Jesus sent these twelve out, and commanded them, saying, “Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans. Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give. Don’t take any gold, silver, or brass in your money belts. Take no bag for your journey, neither two coats, nor sandals, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food. Into whatever city or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy; and stay there until you go on. As you enter into the household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it isn’t worthy, let your peace return to you. 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. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, most certainly I tell you he will in no way lose his reward.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42 The sum of the Gospel: or preaching of the…
The sum of the Gospel: or preaching of the Apostles.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–42 5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them,…
5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
Ver. 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth] Out of deep commiseration of those poor scattered sheep, that lay panting for life, and well nigh gasping their last (εσκυλμενοι), Mat 9:30. Saul, that ravening wolf of Benjamin, and his fellow Pharisees, not only breathed out threatenings, but worried Christ’s sheep, that bore golden fleeces, Act 9:1. Now, because he could not go to them all himseff in person, he sends out the twelve. Thereby also to teach them and us that no minister is so "thoroughly furnished to all good works," 2Ti 3:17, but that he may need the advice and help of his fellow labourers. And this, I conceive, was at first the end of erecting colleges and cathedrals.
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 vv5, 7, 9, 11, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 Here Christ limiteth their ministry to the Jews. The…
Here Christ limiteth their ministry to the Jews. The apostle tells us, Rom 15:8, Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to conform the promises made unto the fathers; and the apostle tells the Jews, Act 13:46, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. Therefore in this his first mission, he restrains his apostles from going to the Gentiles, to whom they had afterwards a commission to go, Mat 28:19, and did go, but not before the Jews had judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, Act 13:46, by rejecting and blaspheming the gospel, and persecuting the ministers of it. They are also commanded not to go
into any city of the Samaritans. The Samaritans were partly Jews apostatized, and partly heathens, descended from those whom the king of Syria sent thither, when the ten tribes were carried into captivity, 2Ki 17:6, and from some Jews left in the land. You shall read of their religion there, 2Ki 17:31-41. They were perfectly hated by the Jews, and as perfect haters of them, as may be gathered from Luk 9:52,53; Jo 4:9. Our Lord, partly in regard they also were no better than Gentiles, and so hated as they were of the Jews, would not suffer these his first ministers to go and preach amongst them. Not that they were forbidden (if some particular persons, whether Gentiles or Samaritans, came to them) to preach to them, but only not to make it their work to go into their country or cities; the time was not yet come for this great light to shine upon the Gentiles.
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But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. By Israel he here meaneth the two tribes that clave to the house of David, for the ten tribes ever since their captivity (2Ki 17:6) had lost their share in that name. He calls them lost sheep in the sense that Jeremiah speaks, Jer 1:6, My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray. So that lost sheep here signifies wandering sheep, for want of proper guides. The Jews at this time had miserable teachers, so as they wandered as lost sheep. And this comporteth with what we had in the last verses of the former chapter. There was a great harvest and but few labourers; he is therefore providing them labourers, shepherds that should gather those scattered sheep into one fold.
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 vv5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 40 This was only a temporary prohiition whilst Christ was…
This was only a temporary prohiition whilst Christ was here upon earth, the Jews being Christ’s own people, of whom he came, and to whom he was promised; the gospel is first preached to them; but afterwards the apostles had a command to teach all nations; and after Christ ascension, Samaria received the gospel by the preaching of Philip.
From the character which Christ gives of the Jews, calling them lost sheep, we learn, 1. That the condition of a people, before brought home to Christ by the ministers of the gospel, is a lost condition; sinners are as lost sheep, wandering and going astray from God, till the ministry of the word finds them.
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2. That the great work and office of the ministers of the gospel is to call home, and to bring in, lost sheep unto Jesus Christ the great Shepherd. Go, says he, to the lost sheep, &c.
Mark, Christ calls the Israelites sheep, though they were not obedient to the voice of their Shepherd, because they were God’s chosen people; and he calls them the lost sheep, because they were both lost in themselves, and also in great danger of being eventually and finally lost, by the ignorance and wickedness of their spiritual guides.
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 vv5, 16 We have here the instructions that Christ gave to…
We have here the instructions that Christ gave to his disciples, when he gave them their commission. Whether this charge was given them in a continued discourse, or the several articles of it hinted to them at several times, is not material; in this he commanded them. Jacob's blessing his sons, is called his commanding them, and with these commands Christ commanded a blessing. Observe,
I. The people to whom he sent them. These ambassadors are directed what places to go to.
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1. Not to the Gentiles nor the Samaritans. They must not go into the way of the Gentiles, nor into any road out of the land of Israel, whatever temptations they might have. The Gentiles must not have the gospel brought them, till the Jews have first refused it. As to the Samaritans, who were the posterity of the mongrel people that the king of Assyria planted about Samