. We have here predictions of trouble; which the disciples should meet with in their work: Christ foresaw their sufferings as well as his own, and yet will have them go on, as he went on himself; and he foretold them, not only that the troubles might not be a surprise to them, and so a shock to their faith, but that, being the accomplishment of a prediction, they might be a confirmation to their faith.
He tells them what they should suffer, and from whom.
1. What they should suffer: hard things to be sure; for, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, Mat 10:16. And what may a flock of poor, helpless, unguarded sheep expect, in the midst of a herd of ravenous wolves, but to be worried and torn? Note, Wicked men are like wolves, in whose nature it is to devour and destroy. God's people, and especially his ministers, are like sheep among them, of a contrary nature and disposition, exposed to them, and commonly an easy prey to them. It looked unkind in Christ to expose them to so much danger, who had left all to follow him; but he knew that the glory reserved for his sheep, when in the great day they shall be set on his right hand, would be a recompence sufficient for sufferings as well as services. They are as sheep among wolves, that is frightful; but Christ sends them forth, that is comfortable; for he that sends them forth will protect them, and bear them out. But that they might know the worst, he tells them particularly what they must expect.
(1.) They must expect to be hated, Mat 10:22. Ye shall be hated for my name's sake: that is the root of all the rest, and a bitter root it is. Note, Those whom Christ loves, the world hates; as whom the court blesses the country curses. If the world hated Christ without a cause (Joh 15:25), no marvel if it hated those that bore his image and served his interests. We hate what is nauseous, and they are counted as the offscouring of all things, Co1 4:13. We hate what is noxious, and they are counted the troublers of the land (Kg1 18:17), and the tormentors of their neighbours, Rev 11:10. It is grievous to be hated, and to be the object of so much ill-will, but it is for thy name's sake; which, as it speaks the true reason of the hatred, whatever is pretended, so it speaks comfort to them who are thus hated; it is for a good cause, and they have a good friend that shares with them in it, and takes it to himself.
(2.) They must expect to be apprehended and arraigned as malefactors. Their restless malice is resistless malice, and they will not only attempt, but will prevail, to deliver you up to the councils (Mat 10:17, Mat 10:18), to the bench of aldermen or justices, that take care of the public peace. Note, A deal of mischief is often done to good men, under colour of law and justice. In the place of judgment there is wickedness, persecuting wickedness, Ecc 3:16. They must look for trouble, not only from inferior magistrates in the councils, but from governors and kings, the supreme magistrates. To be brought before them, under such black representations as were commonly made of Christ's disciples, was dreadful and dangerous; for the wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion. We find this often fulfilled in the acts of the apostles.
(3.) They must expect to be put to death (Mat 10:21); They shall deliver them to death, to death in state, with pomp and solemnity, when it shows itself most as the king of terrors. The malice of the enemies rages so high as to inflict this; it is the blood of the saints that they thirst after: the faith and patience of the saints stand so firm as to expect this; Neither count I my life dear to myself: the wisdom of Christ permits it, knowing how to make the blood of the martyrs the seal of the truth, and the seed of the church. By this noble army's not loving their lives to the death, Satan has been vanquished, and the kingdom of Christ and its interests greatly advanced, Rev 11:11. They were put to death as criminals, so the enemies meant it, but really as sacrifices (Phi 2:17; Ti2 4:6); as burnt offerings, sacrifices of acknowledgement to the honour of God, and in his truth and cause.
(4.) They must expect, in the midst of these sufferings, to be branded with the most odious and ignominious names and characters that could be. Persecutors would be ashamed in this world, if they did not first dress up those in bear-skins whom they thus bait, and represent them in such colours as may serve to justify such cruelties. The blackest of all the ill characters they give them is here stated; they call them Beelzebub, the name of the prince of the devils, Mat 10:25. They represent them as ringleaders of the interest of the kingdom of darkness, and since every one thinks he hates the devil, thus they endeavour to make them odious to all mankind. See, and be amazed to see, how this world is imposed upon: [1.] Satan's sworn enemies are represented as his friends; the apostles, who pulled down the devil's kingdom, were called devils. Thus men laid to their charge, not only things which they knew not, but things which they abhorred, and were directly contrary to, and the reverse of. [2.] Satan's sworn servants would be thought to be his enemies, and they never more effectually do his work, than when they pretend to be fighting against him. Many times they who themselves are nearest akin to the devil, are most apt to father others upon him; and those that paint him on others' clothes have him reigning in their own hearts. It is well there is a day coming, when (as it follows here, Mat 10:26) that which is hid will be brought to light.
(5.) These sufferings are here represented by a sword and division, Mat 10:34, Mat 10:35. Think not that I am come to send peace, temporal peace and outward prosperity; they thought Christ came to give all his followers wealth and power in the world; "no," says Christ, "I did not come with a view to give them peace; peace in heaven they may be sure of, but not peace on earth." Christ came to give us peace with God, peace in our consciences, peace with our brethren, but in the world ye shall have tribulation. Note, They mistake the design of the gospel, who think their profession of it will secure them fRom. for it will certainly expose them to, trouble in this world. If all the world would receive Christ, there would then follow a universal peace, but while there are and will be so many that reject him (and those not only the children of this world, but the seed of the serpent), the children of God, that are called out of the world, must expect to feel the fruits of their enmity.
[1.] Look not for peace, but a sword, Christ came to give the sword of the word, with which his disciples fight against the world, and conquering work this sword has made (Rev 6:4; Rev 19:21), and the sword of persecution, with which the world fights against the disciples, being cut to the heart with the sword of the word (Act 7:54), and tormented by the testimony of Christ's witnesses (Rev 11:10), and cruel work this sword made. Christ sent that gospel, which gives occasion for the drawing of this sword, and so may be said to send this sword; he orders his church into a suffering state for the trial and praise of his people's graces, and the filling up of the measure of their enemies' sins.
[2.] Look not for peace, but division (Mat 10:35), I am come to set men at variance. This effect of the preaching of the gospel is not the fault of the gospel, but of those who do not receive it. When some believe the things that are spoken, and others believe them not, the faith of those that believe condemns those that believe not, and, therefore, they have an enmity against them that believe. Note, the most violent and implacable feuds have ever been those that have arisen from difference in religion; no enmity like that of the persecutors, no resolution like that of the persecuted. Thus Christ tells his disciples what they should suffer, and these were hard sayings; if they could bear these, they could bear any thing. Note, Christ has dealt fairly and faithfully with us, in telling us the worst we can meet with in his service; and he would have us deal so with ourselves, in sitting down and counting the cost.
2. They are here told from whom, and by whom, they should suffer these hard things. Surely hell itself must be let loose, and devils, those desperate and despairing spirits, that have no part nor lot in the great salvation, must become incarnate, ere such spiteful enemies could be found to a doctrine, the substance of which was good will toward men, and the reconciling of the world to God; no, would you think it? all this mischief arises to the preachers of the gospel, from those to whom they came to preach salvation. Thus the blood-thirsty hate the upright, but the just seek his soul (Pro 29:10), and therefore heaven is so much opposed on earth, because earth is so much under the power of hell, Eph 2:2.
These hard things Christ's disciples must suffer,
(1.) From men (Mat 10:17). "Beware of men; you will have need to stand upon your guard, even against those who are of the same nature with you" - such is the depravity and degeneracy of that nature (homo homini lupus, - man is a wolf to man), crafty and politic as men, but cruel and barbarous as beasts, and wholly divested of the thing called humanity. Note, Persecuting rage and enmity turn men into brutes, into devils. Paul at Ephesus fought with beasts in the shape of men, Co1 15:32. It is a sad pass that the world is come to, when the best friends it has, have need to beware of men. It aggravates the troubles of Christ's suffering servants, that they arise from those who are bone of their bone, made of the same blood. Persecutors are, in this respect, worse than beasts, that they prey upon those of their own kind: Saevis inter se convenit ursis - Even savage bears agree among themselves. It is very grievous to have men rise up against us (Psa 124:1-8), from whom we might expect protection and sympathy; men, and no more: mere men; men, and not saints; natural men (Co1 2:14); men of this world, Psa 17:14. Saints are more than men, and are redeemed from among men, and therefore are hated by them. The nature of man, if it be not sanctified, is the worst nature in the world next to that of devils. They are men, and therefore subordinate, dependent, dying creatures; they are men, but they are but men (Psa 9:20), and who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die? Isa 51:12. Beware of the men, so Dr. Hammond; those you are acquainted with, the men of the Jewish sanhedrim, which disallowed Christ, Pe1 2:4.
(2.) From professing men, men that have a form of godliness, and make a show of religion. They will scourge you in their synagogues, their places of meeting for the worship of God, and for the exercise of their church-discipline: so that they looked upon the scourging of Christ's ministers to be a branch of their religion. Paul was five times scourged in the synagogues, Co2 11:24. The Jews, under colour of zeal for Moses, were the most bitter persecutors of Christ and Christianity, and placed those outrages to the score of their religion. Note, Christ's disciples have suffered much from conscientious persecutors, that scourge them in their synagogues, cast them out and kill them, and think they do God good service (Joh 16:2), and say, Let the Lord be glorified, Isa 66:5; Zac 11:4, Zac 11:5. But the synagogue will be so far from consecrating the persecution, that the persecution, doubtless, profanes and desecrates the synagogue.
(3.) From great men, and men in authority. The Jews did not only scourge them, which was the utmost their remaining power extended to, but when they could go no further themselves, they delivered them up to the Roman powers, as they did Christ, Joh 18:30. Ye shall be brought before governors and kings (Mat 10:18), who, having more power, are in a capacity of doing the more mischief. Governors and kings receive their power from Christ (Pro 8:15), and should be his servants, and his church's protectors and nursing-fathers, but they often use their power against him, and are rebels to Christ, and oppressors of his church. The kings of the earth set themselves against his kingdom, Psa 2:1, Psa 2:2; Act 4:25, Act 4:26. Note, It has often been the lot of good men to have great men for their enemies.
(4.) From all men (Mat 10:22). Ye shall be hated of all men, of all wicked men, and these are the generality of men, for the whole world lies in wickedness. So few are there that love, and own, and countenance Christ's righteous cause, that we may say, the friends of it are hated of all men; they are all gone astray, and, therefore, eat up my people, Psa 14:3. As far as the apostasy from God goes, so far the enmity against the saints goes; sometimes it appears more general than at other times, but there is something of this poison lurking in the hearts of all the children of disobedience. The world hates you, for it wonders after the beast, Rev 13:3. Every man is a liar, and therefore a hater of truth.
(5.) From those of their own kindred. The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, Mat 10:21. A man shall be, upon this account, at variance with his own father; nay, and those of the weaker and tenderer sex too shall become persecutors and persecuted; the persecuting daughter will be against the believing mother, where natural affection and filial duty, one would think, should prevent or soon extinguish the quarrel; and then, no marvel if the daughter-in-law be against the mother-in-law; where, too often, the coldness of love seeks occasion of contention, Mat 10:35. In general, a man's foes shall be they of his own household (Mat 10:36). They who should be his friends will be incensed against him for embracing Christianity, and especially for adhering to it when it comes to be persecuted, and will join with his persecutors against him. Note, The strongest bonds of relative love and duty have often been broken through, by an enmity against Christ and his doctrine. Such has been the power of prejudice against the true religion, and zeal for a false one, that all other regards, the most natural and sacred, the most engaging and endearing, have been sacrificed to these Molochs. They who rage against the Lord, and his anointed ones, break even these bonds in sunder, and cast away even these cords from them, Psa 2:2, Psa 2:3. Christ's spouse suffers hard things from the anger of her own mother's children, Sol 1:6. Sufferings from such are more grievous; nothing cuts more than this, It was thou, a man, mine equal (Psa 55:12, Psa 55:13); and the enmity of such is commonly most implacable; a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, Pro 18:19. The martyrologies, both ancient and modern, are full of instances of this. Upon the whole matter, it appears, that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution; and through many tribulations we must expect to enter into the kingdom of God.
II. With these predictions of trouble, we have here prescriptions of counsels and comforts for a time of trial. He sends them out exposed to danger indeed, and expecting it, but well armed with instructions and encouragements, sufficient to bear them up, and bear them out, in all these trials. Let us gather up what he says,
1. By way of counsel and direction in several things.
(1.) Be ye wise as serpents, Mat 10:16. "You may be so" (so some take it, only as a permission); "you may be as wary as you please, provided you be harmless as doves." But it is rather to be taken as a precept, recommending to us that wisdom of the prudent, which is to understand his way, as useful at all times, but especially in suffering times. "Therefore, because you are exposed, as sheep among wolves; be ye wise as serpents; not wise as foxes, whose cunning is to deceive others; but as serpents, whose policy is only to defend themselves, and to shift for their own safety." The disciples of Christ are hated and persecuted as serpents, and their ruin is sought, and, therefore, they need the serpent's wisdom. Note, It is the will of Christ that his people and ministers, being so much exposed to troubles in this world, as they usually are, should not needlessly expose themselves, but use all fair and lawful means for their own preservation. Christ gave us an example of this wisdom, Mat 21:24, Mat 21:25; Mat 22:17, Mat 22:18, Mat 22:19; Joh 7:6, Joh 7:7; besides the many escapes he made out of the hands of his enemies, till his hour was come. See an instance of Paul's wisdom, Act 23:6, Act 23:7. In the cause of Christ we must sit loose to life and all its comforts, but must not be prodigal of them. It is the wisdom of the serpent to secure his head, that it may not be broken, to stop his ear to the voice of the charmer (Psa 58:4, Psa 58:5), and to take shelter in the clefts of the rocks; and herein we may be wise as serpents. We must be wise, not to pull trouble upon our own heads; wise to keep silence in an evil time, and not to give offence, if we can help it.
(2.) Be ye harmless as doves. "Be mild, and meek, and dispassionate; not only do nobody any hurt, but bear nobody any ill will; be without gall, as doves are; this must always go along with the former." They are sent forth among wolves, therefore must be as wise as serpents, but they are sent forth as sheep, therefore must be harmless as doves. We must be wise, not to wrong ourselves, but rather so than wrong any one else; must use the harmlessness of the dove to bear twenty injuries, rather than the subtlety of the serpent to offer or to return one. Note, It must be the continual care of all Christ's disciples, to be innocent and inoffensive in word and deed, especially in consideration of the enemies they are in the midst of. We have need of a dove-like spirit, when we are beset with birds of prey, that we may neither provoke them nor be provoked by them: David coveted the wings of a dove, on which to fly away and be at rest, rather than the wings of a hawk. The Spirit descended on Christ as a dove, and all believers partake of the Spirit of Christ, a dove-like spirit, made for love, not for war.
(3.) Beware of men, Mat 10:17. "Be always upon your guard, and avoid dangerous company; take heed what you say and do, and presume not too far upon any man's fidelity; be jealous of the most plausible pretensions; trust not in a friend, no, not in the wife of thy bosom," Mic 7:5. Note, It becomes those who are gracious to be cautious, for we are taught to cease from man. Such a wretched world do we live in, that we know not whom to trust. Ever since our Master was betrayed with a kiss, by one of his own disciples, we have need to beware of men, of false brethren.
(4.) Take no thought how or what ye shall speak, Mat 10:19. "When you are brought before magistrates, conduct yourselves decently, but afflict not yourselves with care how you shall come off. A prudent thought there must be, but not an anxious, perplexing, disquieting thought; let this care be cast upon God, as well as that - what you shall eat and what you shall drink. Do not study to make fine speeches, ad captandam benevolentiam - to ingratiate yourselves; affect not quaint expressions, flourishes of wit, and laboured periods, which only serve to gild a bad cause; the gold of a good one needs it not. It argues a diffidence of your cause, to be solicitous in this matter, as if it were not sufficient to speak for itself. You know upon what grounds you go, and then verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequentur - suitable expressions will readily occur." Never any spoke better before governors and kings than those three champions, who took no thought before, what they should speak: O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter, Dan 3:16. See Psa 119:46. Note, The disciples of Christ must be more thoughtful how to do well than how to speak well; how to keep their integrity than how to vindicate it. Non magna loquimur, sed vivimus - Our lives, not boasting words, form the best apology.
(5.) When they persecute you in this city, flee to another, Mat 10:23. "Thus reject them who reject you and your doctrine, and try whether others will not receive you and it. Thus shift for your own safety." Note, In case of imminent peril, the disciples of Christ may and must secure themselves by flight, when God, in his providence, opens to them a door of escape. He that flies may fight again. It is no inglorious thing for Christ's soldiers to quit their ground, provided they do not quit their colours: they may go out of the way of danger, though they must not go out of the way of duty. Observe Christ's care of his disciples, in providing places of retreat and shelter for them; ordering it so, that persecution rages not in all places at the same time; but when one city is made too hot for them, another is reserved for a cooler shade, and a little sanctuary; a favour to be used and not to be slighted; yet always with this proviso, that no sinful, unlawful means be used to make the escape; for then it is not a door of God's opening. We have many examples to this rule in the history both of Christ and his apostles, in the application of all which to particular cases wisdom and integrity are profitable to direct.
(6.) Fear them not (Mat 10:26), because they can but kill the body (Mat 10:28). Note, it is the duty and interest of Christ's disciples, not to fear the greatest of their adversaries. They who truly fear God, need not fear man; and they who are afraid of the least sin, need not be afraid of the greatest trouble. The fear of man brings a snare, a perplexing snare, that disturbs our peace; an entangling snare, by which we are drawn into sin; and, therefore, it must be carefully watched, and striven, and prayed against. Be the times never so difficult, enemies never so outrageous, and events never so threatening, yet need we not fear, yet will we not fear, though the earth be removed, while we have so good a God, so good a cause, and so good a hope through grace.
Yes, this is soon said; but when it comes to the trial, racks and tortures, dungeons and galleys, axes and gibbets, fire and faggot, are terrible things, enough to make the stoutest heart to tremble, and to start back, especially when it is plain, that they may be avoided by a few declining steps; and therefore, to fortify us against this temptation, we have here,
[1.] A good reason against this fear, taken from the limited power of the enemies; they kill the body, that is the utmost their rage can extend to; hitherto they can go, if God permit them, but no further; they are not able to kill the soul, nor to do it any hurt, and the soul is the man. By this it appears, that the soul does not (as some dream) fall asleep at death, nor is deprived of thought and perception; for then the killing of the body would be the killing of the soul too. The soul is killed when it is separated from God and his love, which is its life, and is made a vessel of his wrath; now this is out of the reach of their power. Tribulation, distress, and persecution may separate us from all the world, but cannot part between us and God, cannot make us either not to love him, or not to be loved by him, Rom 8:35, Rom 8:37. If, therefore, we were more concerned about our souls, as our jewels, we should be less afraid of men, whose power cannot rob us of them; they can but kill the body, which would quickly die of itself, not the soul, which will enjoy itself and its God in spite of them. They can but crush the cabinet: a heathen set the tyrant at defiance with this, Tunde capsam Anaxarchi, Anaxarchum nom laedis - you may abuse the case of Anaxarchus, you cannot injure Anaxarchus himself. The pearl of price is untouched. Seneca undertakes to make it out, that you cannot hurt a wise and good man, because death itself is no real evil to him. Si maximum illud ultra quod nihil habent iratae leges, aut saevissimi domini minantur, in quo imperium suum fortuna consumit, aequo placidoque animo accipimus, et scimus mortem malum non esse ob hoc, ne injuriam quidem - If with calmness and composure we meet that last extremity, beyond which injured laws and merciless tyrants have nothing to inflict, and in which fortune terminates her dominion, we know that death is not an evil, because it does not occasion the slightest injury. Seneca De Constantid.
[2.] A good remedy against it, and that is, to fear God. Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Note, First, Hell is the destruction both of soul and body; not of the being of either, but the well - being of both; it is the ruin of the whole man; if the soul be lost, the body is lost too. They sinned together; the body was the soul's tempter to sin, and its tool in sin, and they must eternally suffer together. Secondly, This destruction comes from the power of God: he is able to destroy; it is a destruction from his glorious power (Th2 1:9); he will in it make his power known; not only his authority to sentence, but his ability to execute the sentence, Rom 9:22. Thirdly, God is therefore to be feared, even by the best saints in this world. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men to stand in awe of him. If according to his fear so is his wrath, then according to his wrath so should his fear be, especially because none knows the power of his anger, Psa 90:11. When Adam, in innocency, was awed by a threatening, let none of Christ's disciples think that they need not the restraint of a holy fear. Happy is the man that fears always. The God of Abraham, who was then dead, is called the Fear of Isaac, who was yet alive, Gen 31:42, Gen 31:53. Fourthly, The fear of God, and of his power reigning in the soul, will be a sovereign antidote against the fear of man. It is better to fall under the frowns of all the world, than under God's frowns, and therefore, as it is most right in itself, so it is most safe for us, to obey God rather than men, Act 4:19. They who are afraid of a man that shall die, forget the Lord their Maker, Isa 51:12, Isa 51:13; Neh 4:14.
(7.) What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light (Mat 10:27); "whatever hazards you run, go on with your work, publishing and proclaiming the everlasting gospel to all the world; that is your business, mind that. The design of the enemies is not merely to destroy you, but to suppress that, and, therefore, whatever be the consequence, publish that." What I tell you, that speak ye. Note, That which the apostles have delivered to us is the same that they received from Jesus Christ, Heb 2:3. They spake what he told them - that, all that, and nothing but that. Those ambassadors received their instructions in private, in darkness, in the ear, in corners, in parables. Many things Christ spake openly, and nothing in secret varying from what he preached in public, Joh 18:20. But the particular instructions which he gave his disciples after his resurrection, concerning the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, were whispered in the ear (Act 1:3), for then he never showed himself openly. But they must deliver their embassy publicly, in the light, and upon the house-tops; for the doctrine of the gospel is what all are concerned in (Pro 1:20, Pro 1:21; Pro 8:2, Pro 8:3), therefore he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. The first indication of the reception of the Gentiles into the church, was upon a house-top, Act 10:9. Note, There is no part of Christ's gospel that needs, upon any account, to be concealed; the whole counsel of God must be revealed, Act 20:27. In never so mixed a multitude let it be plainly and fully delivered.
2. By way of comfort and encouragement. Here is very much said to that purpose, and all little enough, considering the many hardships they were to grapple with, throughout the course of their ministry, and their present weakness, which was such, as that, without some powerful support, they could scarcely bear even the prospect of such usage; Christ therefore shows them why they should be of good cheer.
(1.) Here is one word peculiar to their present mission, Mat 10:23. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. They were to preach that the kingdom of the Son of man, the Messiah, was at hand; they were to pray, Thy kingdom come: now they should not have gone over all the cities of Israel, thus praying and thus preaching, before that kingdom should come, in the exaltation of Christ, and the pouring out of the Spirit. It was a comfort, [1.] That what they said should be made good: they said the Son of man is coming, and behold, he comes. Christ will confirm the word of his messengers, Isa 44:26. [2.] That it should be made good quickly. Note, It is matter of comfort to Christ's labourers, that their working time will be short, and soon over; the hireling has his day; the work and warfare will in a little time be accomplished. [3.] That then they should be advanced to a higher station. When the Son of man comes, they shall be endued with greater power from on high; now they were sent forth as agents and envoys, but in a little time their commission should be enlarged, and they should be sent forth as plenipotentiaries into all the world.
(2.) Here are many words that relate to their work in general, and the troubles they were to meet with in it; and they are good words and comfortable words.
[1.] That their sufferings were for a testimony against them and the Gentiles, Mat 10:18. When the Jewish consistories transfer you to the Roman governors, that they may have you put to death, your being hurried thus from one judgment-seat to another, will help to make your testimony the more public, and will give you an opportunity of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews; nay, you will testify to them, and against them, by the very troubles you undergo. Note, God's people, and especially God's ministers, are his witnesses (Isa 43:10), not only in their doing work, but in their suffering work. Hence they are called martyrs - witnesses for Christ, that his truths are of undoubted certainty and value; and, being witnesses for him, they are witnesses against those who oppose him and his gospel. The sufferings of the martyrs, as they witness to the truth of the gospel they profess, so they are testimonies of the enmity of their persecutors, and both ways they are a testimony against them, and will be produced in evidence in the great day, when the saints shall judge the world; and the reason of the sentence will be, Inasmuch as ye did it unto these, ye did it unto me. Now if their sufferings be a testimony, how cheerfully should they be borne! for the testimony is not finished till those come, Rev 11:7. If they be Christ's witnesses, they shall be sure to have their charges borne.
[2.] That upon all occasions they should have God's special presence with them, and the immediate assistance of his Holy Spirit, particularly when they should be called out to bear their testimony before governors and kings; it shall be given you (said Christ) in that same hour what ye shall speak. Christ's disciples were chosen from among the foolish of the world, unlearned and ignorant men, and, therefore, might justly distrust their own abilities, especially when they were called before great men. When Moses was sent to Pharaoh, he complained, I am not eloquent, Exo 4:10. When Jeremiah was set over the kingdoms, he objec
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–40 Verily, I say unto you,.... This was not all…
Verily, I say unto you,.... This was not all the punishment that should be inflicted on such despisers of the Gospel of Christ, and the ministers of it; as not to enjoy that peace and prosperity wished for by the apostles, and to be declared to be on an equal foot with Heathen cities and countries: but they were to suffer everlasting punishment in the world to come; which is here asserted by Christ in the strongest manner, saying:
it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha, in the day of judgment, than for that city. The inhabitants of the land of Sodom and Gomorrha are the rather mentioned, because, as they were very notorious and abominable sinners, so their temporal punishment was well known, exemplary and awful, though not that, but their future damnation is here regarded, of which the Jews made no doubt; for they say (y),
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"the men of Sodom have no part in the world to come; as it is said, Gen 13:13 "the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners, before the Lord exceedingly": they were "wicked" in this world, and "sinners" in the world to come;''
meaning, that by this passage is designed their double punishment in this, and the other world. But though their punishment was very tremendous, and they will suffer also "the vengeance of eternal fire", as Jude says; yet, their punishment will be milder, and more tolerable, than that of the inhabitants of such a city, that rejects the Gospel of the grace of God: as there are degrees in sinning, for all sins are not alike, as the Stoics say; so there will be degrees in suffering; the sins of those that are favoured with the Gospel, are greater than those who only have had the light of nature, and so their torments will be greater. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha, though they sinned against the light of nature, despised the advice and admonitions of Lot, and ill treated the angels, yet will be more mildly punished than the wicked Jews, who rejected Christ, and his Gospel, and despised his apostles, and ministers; because they sinned not against so much light, and such means of grace, and knowledge, as these did; see Lam 4:6 which is thus paraphrased by the Targumist, and may be aptly applied to the Jews in Christ's time:
"the sin of the congregation of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overturned in a moment; and there dwelt no prophets in it to prophesy, and turn it to repentance.''
The time referred to, signified by "the day of judgment", respects not the destruction of Jerusalem, which was a very severe judgment on that people, but the general judgment, at the end of the world, which is appointed and fixed by God, though unknown to angels and men. The phrase is Jewish, and often to be met with in their writings, who use it in the same sense; particularly in the book of Zohar (z), mention is made of , "the day of judgment", when there will be no pollution in the sanctuary.
(y) Misn. Sanhedrim, c. 11. sect. 3. Hieros. Sanhedrim, fol. 29. 3. (z) In Gen. fol 13. 3. & 16. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 Shake off the dust from your feet - The…
Shake off the dust from your feet - The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country, they stopped at the borders and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the Gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathens and idolaters.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14–40 Verse 14. Shake off the dust of your feet.]…
Verse 14. Shake off the dust of your feet.] The Jews considered themselves defiled by the dust of a heathen country, when was represented by the prophets as a polluted land, Am 7:17, when compared with the land of Israel, which was considered as a holy land, Eze 45:1; therefore, to shake the dust of any city of Israel from off one's clothes or feet was an emblematical action, signifying a renunciation of all farther connection with them, and placing them on a level with the cities of the Heathen. See Clarke on Am 9:7.
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Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27, 29, 32, 34, 37, 39 Mat 10:14-15. Whosoever shall not receive you — That…
Mat 10:14-15. Whosoever shall not receive you — That is, entertain you kindly; nor, in an obedient manner, hearken to your words, when you depart, &c., shake off the dust of your feet — The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country they stopped at the borders, and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathen and idolaters. Verily, It shall be more tolerable, &c. — As if he had said, And indeed you have reason to shake off the dust of your feet in such a case, for whatever profession such Jews may make of their regard to the true God, and however they may continue to boast of their national privileges, their punishment at the day of final judgment shall not only be greater than that of the generality of Gentile sinners, but even than that of those monsters of unnatural wickedness who formerly inhabited Sodom and Gomorrah, and were consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven. For the people of those cities never sinned against such extraordinary light and such singular favours as they will do who reject the gospel now to be preached to them, with great plainness and power, by you, and attested by such miracles as I shall enable you to perform.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40 As sheep in the midst of wolves - That…
As sheep in the midst of wolves - That is, I send you, inoffensive and harmless, into a cold, unfriendly, and cruel world. Your innocence will not be a protection.
Be wise as serpents ... - Serpents have always been an emblem of wisdom and cunning, Gen 3:1. The Egyptians used the serpent in their hieroglyphics as a symbol of wisdom. Probably the thing in which Christ directed his followers to imitate the serpent was in its caution in avoiding danger. No animal equals them in the rapidity and skill which they evince in escaping danger. So said Christ to his disciples, You need caution and wisdom in the midst of a world that will seek your lives. He directs them, also, to be harmless, not to provoke danger, not to do injury, and thus make their fellow-men justly enraged against them. Doves are, and always have been, a striking emblem of innocence. Most people would foolishly destroy a serpent, be it ever so harmless, yet few are so hard-hearted as to kill a dove.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 Shake off the dust from your feet. It was…
Shake off the dust from your feet. It was common enough with the Jews, or at least with the preachers and prophets, to use some extraordinary outward actions, to make what they said more taken notice of by the people, as here the shaking off the dust from their feet was to denote to the obstinate unbelievers, that the very dust which their feet had contracted, in coming to preach to them the gospel, should hereafter rise in judgment against them. (Witham) By this, the apostles were to testify that they took nothing away with them belonging to these reprobate cities. They likewise shewed the long and painful journeys they had undertaken for their salvation. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxiii.) --- He orders them to do this, to shew that they would have nothing in common with them, since they left them even their dust. Or it may be to shew, that the dust which they had gathered in their journey, would be a testimony against them in the day of judgment, because they had refused to receive them, as the Jews were accustomed to perform some remarkable action, for some great crime committed; thus, when they heard blasphemy, they tore their garments. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 32, 34 4. Trials waiting the Messengers of Jesus. “Among wolves.”…
4. Trials waiting the Messengers of Jesus. “Among wolves.” Mat_10:16-18
16Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless [simple]18 as doves. 17But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils [συνέδρια, spiritual tribunals], and they will scourge you in their synagogues [as supposed heretics]; 18And ye shall be brought before governors and kings [secular tribunals]19 for my sake, for a testimony [μαρτύριον] against [to] them and the Gentiles [αὐτοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν].
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EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Mat_10:16. Behold, I send you forth.—We note the gradation by which Christ prepares His disciples for persecution. 1. They were not to expect enrichment, but to obtain subsistence; 2. they were to expect rejection; they were to anticipate that even terrible persecutions would befall them. This, however, only after He had announced the judgment impending over unbelievers. “Behold, I send you.” The Lord rapidly passes to the painful experience awaiting them. “The emphasis rests on ἐγώ: I am He who sends you into such dangerous circumstances.” Meyer. But the expression also implies the gracious protection which would attend them (Theophylact, Beza, Bengel).
In the midst of wolves: ἐν μέσῳ, not εἰς, into, etc.20—The disciples are not sent to the wolves as such, but in the midst of wolves, in order to seek out those who would receive the kingdom. The meekest and most defenceless messengers of peace are commissioned to execute their work among the most furious, powerful, and, as it would appear to man, unconquerable opponents of the truth. Even at this early stage, Christ opens to their view the sufferings which awaited them as Apostles, that so they might courageously, and yet carefully, go forth into the world. Sheep in the midst of wolves are to all human appearance wholly lost;—what, then, were they to do? The wolves here signify not only cunning, but also malignant disposition and hatred of truth and of Christ; for it is the favorite chase of wolves to break into a herd of sheep. But here the old story is reversed: a few sheep invade the territory of wolves.
In the midst of these wolves, the sheep were, so to speak, to become transformed into serpents and doves; i. e., to deport themselves with the wisdom of serpents, and the simplicity or harmlessness of doves. In virtue of the former quality, they would be able to avoid persecution without incurring guilt; in virtue of the latter, to encounter persecution without compromising their principles. These qualities are opposed to each other; they never occur combined in nature, nor in the natural disposition of man. But the Spirit of Christ combines in higher unity these natural antagonisms. The serpent slips innumerable times from the hand of the pursuer, and the dove does not settle in any unclean place,—it approaches him who is gentle, and will never do harm to the persecutor; its safety lies in flying upward. Lastly, the dove is a symbol of the soul rising in prayer and faith, and ultimately rising above death and the grave.21
Mat_10:17. But beware of men.—In order to occupy a right position with reference to persecutors, you must beware of men generally, whose weakness frequently degenerates into treachery.—The councils, or Sanhedrim, were the spiritual judicatories connected with the synagogues of the country, where the sentence of scourging pronounced upon heretics was executed. (Comp. Winer [and W. Smith], sub Synagogues.)
Mat_10:18. But also before governors and kings.—A gradation. They are to be brought not only before spiritual, but also before secular judges, as if they were common criminals. The ἡγεμόνες, governors, were the provincial authorities, consisting of the Proprætors, the Proconsuls, and the Procurators. The term kings embraces the rulers of Palestine, of other countries, and of the Roman Empire. In short, the passage applies to all civil magistrates and rulers.
For a testimony.—These trials will result in a testimony of the Lord, their martyrdom being the highest spiritual confirmation of the Gospel both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. Such was the final object of these persecutions, applying, as Meyer rightly suggests, to their testimony both before secular and spiritual judges. We also agree with Him in referring the word αὐτοῖς to the Jews, and not the governors and kings, who were themselves the Gentiles. Accordingly, we have the following succession—first, martyrdom to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. The Jews are here the representatives of all the later sufferings of the Christians, as, indeed, the Judaizing spirit in the Middle Ages was the real cause of the persecutions of believers during that period. Meyer rejects the explanation εἰς ἕλεγχον αὐτῶν, proposed by Chrysostom. But we must bear in mind that the ἕλεγχος is the effect of the μαρτύριον,—to the one, to repentance; and to the others, who hardened themselves, to judgment.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The Lord here sets before us the essential characteristics of true martyrdom, by which we may judge every martyrdom which has taken place. One inference at least is plain, viz., that martyrdom cannot be avoided by any exercise of wisdom or caution. Such, then, is the certain prospect opened to faithful witnesses. But the object of their sufferings is correspondingly glorious. Their martyrdom was to serve to Jews and Gentiles as the final confirmation of the gospel, and hence to manifest its highest effects.
2. The Sanhedrims, or spiritual tribunals, whether composed of great or of small hierarchs, have always been in the van in the persecution of evangelists. (The theologians of Jena, in 1561, were wont to say of the Lutheran consistories, that in Rome there was only one Pope, but in Weimar, nine!) Then come the synagogues, or the historical religious associations. At last, the act of real treason ensues, when spiritual matters are handed over to secular judges (according to the hypocritical principle: ecclesia non sitit sanguinem), and governors and kings, incited by a furious rabble, become persecutors of the truth. What then? Beware of men: of men in their inhuman human passions.
3. What Christ here predicted to His disciples (including Judas), He Himself first experienced.
4. A life-picture of fanaticism in the people. Mat_10:21 follows a life-picture of fanaticism in the family.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Christ sends His witnesses as sheep in the midst of wolves: 1. Apparent hopelessness of the mission (sheep, wolves); 2. the miraculous deliverance (like serpents, like doves).—How the councils of the Jews and the scourging in the synagogues were re-enacted in the Middle Ages (the Inquisition, torture, Crusades).—Martyrdom, as predicted by the Lord: 1. Its development; 2. its certainty; 3. its glorious aim.—The contrast between martyrdom and fanaticism.—All fanaticism is unchristian, and becomes at last antichristian, even where it professes to defend the cause of Christ.
Starke:—The cross, not outward prosperity, the sign of the true Church.—Gerhard: Sit serpentinus oculus in corde columbino.—Even to this day, the witnesses of Christ are charged with sedition and heresy.—Quesnel: A minister must not be afraid to tell the truth even to kings.22—What comfort in persecutions, that we suffer for Christ’s sake!
Gossner:—Patience under persecution for Christ’s sake is the greatest mark of true discipleship, greater even than miracles. It is itself the greatest miracle. The devil may imitate miracles, but he cannot inspire patience.
Heubner:—In a certain sense, this applies to all Christians: they are in this world as sheep in the midst of wolves.—The people of God ever cherish kindly, trustful, and affectionate feelings; but are met on every side by malice.—Christians who are innocently condemned by worldly tribunals, may feel themselves infinitely superior to them: time shall be, when they will be the judges of their accusers.—God often so disposes it, that preachers of righteousness, who otherwise would not have access to princes, should be brought before them in bonds.
Footnotes:
[18] Mat_10:16.—[̓Ακέραιοι, etym. (from κεράννυμι and α privativum) unmixed, simple, pure. So Meyer after the Etym. Mag.: ὁ μὴ κεκραμένος κακοῖς, ἀλλ̓ ἁπλοῦς καὶ ἀποίκιλος. Comp. Rom_16:19; Php_2:15. Lange: ohne Falsch, and in parenthesis, arglos, rein. Bengel, however, in loc, explains ἀκέραιοι, “sine cornu, ungula, dente, aculeo: innoxii active, atque adeo etiam passive.”—P. S.]
[19] Mat_10:18.—[The proper order after the Greek, as observed in Lange’s German version, would require this change “But also before governors and kings shall ye be brought,” καὶ ἐπὶ ὴγεμόνας δὲ καὶ βασιλεῖς ἀχθήσεσθε.—P. S.]
[20][So also Bengel, Gnomon in loc.: “ὲν μέσω, in medio: non in medium. Tam estis inter lupos.” Maldonatus, on the contrary, confounds the two prepositions here: “In medium, ἐν pro εὶς, sicut Hebraice בְּ pro בְּקֶרֶב ,אֶל.—P. S.]
[21][Wordsworth, quoting from Hilary and Jerome: “It is said that the serpent shows his wisdom in guarding his head, whatever other part of his body is struck. So let us be ready to sacrifice anything but our faith; or, let us guard our head. Christ.” The innocence of the dove, says Jerome is shown in likeness to the Holy Ghost.—P. S.]
[22][Quesnel adds what Starke and Lunge omit: “but with abundance of prudence” (with the wisdom of the serpent). He who flatters them, makes himself an accomplice of their sins.”—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv14–40 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your…
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city--for possibly a whole town might not furnish one "worthy."
shake off the dust of your feet--"for a testimony against them," as Mark and Luke add (Mar 6:11; Luk 10:11). By this symbolical action they vividly shook themselves from all connection with such, and all responsibility for the guilt of rejecting them and their message. Such symbolical actions were common in ancient times, even among others than the Jews, as strikingly appears in Pilate (Mat 27:24). And even to this day it prevails in the East.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 14. Dust of your feet — Such was the…
14. Dust of your feet — Such was the custom of stricter Jews in departing from a heathen city. But henceforth the rejecters of Jesus, though Jews by blood, are heathen in heart. The meaning of the symbol of shaking the dust from your feet, is solemn and striking. It declares the city polluted, and not a particle of it shall adhere to the apostle’s person. It is given over to itself, and consigned to its own destruction.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 14. shake off the dust of your feet] as…
14. shake off the dust of your feet] as St Paul did at Antioch in Pisidia, Act_13:51. The cities of Israel that rejected the Gospel should be regarded as heathen. The very dust of them was a defilement as the dust of a heathen land. See Lightfoot, ad loc.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 (14) Shake off the dust of your feet.—The act…
(14) Shake off the dust of your feet.—The act was a familiar symbol of the sense of indignation, as in the case of St. Paul (Act_13:51) at Antioch in Pisidia. The Jewish maxim, that even the very dust of a heathen land brought defilement with it, added to its significance. It was a protest in act, declaring (as our Lord declares in words) that the city or house which did not receive the messengers of the Christ was below the level even of the Gentiles.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 Vers. 14, 15. If rejected, bear your solemn witness…
Vers. 14, 15. If rejected, bear your solemn witness to the fact, for to reject you brings awful consequences.
Parallel passages: Mar_6:11 Luk_9:5 (the twelve); Luk_10:10, 11 (the seventy). And whosoever shall not receive you on your formal request as heralds of the kingdomnor hear your words, (Mat_21:17 Act_16:13) in this case finally. That house or (thai, Revised Version) city. "The house," rightly further defined by "that" in English, comes in Matthew only; "that city" comes also in the parallel passage, Mat_5:18, note) I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha. Whose inhabitants were the typical example of the worst of sinners. (Deu_32:32 Isa_1:10 Eze_16:46 Rev_11:8) "The men of Sodom have no part in the world to come" (Mishna, "Sanh.," 10:3). In the day of judgment. Luke has "in that day;" cf. Mat_7:22. In the only two passages in the LXX (Pro_6:34 Isa_34:8) where, as it seems, our phrase occurs, it refers, not to the judgment of all, good and bad alike, but to that of the wicked alone. So also in 2Pe_2:9 2Pe_3:7; and possibly also in Mat_12:36, but not in 1Jn_4:17 (the only passage where it is not anarthrous). Than for that city. Observe that this verse implies that the wicked dead are still in existence, and are waiting for their final judgment; also that in the judgment of the wicked there will be degrees of punishment.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain On v16 Mat 10:16 to Mat 11:1.
Mat 10:16 to Mat 11:1.
Further Instructions To The Twelve
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Our Lord’s instructions to the Twelve close in Mark (Mar 6:11) and Luke (Luk 9:5) at this point. But Matthew goes on to give much additional matter spoken on the same occasion. There are several other remarkable cases, as the Sermon on the Mount, the discourse in Matthew 18, and that on the Mount of Olives (ch. 24 and 25), in which Matthew gives much more than Mark and Luke. The remainder of the present address consists of warnings as to coming persecutions, directions how to act when persecuted, and reasons why they should not shrink from duty because of danger. Some of these warnings and directions look beyond this brief mission in Galilee and on to their labours after the Ascension. In the address to the Seventy (Luk 10:2-16) there is no such reference to future time. It was natural that he should, on first sending them out to labour, give directions which would be of service to them throughout their appointed course. Bruce: "It was his way on solemn occasions, to speak as a prophet, who in the present saw the future, and from small beginnings looked forward to great ultimate issues. This Galilean mission, though humble and limited compared with the great undertaking of after years, was really a solemn event. It was the beginning of that vast work for which the Twelve had been chosen, which embraced the world in its scope, and aimed at setting up on the earth the kingdom of God." The parts most peculiar to that journey apply in principle (Edersheim) to us and to all time; the parts which pointed to the remotest future applied in principle to the immediate journey about Galilee. These considerations form a sufficient reply to those who insist that Matthew has here put together matters actually spoken on different occasions at a later period. Mark and Luke give some similar sayings in the discourse on the Mount of Olives, and Matthew there omits them. It was natural that if similar things were said in different discourses an Evangelist should give them in one case and omit them in another; and it was perfectly natural that Jesus should say similar things on different occasions. On this point compare at the beginning of Matthew 5. In applying the present discourse to ourselves, allowance must be made for the difference of situation. We do not work miracles, and are not inspired; the opposition we meet is rather moral than physical; we often go to foreign countries.
I. Mat 10:16-23. They Must Be On Their Guard Against Coming Persecution
"We have here the general intimation and counsel of Mat 10:16; warnings as to the persecutions which awaited them," (Mat 10:17 f.) with directions as to the defense of themselves when brought before the tribunals; (Mat 10:19 f.) further statements concerning persecutions and hatred; (Mat 10:21 f.) and the direction to flee from any town in which they were persecuted into the next.
Mat 10:16. They are going forth into the midst of perils, and must therefore exercise a blended prudence and simplicity. These ideas are beautifully and strikingly expressed by figures. Behold, I send you forth. ’Behold’ calls special attention to what follows. ’I’ is expressed in the Greek, and therefore in some sense emphatic. The idea perhaps is that they are not going out like sheep wandering into dangers, without the knowledge of their shepherd; he himself sends them forth into the midst of these perils; and hence both a reason why they should strive to come off safe, and an encouragement to hope they would succeed. He sends them forth as sheep, weak and defenceless, and not only in a region where there was danger of wolves, but in the midst of wolves—the language is very strong. To the Seventy (Luk 10:3) it is still stronger; they are ’lambs.’ Herodotus speaks of leaving a man as a sheep among wolves. Be ye therefore wise (prudent) as serpents, and harmless (simple) as doves. ’Be’ is more exactly ’become,’ get to be, implying that they are not so now. ’Therefore’ may be taken as an inference not merely from the fact that they would be as sheep in the midst of wolves, but also from the fact that he sent them as sheep in the midst of wolves; there is a duty to themselves and a duty to him. ’Wise,’ more exactly ’prudent’ (compare on Mat 7:24); Latin versions prudentes or astuti. Serpents show great caution and skill in avoiding danger. The Egyptian hieroglyphics use the serpent as the symbol of wisdom. We may understand that they were to be prudent in the recognition of danger, and in the choice of means for opposing or escaping it—in general as to their behaviour when in danger. But such prudent regard for self-preservation is very apt to be accompanied, in men as in serpents, with the tricks of low cunning. This is forbidden by the other injunction. The word rendered ’harmless,’ better ’simple’ (margin Rev. Ver.) signifies literally unmixed, and hence pure (as pure wine, pure gold), uncorrupted, and so guileless, sincere. The Latin versions all have simplices: the Peshito, a word denoting whole-minded, upright, sincere; Chrys. explains by simple and artless. The English use of ’simple’ does not quite clearly express the idea, but it is exactly hit by the substantive ’simplicity.’ The other proposed derivation, without horns, and so ’harmless,’ adopted by King James, is highly improbable. The Greek word is used also in Php 2:15, and Rom 16:19, Rev. Ver., "wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil. "In our passage the word is translated ’simple’ in Wyc. and Rheims, McClellan, and Davidson, and ’innocent’ in Tynd., Great B., and Geneya. They were not to deserve injury, or afford any pretext for it; and were to employ no trickery or other improper means of escaping from danger. They must combine prudence and simplicity. If the dove alone were taken as model, they might become silly; (Hos 7:11) if the serpent alone, they would become tricky. (Gen 3:1) Stier : "So that thy wisdom shall never degenerate into cunning, nor thy simplicity into ignorance or imprudence." Plato : "Knowledge without justice should be called cunning rather than wisdom." If we are to fail in either, it is doubtless better to be lacking in Christian prudence than in Christian simplicity. But the injunction is to combine both in due proportion; and the example of Jesus shows this to be possible. How prudent he was, constantly taking pains to avoid danger till his hour was come and at the same time how innocent, guileless, and pure. Not merely in respect to persecution, but in all the dangers to ourselves and our work which throng about Christian labourers, we have constant need of prudence, united with simplicity. In a late Jewish commentary (Midrash), a Rabbi says: "God says, toward me the Israelites are simple as doves, but toward the Gentiles subtle as serpents." This may have been borrowed from the Gospels; we know that the later Jews borrowed from every direction.
Mat 10:17 f. With Mat 10:17-22 compare similar things said to the four disciples in the great discourse On the Mount of Olives; (Mar 13:9-13 Luk 21:12-19) there Matt. does not record them. But beware of men, i.e., of mankind in general, spoken Of as hostile to them, like ’the world’ in Joh 15:18, Joh 17:14. They were few, and men were against them. Councils does not here mean the great Sanhedrin, as in Mat 26:59, but apparently refers to the smaller judicial bodies which existed in every city and village, as in Mat 5:22. Synagogues, see on "Mat 4:23". Other allusions to scourging in the synagogues, apparently in the very place of worship, and in the actual presence of the worshipping assembly, are found in Mat 23:34 Mar 13:9 Act 22:19; compare Act 26:11. At a later period it is said that, on one occasion, the Jews sung a psalm while a man was receiving a scourging in the synagogue; and Maimonides says that the principal judge would read passages of Scripture throughout the scourging. The Jews were very scrupulous not to exceed forty stripes, according to the law which Moses made (Deu 25:3) to mitigate the dreadful severity of the common Oriental scourgings; and to make sure of not going beyond forty they stopped at thirty-nine. (2Co 11:24) And ye shall be brought (even) before governors and kings for my sake. This is introduced as more important (’even’) than what precedes; and it was so not merely because they would be tribunals of greater dignity, but because they could punish with death, which the Jewish tribunals at that time could not do. It was also a remarkable thing that they were authorities of their own people, but before the civil authorities, the highest Roman officials. The word rendered ’governors’ is a general term, which would include several kinds of Roman rulers of provinces, viz.: propraetor, proconsul (like Sergius Paulus, and Gallio), and procurator (like Pilate, Felix, Festus), and is used in the same broad sense in 1Pe 2:14. As to their being brought before ’kings,’ we have examples in the persecutions of James and Peter by Herod Agrippa I, (Acts 12) and the appearance of Paul before his son Herod Agrippa II. (Acts 26) The term king was also frequently applied to the Roman imperator or emperor, (1Pe 2:13 f.) and in that sense we should have an example in Paul’s trials before Nero. For a testimony against (to) them and against (to) the Gentiles. The Greek might mean ’against them’ (Com Ver.), but the other is a more natural meaning, and better suits the connection. ’To them’ may mean the rulers just mentioned, as distinguished from the nation at large; or it more probably means the Jews, spoken of as ’they,’ ’them;’ as in Mat 10:17, in Mat 11:1, and often. The idea would thus be that the design of Providence in suffering the disciples to be brought before these tribunals was, that they might bear witness to rulers and people—or, more probably, to Jews and Gentiles—-of (Php 1:13, 2Ti 4:17) the truths they were going forth to proclaim. (Compare a similar expression in Mat 8:4, Mat 24:14) All this we cannot understand as referring simply to their brief journey about Galilee, during which they would perhaps encounter some persecution (see on "Mat 10:23"), but were certainly not brought before governors and kings. It must therefore be understood as glancing forward to persecutions they would suffer in future days, while prosecuting that mission as Christ’s apostles, of which this journey would be the first stage. (Compare on Mat 10:16) How plainly our Lord spoke to his followers of the perils and persecutions which awaited them in doing his work. He would have them count the cost. And they did not shrink from his service, though warned what it would cost them, being doubtless sustained by their own devotion, and by such promises as those of Mat 10:19 and Mat 10:22.
Mat 10:19 f. When thus called before the authorities for trial, they need not be anxiously considering as to the defense they shall make, the testimony they are to bear, for it shall be communicated to them by the Divine Spirit, (Mat 10:19) who indeed will be speaking in them as his instruments. (Mat 10:20) Compare the similar promise on the Mount of Olives, (Mar 13:11 Luk 21:14 f.) and on another occasion. (Luk 12:12) Take no thought, be not anxious , or ’do not anxiously consider.’ See on "Mat 6:25". They would be more likely to feel anxious what they should say, because it was common to make very elaborate addresses and affecting appeals; and before the Roman tribunals, even to employ counsel, such as Tertullus, (Act 24:1) who would understand Roman law and judicial methods, and could deliver high-wrought orations. Knowing that importance was attached to such addresses, and conscious of inexperience in Roman legal procedure, the disciples might naturally feel, when they were delivered up, great solicitude; and this would be increased by the fact that they were called to present, not only a defense of themselves, but a testimony for Jesus. There was thus great comfort for them in the promise here given. As specimens of the addresses made by some of them under such circumstances, we have the speeches of Peter and Stephen before the Sanhedrin, and of Paul before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. How or what ye shall speak, ’How’ suggests the general plan and delivery of their defence, and ’what’ suggests the subject matter. Compare ’mouth and wisdom’ in Luk 21:15; and compare Luk 12:12.
Mat 10:20. For it is not ye that speak, etc. With the form of expression compare Gen 45:8, "It was not you that sent me hither, but God," and so Exo 16:8. Your Father, see on "Mat 6:9". This was clearly a promise of special inspiration, in the highest sense and degree. (compare Exo 4:12) To apply it to uninspired preachers of to-day, is unwarranted and absurd. They may expect, and should earnestly seek, the gracious aids of the Holy Spirit in their previous reflections and in their actual preaching; but they have no right whatever to expect inspiration. This promise of inspiration was repeated by our Lord in the promise of the Comforter (John 14-16); and that assures us that in their writings also the apostles were inspired.
21 f. Not only will the public authorities be disposed to persecute them, but men will deliver to the tribunals their own dearest kindred for being Christians, and will put them to death, and the hatred against them will be universal; yet let them endure to the end, and they shall be saved. See a similar passage in Mar 13:12 f. and Luk 21:16-19, as spoken on the Mount of Olives, and part of it is in this case given by Matthew also. (Mat 24:9-13) And the children shall rise up against their parents, and, literally, put them to death, (see margin of Rev. Ver). This doubtless means, will put them to death through the instrumentality of the authorities. But Rev. Ver. ought hardly to have followed Com. Ver. in giving a mere interpretation a place in the text, and throwing into the margin the correct translation of Tyn. and his successors, and of Davidson, Noyes, Darby. The dreadful effects of religious bigotry, as here predicted, and as so often witnessed in the world’s history, should impress us with the immense power and importance of the religious principle in man; just as when a train of cars runs off the track, or a dynamite factory explodes, we see all the more clearly from the ruinous consequences the power of the’ forces in question, and the importance of their being properly directed and controlled. For the motive to such persecutions has usually been, not opposition for its own sake to the religion persecuted, but attachment to another religion with which it was thought to interfere. But he that endureth to the end, shall be saved. It seems proper here, as is manifestly necessary in the discourse on the Mount of Olives (Mat 24:13 Mar 13:13) to understand the assurance as having a twofold application; first, he that endures to the end of the persecutions and other evils in question shall at last be saved, delivered, from those evils; but also more widely, he that endures to the end of life’s trials shall be saved, in the usual sense of attaining eternal life. The propriety of understanding a twofold: allusion in such passages, or making a varied application of them, will be discussed at the beginning of Matthew 24; see also on the next verse.
Mat 10:23. Flee ye into another, or the other, i.e., into the next. The particular city in which they are persecuted, and the one next in order are conceived of as forming a pair, ’this,’ ’the other.’[1] In thus avoiding persecution they would be ’prudent as the serpents’; (Mat 10:16) so Paul and Barnabas acted in going from Antioch in Pisidia to Iconium, etc. (Acts 13-14.) For verily I say onto you, see on "Mat 5:18". Some fancy that this expression in Mat 10:15, Mat 10:23, Mat 10:42, marks the close of three distinct sections of the discourse; but this is supposing a very artificial use of the phrase, and if so designed, it ought also to occur in Mat 10:33 and Mat 10:35. Ye shall not have gone over (or, finish) the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. ’Not’ is a strong negative, translated ’in no wise’ in Joh 6:37 and Heb 13:5, and in Mat 5:20, Mat 10:42, etc. ’Finish’ (so rendered by Tyn., Gen., Rheims, and margin of Com. Ver.), in the sense of visiting them all. They must not stay in one city, vainly endeavouring to overcome opposition and persecution, but flee to the next; for there were more cities than they would be able to visit before the Son of man should come. It is quite difficult to determine the meaning of this last expression, as here employed. It has been supposed to mean: (1) Till he come and rejoin the Twelve at the end of this journey. (2) Till he make his appearance as the Messiah, distinctly present himself as such. (3) Till he come spiritually to console and support. (Joh 14:23) (4) Till he come to put an end to the Jewish institutions at the destruction of Jerusalem. (5) Till he come to judge the world. The first sense might at the outset strike one as natural and good, and it would be possible that he should return from the more general view of their coming labours and persecutions, to speak of the particular journey then before them; as in the discourse on the Mount of Olives he sometimes returns from the second topic to the first. In the mission of the Seventy, (Luk 10:1, R.V.) it is said that be sent them ’before his face into every city and place, whither he himself was about to come.’ It is natural to suppose that he was going to follow the Twelve also; and indeed he must have done so, since their work was confined to Galilee (see on Mat 10:5), and he himself went about all the cities of Galilee. When the objection is made that it is hardly probable they were persecuted during this journey, one may reply that Jesus himself was persecuted at Nazareth, and seriously threatened with death at various other places. The greatest difficulty in the way of understanding the expression in this sense is that the language seems too elaborate and solemn for so simple an idea. He does not say "for I you will not finish the cities of Galilee till I come," but employs the solemn phrase ’till the Son of man come,’ and prefaces it by ’verily I say to you,’ using also the more general term Israel. The second sense proposed is not supported by any similar use of the phrase elsewhere, and does not seem very appropriate to the connection. There was indeed no broadly marked epoch at which he appeared as the Messiah, and the occasional intimations of his Messiahship commenced long before the delivery of this discourse. The third sense is that of Chrys. and his followers, of Beza, Maldonatus; while Calvin and Bleek understand similarly his coming in the mission of the Holy Spirit. But the time of his spiritual coming would be a very vague chronological epoch; and Jesus certainly seems to be speaking of some personal coming. The fourth sense is accepted by many recent writers. In Mat 16:28, ’the Son of man coming’ unquestionably refers to the destruction of Jerusalem. The idea here would thus be that they would not reach all the Jews with their ministry before the overthrow of the Jewish institutions; and hence they must not waste time in remaining where they were persecuted. But in the discourse on the Mount of Olives (ch. 24 and 25), the coming to destroy Jerusalem and the coming at the end of the world are constantly associated, and sometimes both referred to in the same expression. So, also, in Mat 16:27 f. It would, therefore, seem natural to combine with this fourth the fifth sense. On no occasion would there be greater propriety in employing the obscure language and perspective view of prophecy than here. He wishes to give counsel which shall apply not only to this journey, but to their labours after the Ascension, and perhaps even to the labours of his followers in all ages; and to intimate that in each of those periods there would be more to do than they could complete before the season in question would end. It may, therefore, be that the phrase was intended to include in some obscure fashion the first, fourth, and fifth senses. It was manifestly impossible that the Twelve should at that time understand any distinct reference to the coming to destroy Jerusalem; indeed it is not probable that they understood when he spoke of it on the Mount of Olives. It was necessary, therefore, as so often in O. T. and N. T. prophecies, to employ language which would refer to each of these at the same time; which would be understood at once as regarded the present journey, and would afterwards be viewed in its broader meaning when needed. (Compare on Mat 10:22, and at the beginning of Matthew 24.) The notion of Origen, that Scripture has everywhere a twofold, or even threefold, sense, is now justly rejected; our present danger is that of rejecting along with it the unquestionable fact that Scripture does sometimes use language referring at once to a nearer and a remoter event.
[1] The "Western" documents, with Origen and the Armemian version add "And if out of this they persecute you, flee into the other" (so Westcott Hort margin), which would be an unimportant expansion. It is difficult to decide whether it is more likely to have been inserted or omitted.
II. Mat 10:24-33. Encouragement To The Persecuted
The key-note is here ’fear not,’ which occurs three times, in Mat 10:26, Mat 10:28, Mat 10:31.
Mat 10:24 f. They need not think strange, or complain that they were going to be persecuted; this would only be sharing-the fate of their Teacher and Master, The disciple is not above his master (teacher,) nor the servant above his lord (master), (see margin Rev. Ver.) For ’disciple’ see on "Mat 5:1"; for ’teacher’ (didaskolos), and ’master’ (kurios), on Mat 8:19; and for ’slave’ (doulos), on Mat 8:6. This saying is also given by Luke, (Luk 6:40) as used in the Sermon on the Mount; by John, (Mat 13:16) as employed in an other connection; and also in Joh 15:20, where the application is much the same as here. The saying, "It is enough for the slave to be as his master", (compare Mat 10:25) occurs repeatedly in the later Jewish writings, and was perhaps proverbial when used by Jesus. (Compare on Mat 7:5, Mat 7:12) There are of course exceptional cases in which a pupil does have a better lot than his teacher, or even a slave than his master; but the general fact is as here expressed, and so the disciples need not be surprised at hearing that they would suffer the same treatment to which Jesus himself was exposed. If they (i.e., people, the impersonal use) called the master of the house Beelzebub, or Beelzebul (see margin Rev. Ver.). ’Master’ is here (see on "Mat 8:19"), which we borrow as despot. The compound term of the original ’house-master’ presents him as ruler of the household in general a man’s authority over his wife and children was then scarcely less absolute than over his slaves. The Pharisees had already charged Jesus with being in league with Beelzehul (see on "Mat 9:34"; also see on "Mat 12:24"); are we to understand here that they had actually applied the name to Jesus? The expression does not necessitate this supposition, but we know they had said what amounted to it, and on other unrecorded occasions they may have literally called him by that name.
Mat 10:26 f. With Mat 10:26-33 compare Luk 12:2-9, where substantially the same things are said in another discourse. The thought of Mat 10:26 is also found in Luk 8:17, as introduced in yet another connection. The injunction, Fear them not (i.e., the persecutors, Mat 10:25, Mat 10:16-23) is presented on the one hand as an inference from what precedes—’ therefore do not fear,’ viz., because if they oppose and persecute you, it is nothing more than your Master encounters; and on the other hand is supported by the assurance that the truths they bear forth are destined, in spite of all opposition, to be made known—for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed (or uncovered); and hid that shall not be known. And so they must proclaim everything boldly and publicly, even what he taught them in his private instruction. (Mat 10:27) Luk 8:26 might also mean, as some suppose, that the apostles, so misunderstood and persecuted, should in a coming day be differently regarded, all men then perceiving that they were the benefactors of their time; but the other view better suits the connection. The expression of Mat 10:27 gives a different turn to the idea than that found in Luk 12:3, but it amounts to the same thing. There is repeated mention in the Talmud of Jewish teachers as having one standing by, to whom the teacher would whisper something, and who would then proclaim it to the audience. It is likely that such a practice existed already in our Lord’s time, and it may be that he here alludes to it, not as meaning that he literally did this, but as a figurative and striking way of saying that they were to keep nothing back through fear, but even his private instructions to them were to be proclaimed in the most public manner. Upon the housetops. The roofs of the houses were fiat, and surrounded by a narrow battlement. It was common (and still is) for persons to walk on the roof, and this would naturally afford an elevated stand from which to proclaim anything to the people in the street below. Thus Josephus, having taken refuge in a house from a mob in Tarichaea, "went up on the roof, and with his right hand quieting the uproar, said," etc. ("War.," 2, 21, 5.) The Talmud represents a religious official as proclaiming from a housetop, with the sound of a trumpet, the approach of any religious festival; and the same thing is often done at the present day. Indeed, the muezzin’s call to prayer, from the minaret of the mosque, is the same sort of thing.
Mat 10:28. Let them not fear men, but fear God. The idea of some that the phrase Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, means Satan, is wholly unwarranted and unsuitable. God is able to destroy; he does not wish that any should perish. (2Pe 3:9) Jesus does not say that God will kill the soul, but, avoiding that term, says he will destroy both soul and body. For ’destroy’ need not mean annihilation, but only ruin, perdition, the destruction of all that makes existence desirable. Hell is gehenna, see on Mat 5:22, and compare on Mat 5:29. Fear is natural to man; and our Lord does not say we must root it out and have no fear, but that the less fear must give way to the greater. The gospel does not teach stoicism or self-abnegation, but appeal to the human mind according to its actual constitution. Compare the appeal to a higher self-interest in Mat 5:29, and to hope and fear in Mat 10:32 f. below. In proportion as one has a true fear of God he will feel no fear of man. It was a saying of Col. Gardiner, "I fear God, therefore there is none else that I need fear." And not only with reference to persecution or any open opposition, but to a concern for approbation or blame, does the thought of this passage apply. How much more important that we should avoid God’s displeasure, than that of our fellow-men. Compare Luk 12:4 f.; Jas 4:12. The thought occurs often in Jewish writings. In 2Ma 6:26, "For even if for the present I shall be delivered from the vengeance of men, yet neither while living nor after dying shall I escape the hands of the Almighty." In 4Ma 13:14, "Let us not fear him who thinks to kill the body; for great is the danger to the soul, consisting in eternal torment to those who transgress the commandment of God." Philo says, "For men reckon the extreme penalty to be death; but in the divine court of justice this is scarcely the beginning." And the Midrash on Numbers (Wet.): "He who causes a man to sin is worse than he who slays him: because he who slays, slays him in this world, and he has part in the world to come; but he who causes him to sin, slays him both in this world and in that which is to come."
Mat 10:29-31. Let them not only dread God’s displeasure, (Mat 10:28) but trust in his protection; he who cares for the least objects, will not fail to care for them. Compare Mat 6:26 ff., and Luk 12:6 f. (See above on Mat 10:26) The word rendered farthing, denotes a Roman copper or bronze coin, actually equal not to about three farthings sterling (as in margin of Com. Ver.), or one and a half cents, but to about five-eighths of a cent (Edersheim I., 649), and frequently used to denote any trifling amount. Fall on the ground, viz., dead. Without your Father, without his agency or permission. On ’your Father,’ compare on Luk 12:26, and see on "Mat 6:9". The Midrash on Genesis says (Wet.), "A bird without heaven (God) is not taken, how much less so many souls of men." In Mat 10:30 the position of the Greek words makes ’your’ emphatic, and so with ’ye’ in Mat 10:31. A single hair falling from the head seems to us a matter of the most trifling consequence; (compare 1Sa 14:45) but every one of them is numbered by God. (Compare Luk 21:18 Act 27:34) A late Jewish compilation (Wet.) represents God as saying, "Do I not number all the hairs of every creature?" This was very likely borrowed from the New Testament Our Lord’s line of argument here is in precisely the contrary direction to that which men often follow on this subject. They will say that no doubt God controls great matters, but that it is questionable whether his care extends to such little things as the concerns of an individual man. Jesus says, God takes care of the smallest and most trifling things, and therefore we may be sure he cares for a man, who is so much more important.
Mat 10:32 f. Whosoever (every one) therefore (who) shall confess me. ’Therefore’ presents what follows as an inference from what precedes. Since God will protect, there is no excuse for shrinking from duty through fear of men, and therefore he will confess only those who confess him. This affecting statement stands last and highest in a climax of reasons for going forward undeterred by the fear of men: first, the fact that if they are maltreated and slandered, it is no more than their Master himself suffered; (Mat 10:24 f.) second, that tile truths they proclaimed are destined to be made known, and thus no opposition will prevent it; (Mat 10:26 f.) third, that God’s wrath is more to be dreaded than man’s; (Mat 10:28) fourth, that he who cares for trifling things will certainly care for them; (Mat 10:29-37) finally, that if we do not confess Christ before men he will not confess us before his Father in heaven. It is thus manifest that the confession here enjoined upon us does not consist merely in a particular ceremony, or other single act, but denotes in general that we come out as his followers, and speak and act as his, under all circumstances and at all hazards. The term rendered ’confess’[1] has been explained on Mat 7:23, where it is rendered ’profess’; see also 1Ti 6:12. Observe that we have here a perfectly general proposition. (a) In Mat 10:26-31 it is ’ye’; but in Mat 10:32 f. it is ’every one’ and ’whosoever.’ (b) While the statement is here specially suggested by the idea of confessing Jesus when persecuted, when brought before tribunals, (Mat 10:18) yet the language is general, and doubtless intended to include every kind of confession during the whole course of life. Many who have once publicly confessed Christ, and are numbered with his people, often fail to confess him afterwards in word or deed. It is of course possible that one should show bad judgment and bad taste in announcing himself a Christian where there is no occasion for it; but for every person who does this unseasonably, there are very many who shrink from such an avowal when it ought to be made, and still more fail to confess by the actions which "speak louder than words." Will I confess, acknowledge as mine. (Compare Mat 7:23) What a question it is, whether we are going to be confessed or denied by Jesus, before his Father in heaven. Here again, as in Mat 7:22 f., our Lord speaks freely of his coming exaltation as Messiah; but it is likely that the disciples at first understood it all of elevation and honour in a temporal kingdom. With Mat 10:32 f., compare Luk 12:7 f. (See above on "Mat 10:26".) As to deny, compare on Mat 16:24.
[1] ’Confess in me’ (margin Rev. Ver.), i.e., ’make confession in my case’ is an imitation in the Greek of an Aramaic expression, and easily returns to it in the Peshito, So ’in him’ will I also confess. It signifies to make confession in the case of, in the matter of, the person slated. Similar is Sept. 1Sa 16:9, and comp 1Jn 4:9, 1Jn 4:16.
III. Mat 10:34-39. Persecution Is Inevitable
Let no one be surprised at learning that so much persecution is to be encountered by the Twelve, and by Christ’s followers in general; for it was the object of Christ’s mission to introduce principles which would be sure to cause divisions and conflicts among men, even within the bosom of families. His religion was so wholly opposed to the spirit of the world, that such a result was inevitable. Think net that I am come, (came) compare on Mat 5:17. Here again, as so often, the Com. Ver. (but here following Tyn., Great B., and Gen.), introduces an unnecessary variation in the rendering of Mat 10:34 f.; for in all three cases the Greek has the same form, ’I came.’ Our Lord here, as in Mat 5:17, speaks of himself as having come among men on a special mission. The Jews were accustomed to bloody conflicts between their politico-religious parties, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and (Lightfoot) between the followers of Hilleland Shammai, but they were likely to think Messiah’s reign would be a reign of peace, for so the prophets had predicted; the disciples of Christ were especially apt to think so, if they then knew of the angelic song at his birth. The gospel does tend to bring men into peace with each other, but only in proportion as they are brought into peace with God. So as to the prophecies; men will beat their swords into plow-shares, only when men ground the arms of their rebellion against God. Till then the enemies of God will be enemies of his people, and often bitter enemies. To send (or cast as margin of R. V.) a sword upon the earth, is a natural image; and this led to the use of the same term with peace, ’to cast peace upon the earth’; compare Luk 12:49, ’to (cast) send fire upon the earth.’ When he says that he came to cast a sword, etc., to divide the nearest relatives, etc., we understand that he came for the purpose of doing a work which would inevitably lead to this not that these evils were what he wished for. The language of Mat 10:35 f. resembles that of Mic 7:6, where the prophet is describing the perfidiousness and general wickedness which existed in the reign of Ahaz. It is not here quoted as a prophecy, but the same ideas and similar expressions are introduced, and describe a similar state of things. Mat 10:35 brings up again the ideas of Mat 10:21 above. Plumptre thinks the statements may have been suggested by occurrences among our Lord’s followers. "Had Zebedee looked with displeasure on the calling of his two sons?... Were the brethren of the Lord, who as yet believed not, as the foes of a man’s own household?" With Mat 10:34 f. compare Luk 12:51-53, where like sentiments and expressions are found introduced on another occasion.
In such a state of division even in families, the true follower of Christ must not hesitate. Better to give up the nearest kindred, (Mat 10:37) take cross on shoulder, (Mat 10:38) and be content to lose life itself, (Mat 10:39) than to forsake Christ. The question whether one loves father or mother more than Christ, is put to the test in any case in which the wishes of parents stand opposed to the known will of Christ. As to the duty of keeping all natural affections subordinate to our love for the Saviour, compare on Mat 8:22, Mat 19:29. Is not worthy of me. On another occasion, (Luk 14:26) he uses still stronger expressions: ’If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his father and mother.... he cannot be my disciple.’ As to Mat 10:38 f., see on "Mat 16:24"f., where the same solemn truths are repeated in a different connection. The peculiar and striking expression of Mat 10:39 was also repeated on two other occasions. (Luk 17:33 Joh 12:25) As to our Lord’s frequent repetition of striking sayings, see at the beginning of Matthew 5. The apostles would readily understand the image of Mat 10:38, since crucifixion was a common punishment for high crime (compare on Mat 16:24), but they did not yet know that Jesus was to be crucified, and so this, like many other sayings of his, was not fully understood by them until later. The term find was obviously suggested by the contrast to lose; he who by yielding to persecution and failing to confess Christ has avoided the loss of his life (the natural life), shall lose his life (spiritual and eternal life); and he who has lost (margin Rev. Ver.) his natural life for Christ’s sake, shall find life eternal (compare on Mat 16:25). As to such uses of a word in two different senses in the same sentence, compare on Mat 8:22.
IV. Mat 10:40-42. Those Who Do Not Persecute, But Receive And Aid Them, Shall Be Rewarded
Having said so much about the unkind treatment his followers will often receive, Jesus returns to speak of those who will treat them kindly, and of the reward which such shall obtain. To receive them will be receiving him who sent them, yea, the Father who sent him. (Compare a similar thought in Mat 18:5, and again in Joh 13:20) Receiveth is here meant especially of receiving into one’s house, (Mat 10:14) which would not only be an act of respect to the Lord’s servant, but would be helping him in his work. (Compare 2Jn 1:10 f.; 3Jn 1:8) But any other act by which one encourages and assists a servant of the Lord in his work, is of the same class, and shall in like manner be rewarded; even if it be merely giving a cup of cool water to one of the humblest disciples because he is a disciple, it shall assuredly have a reward. ’Receiveth’ may perhaps also include the notion of listening to their message and accepting it as truth. He said to the Seventy, (Luk 10:16) ’He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that rejecteth you, rejecteth me, etc.’ Yet the notion of hospitality and help appears at least to be the prominent one in the present discourse, as is shown by the concluding thought of the series. (Mat 10:42) He that receiveth a prophet (a person speaking by divine inspiration, see on "Mat 7:22") in the name of a prophet, with reference to the name of a prophet, i.e., out of regard for the fact that he bears the name of a prophet, or, as we should say, because he is a prophet; not on any other account, such as kindred, friendship, admiration of abilities, etc., but because he is a prophet; and not simply from the hope of reward, for that would not be doing it because he is a prophet. (Compare Luk 14:14) Shall receive a prophet’s reward, the Messianic, eternal reward. Since he treats kindly and helps the prophet because he is a prophet, he shall get in eternity the same sort of reward as if he had been himself an inspired teacher, because he has been helping an inspired teacher to do his work. So as to receiving any righteous man. Prophets and righteous men are in like manner united in Mat 13:17, Mat 23:29. We have among us no inspired teachers; but every member of a church, in so far as he encourages and assists his pastor, takes part in the pastor’s labours, and shall in like proportion have the sort of eternal reward which pastors have; so in regard to missionaries, and all Christian workers. As to future rewards, compare on Mat 6:1, Mat 6:19. The sentiment of Mat 10:42 is also given in Mar 9:41, as repeated on a different occasion.One of these little ones refers to Christ’s disciples as despised and persecuted (compare on Mat 18:6 ff). To do the very smallest kindness to the very humblest disciple because he is a disciple, shall not fail of reward.
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 10:16. Luther: "That’s a slim affair, when sheep preach to wolves, lay down the law to them, and judge them! Better send lions. But this comes to pass, as Paul says (1Co 2:5), that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."—Christian Prudence and Simplicity (Sermons by jeremy taylor)—Find examples of combined prudence and simplicity in the life of Paul and in the life of Jesus. gerhard (Lange): "Have a serpent’s eye and a dove’s heart." Chrys.: "These things have had an accomplishment, and men became prudent as serpents and simple as doves; not being of another nature, but of the same with us. Let not then any one account Christ’s injunctions impracticable. For he, beyond all others, knows the nature of things; he knows that fierceness is not quenched by fierceness, but by gentleness." Bruce: "Happy they who can be both; but if we cannot, let us at least be doves. The dove must come before the serpent in our esteem, and in the development of our character. If we invert this order, as too many do, and begin by being prudent to admiration, the higher virtue will not only be postponed, but sacrificed; the dove will be devoured by the serpent."
Mat 10:19. Chrys.: "It is no small consolation, that they are suffering these things both for Christ, and for the Gentiles’ conviction." Lange: "The dangers of care for oratorical finery in preaching. (1) It springs from anxiety, and restrains the spiritual life. (2) It manifests itself by excitement and excess, and adulterates the spiritual life. (3) It leads to weariness or self-seeking, and destroys the spiritual life."—difference between inspiration, and the spiritual help which may now be expected.
Mat 10:21. Christianity as awakening hatred and as promoting love.
Mat 10:22. Unpopularity is not always alarming. It may be easier to persevere amid the world’s frowns than its smiles.
Mat 10:26. Two reasons why the Christian worker should not fear. (1) He need not be discouraged by reviling and assault, which even perfect innocence and perfect prudence did not escape. (Mat 10:24 f.) (2) He may be encouraged by the assurance that the gospel must and will be made known. (Mat 10:26 f.) Henry: "There is no part of Christ’s gospel that needs, upon any account, to be concealed; the whole counsel of God must be revealed. (Act 20:27) In never so mixed a multitude, let it be plainly and fully delivered."
Mat 10:28-31. Two reasons why we must do our duty notwithstanding opposition. (1) If through fear of man we shrink from duty, God will punish us. (2) If amid all opposition we persevere, God will care for us.
Mat 10:32 f. Confession and denial. (1) We are all constantly doing one or the other. (2) There are many ways of confessing Christ, and many of denying him. (3) There are present benefits in confessing him, and present losses in denying him. (4) Life-long confession will bring eternal reward, life-long denial, eternal ruin. Luther: "What a great difference. (1) The confessors, we and Christ; (2) The place, earth and heaven; (3) The hearers, wretched men and God and the angels."
Mat 10:34-36. When Christianity divides families and produces wars, this is not the fault of Christianity, but of human nature. Luther: "If our gospel were received in peace, it would not be the true gospel." Henry: "They mistake the design of the gospel, who think their profession of it will secure them from, for it will certainly expose them to, trouble in this world. Christ has dealt fairly and faithfully with us in telling us the worst we can meet with in his service; and he would have us deal so with ourselves, in sitting down and counting the cost."
Mat 10:37. Not that we should love kindred less, but Christ more.
Mat 10:38. William Penn: "No cross, no crown."
Mat 10:38 f. We ought to be ready to die for Christ; a fortiori, we ought to be living for him. But "men are ready to argue for Christianity, ready to fight for it, even to die for it, anything rather than live for it."—The great paradox—losing by finding, finding by losing. Contradictions in theory may often be completely reconciled in practice.
Mat 10:40-42. Helping the great workers. (1) We cannot all be prophets or apostles, missionaries, evangelists, eloquent preachers, etc. (2) But the greatest workers need help, and the lowliest can give it. (3) Thus sharing the blessed work, we shall share the blessed reward.
Mat 10:24-42. Thomas: "Encouragements to evangelical labour. (1) The cause for which the true evangelist suffers is most honourable, Mat 10:22. (2) The example he has is most glorious, Mat 10:24. (3) The success of the cause is most certain, Mat 10:26 f. (4) The providential care of God over him is positively guaranteed, Mat 10:29-31. (5) His reward will be most glorious at last, Mat 10:32 f. (6) If actuated by the right spirit, he will find the greatest trials the greatest blessings, Mat 10:38 f. (7) His interests are thoroughly identified with those of Christ, Mat 10:40, Mat 10:42."
Further Instructions To The Twelve, Cont
V. Mat 11:1. Having Finished Instructing The Twelve, Jesus Resumes His Own Labours
With this concluding remark by the Evangelist, compare Mat 7:28. Departed thence. It was somewhere in Galilee (compare on Mat 9:35), but there is no intimation as to the precise locality. To teach and preach in their cities. He did not by any means send forth the Twelve in order to relieve himself, but immediately set out to continue his own labours. ’Preach’ is the common word, explained on Mat 4:17. In their cities, means not the cities of the disciples, though they are the persons just mentioned, but of the people, the Jews. (compare Mat 10:18) This verse properly belongs to the preceding chapter, and should have been included in it. Mat 4:2 introduces a new subject, and actually refers to a different period. As to the frequent awkwardness of our division into chapters, see on "Mat 9:1". Matthew does not stop to say expressly that the Twelve also went forth as they were bidden, but leaves that to be taken for granted. Mark, (Mar 6:12 f.) and Luke, (Mat 9:6) state that they went forth, preaching repentance and working miraculous cures, as the Lord had directed. Nor does Matt. say anything of their return and report, which is mentioned by Mark (Mar 6:30) and (Luk 9:10); see below on "Mat 14:13".
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39 Shake off the dust of your feet.
Mat_10:14
Shake off the dust of your feet.
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-The sin of the Sodomites was single, but that of those rejecting the apostles would be manifold, including
(1) infidelity;
(2) disobedience;
(3) ingratitude;
(4) inhospitality;
(5) rebellion and contumacy against God, contrary to the law of nature, and in defiance of the grace of God. (Lapide.)
The danger of defilement
The danger of course was not from dust on the feet, but from defilement on the life and in the heart. Every apostle was to let his impenitent countrymen know that they were as heathen men in the sight of the Messiah, impure in the estimation of the infinitely Holy One. The spirit of the injunction runs through all the ages, and has come down to our day. Its spirit, but its spirit only. And hence a very heavy responsibility rests on that minister of the gospel who gives no intimation of any kind to the impenitent with whom he associates, that they are impure in the sight of God, and in danger of eternal separation from the good. (James Morison, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 14. Shake off the dust of your feet. This…
14. Shake off the dust of your feet. This was done when there was a positive rejection of the gospel. It was a symbolical act, signifying that all responsibility for the stubborn household or city had ended. Compare Mark 6:11 and Acts 13:51. Nor can the gospel be forced upon an unwilling people in any age.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv16, 24, 34 Mat_10:17. Synagogues.—The ecclesiastical and civil elements were so thoroughly…
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_10:17. Synagogues.—The ecclesiastical and civil elements were so thoroughly inter-blended among the Jews, that “in every synagogue,” says Lightfoot, “there was a civil triumvirate,” or judicatory of three. These magistrates sat in judgment on all cases that required to be treated judicially (Morison).
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Mat_10:23. Till the Son of man be come.—The immediate reference is, probably, to the destruction of Jerusalem.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_10:16-23
Special cautions.—This word “behold” seems to invite us to take a new view of affairs. What is the Saviour really doing in sending forth His Apostles (Mat_10:5-15)? The Saviour answers for Himself (the “I” is emphatic). “I am sending you forth as sheep among wolves.” Therefore it is that He would have them both “wary” and “guileless.” Never forget that you are exposed to evil. Never be tempted to evil methods of guarding against it. From this principal stem three branches grow out:—
I. Do not trust in mankind.—On the contrary “beware” (Mat_10:17) even of those (He is speaking to Jews) of your own country and race, who meet in “synagogues” and higher “councils” for the administration of justice. You must expect little justice from them. Rather as far as their powers go (to “scourging” e.g.) they will be exerted against you; and, not satisfied with this, they will invoke against you the more extreme powers of “Gentile” rulers and “kings” (Mat_10:18). All this, also, will come upon you because of your connection with Me (for My sake); and must be borne with by you, you must remember further, on that very account. For your doing so will enable you to bear “testimony,” that is to say, to do the work you are called to in a most effectual way, viz. in higher quarters, amongst wider numbers, and with greater force than could otherwise be the case. See Act_4:10; 2Ti_4:17; Php_1:12-13, etc.
II. Do not trust in yourselves.—To this they might be tempted by the very point named last. If this “testimony” of theirs was so important a thing both to others and themselves, how equally important that they should seek to make it the best in their power. The inference was natural, but not a correct one. Rather, the Saviour says, it is in that exact direction that I would next have you beware. Beware of thinking that the success of your “testimony” depends on yourselves. Beware even of supposing that, in giving it, you will be left to yourselves; or that it will be necessary for you to take long and anxious thought beforehand as to how or what ye shall say. On the contrary the knowledge of this “at the time itself” shall be yours as a gift (Mat_10:19). For the truth is, that, in cases like these, where it is God’s own providence that has virtually made you ambassadors of Him for the time, the word that ye speak is the word in reality of a far higher than you (Mat_10:20). Be only anxious, therefore, not to be anxious about what ye shall say (cf. Act_4:13; Act_6:10; Acts 7 passim).
III. Do not be weary of trusting in Me.—In the circumstances named they might sometimes be tempted to this. Sometimes, e.g., they might find those nearest to them to be the most bitter against them; the “brother” who is “born for adversity” (Pro_17:17), being the very one to bring adversity on his brother in its most terrible shape (Mat_10:21). Or the author of life being the one to promote its taking away; or the life bestowed be that which sets itself to take the life of its author away (ibid.). With these, naturally, all sorts of men (Mat_10:22) might be leagued together against them; all, in fact, being as one in their common opposition to Christ. How great the temptation, therefore, in such circumstances, to one of two things. The temptation to give up one’s profession, and so escape that deluge of hate; or the temptation to give up hope, and battle against the evil no more. Against the first of these temptations the end of Mat_10:22 seems to speak. He that gives up his profession will not be “saved”; only those who “endure” to the “end.” Against the other the assurance of Mat_10:23 seems to be directed. Never give up hope, for, in any circumstances, there will always be some means of escape—some city of refuge somewhere in Israel, when all others are closed (2Pe_2:9; Rev_3:10). This will be true even until “the Son of man be come.” After that, places of refuge will be wanted no more.
Thus it was that our Saviour taught His disciples to look forward to their work. His words are not bright words in the usual sense of that term. Yet how truly wise, and therefore how truly kind they were may be seen by considering:—
1. The effect they had on the disciples.—First, negatively. They turned no one back. Another cause turned the traitor back. Next, positively. They sent all the rest forward, ready to encounter, equipped to battle with, able to conquer, all He had said. What is the church now, in fact, with all its drawbacks, but a living proof of this truth? It is the result, under God, of their labours, and sorrows, and courage, and perseverance, and faith. Such a result like that we read of in 1Sa_17:39-40, proves the wisdom of the original choice.
2. The effect they ought to have on ourselves.—Where can we seek for a surer foundation than in such an initiatory experience as this? Weapons and instruments and buildings of importance to many are often tested at first by being exposed to a greater strain than can ever afterwards come to them in practice. Was it not something thus at first with these Apostles of Christ (1Co_4:9).
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_10:16, True wisdom.—The properties of this good wisdom are these:
1. To perceive and understand evils and dangers.
2. To do evil unto none, but to pardon and forgive those who offend and injure us.
3. To suspect evils from evil men, especially those who hate us; for Christ Himself would not commit Himself unto the Jews (Joh_2:24).
4. To keep our own counsel; for it is lawful to conceal some truths. A man is not bound by his own babbling to betray himself; it being the part of a fool to utter all his mind (Pro_29:11).
5. To avoid peril, and not to run into the lion’s mouth.
6. To endure patiently and contentedly the evils which lie upon us.
7. So to live that we give no offence, either to the Jew, the Gentile, or the church of God.
8. To profess Christ and religion in sincerity, not show; in truth, not in hypocrisy.—Richard Ward.
True simplicity.—What is this good simplicity that we must labour for? Wherein doth it consist?
1. In a single heart (Act_2:46).
2. In a tender conscience, and a fear to sin or offend God.
3. In a single tongue.
4. In a boldness unto that which is good.—Ibid.
Serpents and doves.—The Apostles of Christ, when persecuted, were not to attempt to meet force by force of the same description. They could no more fight their enemies than sheep can fight a pack of wolves. Yet the result of the conflict was to be in favour of the “little flock.” The meek endurance of the Apostles and other messengers of Christ was to win a signal victory. By a double reference to the serpents and the doves of Palestine, the Lord indicated to His Apostles the spirit in which they ought to meet hardship and violence, viz., by a blending of qualities, a balancing and harmonising of apparent opposites, which no one attains to without pains and prayer. The servants of Christ should be, on the one hand, wary, but not crafty; on the other, simple, but not simpletons.
I. “Wary as the serpents.”—The illustration must be confined to the one point which is indicated. He who, on another occasion, stigmatised the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees as “serpents” and “the offspring of vipers” was not likely to bid His Apostles be “as serpents.” He spoke of serpent-like prudence evidently with an exclusive reference to the shrewd instinct by which those creatures perceive impending danger and avoid it. His Apostles ought not to offer themselves to injury or martyrdom, or involve themselves needlessly in trouble or danger. They were bound to use discretion, and even astuteness, in avoiding mischief and guarding life and liberty. “Beware of men” is the counsel which immediately follows. It may be supposed that men hardly need exhortation to take care of themselves; but in point of fact men do need such admonition when they are carried away by a strong enthusiasm. It is a familiar incident in war that young soldiers, ardent and burning for distinction, foolishly and unnecessarily expose themselves, and are with difficulty restrained. Something like this appeared in the church of Christ after a generation or two had passed. There arose a fanatical thirst for martyrdom, stimulated by the excessive honour which had come to be paid to the names and relics of the slain confessors of Christ. But this was a departure from the example and teaching of the Saviour Himself and of His Apostles. The general principle is that a servant of Christ should not court reproach, invite trouble, or involve himself in suffering or in danger, if he may honourably and conscientiously avoid it. And by inference we get a similar direction for active service. Zeal is good, but, if not associated with tact and discretion, it may do harm by provoking irritation against the truth and exposing holy things to contempt.
II. “And guileless as the doves.”—No doubt the word “harmless” has an appropriate meaning, for the Apostles were to suffer wrong, not to inflict it. But such is the idea conveyed in the figure of unresisting sheep surrounded by wolves. The characteristic of the dove intended by Christ was evidently meant to balance the knowingness of the serpent. And this is the unwiliness of that bird—the figure of a pure and ingenuous nature. So the Apostles of Christ, while behaving themselves prudently, were to ignore wiles and stratagems, and pursue their ministry with a holy frankness and simplicity. The Lord Jesus is the consummate example to illustrate His own teaching. He was always on His guard, and penetrated all the manœuvres and plots of those who watched and hated Him. He fell into none of their snares; never lost self-possession; never spoke at random; uttered all His words and conducted all His intercourse with infinite discretion. But He formed no counterplots and devised no stratagems. No craft was in His bosom; no guile was in His mouth. Everywhere He showed that the Spirit which rested upon Him had descended in the form of a dove.—D. Fraser, D.D.
Wisdom with simplicity.—I. Let me speak of knowledge and sincerity; light as well as love in social and domestic life.—Christian charity shows itself not in being blind to faults in others, but in graciously bearing with them and with the gentle tact of the loving heart dealing with them. It is the clear-sighted, yet large-hearted, considerate person who is the most reliable friend. It is not the parent who is so stupid as not to see his children as others see them, who gives the highest proofs of parental affection. It is a much stronger evidence of love to bear in the right spirit with faults which fuller acquaintance reveals after marriage than what it was not to be aware of their existence before marriage. It is when the head does its duty that the heart has its opportunity of showing its goodness.
II. Intelligence and rectitude—the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove—or light and love in business.—If a man has received intellectual energy to succeed in business, is he to put his light under a bushel? No; it is his duty to show his wisdom, sagacity, enterprise, by trying to succeed in business. He should be shrewd in his dealings, that is, of nice discernment as the result of careful scrutiny; he should be prudent in his investments, that is, provident, far-seeing, taking as accurate a gauge as possible of the probable course of things in the commercial world, avoiding what is risky, not hasting to be rich, and yet seeking a reasonable and fair return. He should have his wits about him in buying, and his suavity should not fail in selling; in short, he should have common sense, which is a sound judgment in common things all round, and should as far as possible manifest the power that leads to success, such as Abraham, Joseph, and Daniel, and other saints of God have attained in all ages. But then there is the other side—the harmlessness of the dove, integrity, honour, rectitude, unmixedness. There is moral principle to control the desire and the power to succeed.
III. Knowledge and sincerity, light and love in religion.—The two distinct types in the religious world are zeal without knowledge, and knowledge without zeal. The faith that is without intelligence and the intelligence that has lost the robustness and vitality of its faith—we should decline to be driven either to the one extreme or the other.—Jas. Stark.
Mat_10:23. A precept and a reason for it.—The precept is unusual and the reason ambiguous.
I. The precept is a precept of prudence.—It says, there is a great work before you—a work which requires workmen. The labourers are few at the best, and they must not be made fewer by wanton self-sacrifices. Think of the work, think of the object, think of souls, think of the Saviour; think of these more than of yourselves. Martyrdom itself may be a sublime selfishness, enthusiasm may exaggerate even sacrifice; or, at least, the sacrifice of the life may be nobler, more heroic, more divine than the sacrifice of the death. Each as God wills; but you must interpret the will of God by the exigencies of the work. Flight may be courage, if it be flight for Christ and with Christ.
II. The work of Christ in the world will never be finished till He comes.—Not only will the workmen, one by one, be removed by death—the work itself will be cut short, unfinished, by the advent of Christ. “Ye shall not have finished the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.” Our Lord thus ministers to our necessities by warning us against several mistakes which are apt to spoil and ruin true work. One of these is the demand beforehand for a roundness and completeness of defined duty, which is not often to be found, and which must certainly not be waited for. The life and work, and the Christ-work of which this text tells, are never finished till the Son of man comes.
1. One reason for this lies in the mere sequence of human generations. Births and deaths are incessant. “One generation goeth, and another generation cometh,” but they are both on the stage at once during a large part of the lifetime of earth, and the board is never cleared for a new beginning.
2. Another and a deeper reason lies in the nature of the work. The most real work of all is the intangible, impalpable thing which we call influence. Influence is the thing which Christ looks for, and it is an indefinite, and so an interminable thing.
3. We can see one other reason for this arrangement—the incompleteness of all work that is worth the name; and it is the security thus given for the salubriousness of labour.—C. J. Vaughan, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv26, 32, 39 Mat 10:16-31.
Matthew
THE WIDENED MISSION, ITS PERILS AND DEFENCES
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Mat 10:16-31.
We have already had two instances of Matthew’s way of bringing together sayings and incidents of a like kind without regard to their original connection. The Sermon on the Mount and the series of miracles in Mat 8:1 - Mat 8:34 and Mat 9:1 - Mat 9:38 are groups, the elements of which are for the most part found disconnected in Mark and Luke. This charge to the twelve in Mat 10:1 - Mat 10:42 seems to present a third instance, and to pass over in Mat 10:16 to a wider mission than that of the twelve during our Lord’s lifetime, for it forebodes persecution, whereas the preceding verses opened no darker prospect than that of indifference or non-reception. The ‘city’ which, in that stage of the gospel message, simply would ‘not receive you nor hear your words,’ in this stage has worsened into one where ‘they persecute you,’ and the persecutors are now ‘kings’ and ‘Gentiles,’ as well as Jewish councils and synagogue-frequenters. The period covered in these verses, too, reaches to the ‘end,’ the final revelation of all hidden things.
Obviously, then, our Lord is looking down a far future, and giving a charge to the dim crowd of His later disciples, whom His prescient eye saw pressing behind the twelve in days to come. He had no dreams of swift success, but realised the long, hard fight to which He was summoning His disciples. And His frankness in telling them the worst that they had to expect was as suggestive as was His freedom from the rosy, groundless visions of at once capturing a world which enthusiasts are apt to cherish, till hard experience shatters the illusions. He knew the future in store for Himself, for His Gospel, for His disciples. And He knew that dangers and death itself will not appal a soul that is touched into heroic self-forgetfulness by His love. ‘Set down my name,’ says the man in Pilgrim’s Progress, though he knew-may we not say, because he knew?-that the enemies were outside waiting to fall on him.
A further difference between this and the preceding section is, that there the stress was laid on the contents of the disciples’ message, but that here it is laid on their sufferings. Not so much by what they say, as by how they endure, are they to testify. ‘The noble army of martyrs praise Thee,’ and the primitive Church preached Jesus most effectually by dying for Him.
The keynote is struck in Mat 10:16, in which are to be noted the ‘Behold,’ which introduces something important and strange, and calls for close attention; the majestic ‘I send you,’ which moves to obedience whatever the issues, and pledges Him to defend the poor men who are going on His errands and the pathetic picture of the little flock huddled together, while the gleaming teeth of the wolves gnash all round them. A strange theme to drape in a metaphor! but does not the very metaphor help to lighten the darkness of the picture, as well as speak of His calmness, while He contemplates it? If the Shepherd sends His sheep into the midst of wolves, surely He will come to their help, and surely any peril is more courageously faced when they can say to themselves, ‘He put us here.’ The sheep has no claws to wound with nor teeth to tear with, but the defenceless Christian has a defence, and in his very weaponlessness wields the sharpest two-edged sword. ‘Force from force must ever flow.’ Resistance is a mistake. The victorious antagonist of savage enmity is patient meekness. ‘Sufferance is the badge of all’ true servants of Jesus. Wherever they have been misguided enough to depart from Christ’s law of endurance and to give blow for blow, they have lost their cause in the long run, and have hurt their own Christian life more than their enemies’ bodies. Guilelessness and harmlessness are their weapons. But ‘be ye wise as serpents’ is equally imperative with ‘guileless as doves.’ Mark the fine sanity of that injunction, which not only permits but enjoins prudent self-preservation, so long as it does not stoop to crooked policy, and is saved from that by dove-like guilelessness. A difficult combination, but a possible one, and when realised, a beautiful one!
The following verses {Mat 10:17} expand the preceding, and mingle in a very remarkable way plain predictions of persecution to the death and encouragements to front the worst. Jewish councils and synagogues, Gentile governors and kings, will unite for once in common hatred, than which there is no stronger bond. That is a grim prospect to set before a handful of Galilean peasants, but two little words turn its terror into joy; it is ‘for My sake,’ and that is enough. Jesus trusted His humble friends, as He trusts all such always, and believed that ‘for My sake’ was a talisman which would sweeten the bitterest cup and would make cowards into heroes, and send men and women to their deaths triumphant. And history has proved that He did not trust them too much. ‘For His sake’-is that a charm for us, which makes the crooked straight and the rough places plain, which nerves for suffering and impels to noble acts, which moulds life and takes the sting and the terror out of death? Nor is that the only encouragement given to the twelve, who might well be appalled at the prospect of standing before Gentile kings. Jesus seems to discern how they shrank as they listened, at the thought of having to bear ‘testimony’ before exalted personages, and, with beautiful adaptation to their weakness, He interjects a great promise, which, for the first time, presents the divine Spirit as dwelling in the disciples’ spirits. The occasion of the dawning of that great Christian thought is very noteworthy, and not less so is the designation of the Spirit as ‘of your Father,’ with all the implications of paternal care and love which that name carries. Special crises bring special helps, and the martyrologies of all ages and lands, from Stephen outside the city wall to the last Chinese woman, have attested the faithfulness of the Promiser. How often have some calm, simple words from some slave girl in Roman cities, or some ignorant confessor before Inquisitors, been manifestly touched with heavenly light and power, and silenced sophistries and threats!
The solemn foretelling of persecution, broken for a moment, goes on and becomes even more foreboding, for it speaks of dearest ones turned to foes, and the sweet sanctities of family ties dissolved by the solvent of the new Faith. There is no enemy like a brother estranged, and it is tragically significant that it is in connection with the rupture of family bonds that death is first mentioned as the price that Christ’s messengers would have to pay for faithfulness to their message. But the prediction springs at a bound, as it were, from the narrow circle of home to the widest range, and does not fear to spread before the eyes of the twelve that they will become the objects of hatred to the whole human race if they are true to Christ’s charge. The picture is dark enough, and it has turned out to be a true forecast of facts. It suggests two questions. What right had Jesus to send men out on such an errand, and to bid them gladly die for Him? And what made these men gladly take up the burden which He laid on them? He has the right to dispose of us, because He is the Son of God who has died for us. Otherwise He is not entitled to say to us, Do my bidding, even if it leads you to death. His servants find their inspiration to absolute, unconditional self-surrender in the Love that has died for them. That which gives Him His right to dispose of us in life and death gives us the disposition to yield ourselves wholly to Him, to be His apostles according to our opportunities, and to say, ‘Whether I live or die, I am the Lord’s.’
That thought of world-wide hatred is soothed by the recurrence of the talisman, ‘For My name’s sake,’ and by a moment’s showing of a fair prospect behind the gloom streaked with lightning in the foreground. ‘He that endureth to the end shall be saved.’ The same saying occurs in Mat 24:13, in connection with the prediction of the fall of Jerusalem, and in the same connection in Mar 13:13, in both of which places several other sayings which appear in this charge to the apostles are found. It is impossible to settle which is the original place for these, or whether they were twice spoken. The latter supposition is very unfashionable at present, but has perhaps more to say for itself than modern critics are willing to allow. But Luk 21:19 has a remarkable variation of the saying, for his version of it is, ‘In your patience, ye shall win your souls.’ His word ‘patience’ is a noun cognate with the verb rendered in Matthew and Mark ‘endureth,’ and to ‘win one’s soul’ is obviously synonymous with being ‘saved.’ The saying cannot be limited, in any of its forms, to a mere securing of earthly life, for in this context it plainly includes those who have been delivered to death by parents and brethren, but who by death have won their lives, and have been, as Paul expected to be, thereby ‘saved into His heavenly kingdom.’ To the Christian, death is the usher who introduces him into the presence-chamber of the King, and he that loseth his life ‘for My name’s sake,’ finds it glorified in, and into, life eternal.
But willingness to endure the utmost is to be accompanied with willingness to take all worthy means to escape it. There has been a certain unwholesome craving for martyrdom generated in times of persecution, which may appear noble but is very wasteful. The worst use that you can put a man to is to burn him, and a living witness may do more for Christ than a dead martyr. Christian heroism may be shown in not being afraid to flee quite as much as in courting, or passively awaiting, danger. And Christ’s Name will be spread when His lovers are hounded from one city to another, just as it was when ‘they that were scattered abroad, went everywhere, preaching the word.’ When the brands are kicked apart by the heel of violence, they kindle flames where they fall.
But the reason for this command to flee is perplexing. ‘Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come.’ Is Jesus here reverting to the narrower immediate mission of the apostles? What ‘coming’ is referred to? We have seen that the first mission of the twelve was the theme of Mat 10:5 - Mat 10:15, and was there pursued to its ultimate consequences of final judgment on rejecters, whilst the wider horizon of a future mission opens out from Mat 10:16 onwards. A renewed contraction of the horizon is extremely unlikely. It would be as if ‘a flower should shut and be a bud again.’ The recurrence in Mat 10:23 of ‘Verily I say unto you,’ which has already occurred in Mat 10:15, closing the first section of the charge, makes it probable that here too a section is completed, and that probability is strengthened if it is observed that the same phrase occurs, for a third time, in the last verse of the chapter, where again the discourse soars to the height of contemplating the final reward. The fact that the apostles met with no persecution on their first mission, puts out of court the explanation of the words that refers them to that mission, and takes the ‘coming’ to be Jesus’ own appearances in the places they had preceded Him as His heralds. The difficult question as to what is the terminus ad quem pointed to here seems best solved by taking the ‘coming of the Son of Man’ to be His judicial manifestation in the destruction of Jerusalem and the consequent desolation of many of ‘the cities of Israel,’ whilst at the same time, the nearer and smaller catastrophe is a prophecy and symbol of the remoter and greater ‘day of the Son of Man’ at the end of the days. The recognition of that aspect of the fall of Jerusalem is forced on us by the eschatological parts of the Gospels, which are a bewildering whirl without it. Here, however, it is the crash of the fall itself which is in view, and the thought conveyed is that there would be cities enough to serve for refuges, and scope enough for evangelistic work, till the end of the Jewish possession of the land.
In Mat 10:26 - Mat 10:31, ‘fear not’ is thrice spoken, and at each occurrence is enforced by a reason. The first of these encouragements is the assurance of the certain ultimate world-wide manifestation of hidden things. That same dictum occurs in other connections, and with other applications, but in the present context can only be taken as an assurance that the Gospel message, little known as it thus far was, was destined to fill all ears. Therefore the disciples were to be fearless in doing their part in making it known, and so working in alliance with the divine purpose. It is the same thing that is meant by the ‘covered’ that ‘shall be revealed,’ the ‘hidden’ that ‘shall be known,’ ‘that which is spoken in darkness,’ and ‘that which is whispered in the ear’; and all four designations refer to the word which every Christian has it in charge to sound out. We note that Jesus foresees a far wider range of publicity for His servants’ ministry than for His own, just as He afterwards declared that they would do ‘greater works’ than His. He spoke to a handful of men in an obscure corner of the world. His teaching was necessarily largely confidential communication to the fit few. But the spark is going to be a blaze, and the whisper to become a shout that fills the world. Surely, then, we who are working in the line of direction of God’s working should let no fear make us dumb, but should ever hear and obey the command: ‘Lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid.’
A second reason for fearlessness is the limitation of the enemy’s power to hurt, reinforced by the thought that, while the penalties that man can inflict for faithfulness are only corporeal, transitory, and incapable of harming the true self, the consequences of unfaithfulness fling the whole man, body and soul, down to utter ruin. There is a fear that makes cowards and apostates; there is a fear which makes heroes and apostles. He who fears God, with the awe that has no torment and is own sister to love, is afraid of nothing and of no man. That holy and blessed fear drives out all other, as fire draws the heat out of a burn. He that serves Christ is lord of the world; he that fears God fronts the world, and is not afraid.
The last reason for fearlessness touches a tender chord, and discloses a gracious thought of God as Father, which softens the tremendous preceding word: ‘Who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’ Take both designations together, and let them work together in producing the awe which makes us brave, and the filial trust which makes us braver. A bird does not ‘fall to the ground’ unless wounded, and if it falls it dies. Jesus had looked pityingly on the great mystery, the woes of the creatures, and had stayed Himself on the thought of the all-embracing working of God. The very dying sparrow, with broken wing, had its place in that universal care. God is ‘immanent’ in nature. The antithesis often drawn between His universal care and His ‘special providence’ is misleading. Providence is special because it is universal. That which embraces everything must embrace each thing. But the immanent God is ‘your Father,’ and because of that sonship, ‘ye are of more value than many sparrows.’ There is an ascending order, and an increasing closeness and tenderness of relation. ‘A man is better than a sheep,’ and Christians, being God’s children, may count on getting closer into the Father’s heart than the poor crippled bird can, or than the godless man can. ‘Your Father,’ on the one hand, can destroy soul and body, therefore fear Him; but, on the other, He determines whether you shall ‘fall to the ground’ or soar above dangers, therefore fear none but Him.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv16, 19, 23, 25, 28, 34 The scope of Mat 10:16-23 reaches beyond the personal…
send
The scope of Mat 10:16-23 reaches beyond the personal ministry of the twelve, covering in a general sense the sphere of service during the present age. Mat 10:23 has in view the preaching of the remnant. Isa 1:9. (See Scofield "Rom 11:5") in the tribulation Psa 2:5. See Scofield "Rev 7:14". and immediately preceding the return of Christ in glory; Deu 30:3; Act 1:9-11. See Scofield "Act 1:11". The remnant then will not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Lord comes.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26, 28, 32, 34, 37, 40 The Perils of Apostleship.
The Perils of Apostleship.
The basis of the apostles’ conduct:
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v. 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Their attention is called to the importance of His instructions. I send you, emphatic; He, the promised Prophet, makes use of His power in commissioning them as His assistants; in the midst of dangerous circumstances His gracious protection would attend them. Due to the natural depravity of men and the hatred of redemption, their position would be that of sheep surrounded by wolves,—but not in the power of the wolves! Danger might ever be lurking near, and vigilance untiring is demanded. Here nothing but weakness and natural timidity: there nothing but fierceness and rapacity; yet the mission must go on. The situation requires the wisdom, the prudence the cunning of serpents, Gen 3:1; Psa 58:5; but, incidentally, the guilelessness, the innocence, the simplicity of doves, Hos 7:11. "Though Christ commands His disciples to be harmless as the doves, that is, they should be upright and without bitterness, yet He also admonishes them that they be prudent as the serpents, that is, they should diligently beware of false and deceitful people and be careful, as it is said that serpents in battle with special cunning and art watch and shelter their head."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 32, 34, 37, 40 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus continues to instruct his disciples about what they should do when they go to preach.
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As for those who do not receive you or listen
"If no people in that house or city will receive you or listen"
you ... your
This is plural and refers to the twelve apostles. (See: Forms of You)
listen to your words
Here "words" refers to what the disciples say. AT: "listen to your message" or "listen to what you have to say" (See: Metonymy)
city
You should translate this the same way you did in Matthew 10:11.
shake off the dust from your feet
"shake the dust off your feet as you leave." This is a sign that God has rejected the people of that house or city. (See: Symbolic Action)
Truly I say to you
"I tell you the truth." This phrase adds emphasis to what Jesus says next.
it shall be more tolerable
"the suffering shall be less"
the land of Sodom and Gomorrah
This refers to the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. AT: "the people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah" (See: Metonymy)
that city
This refers to the people in the city that does not receive the apostles or listen to their message. AT: "the people of the city that does not receive you" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
receive
amen
Sodom
Gomorrah
judgment day
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37 10:14 shake its dust from your feet: This prophet-like…
10:14 shake its dust from your feet: This prophet-like gesture is explained by the Israelite custom of expressing displeasure with ungodliness by shaking off Gentile dust whenever crossing the border into Israel. The gesture signifies the disciples’ rejection of those who oppose God’s work (see Acts 18:6). Pronouncing judgment on those who reject the message is part of proclaiming the Good News about the Kingdom (see Matt 11:20-24; 13:10-15; 23:37-39; 24:1-36).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.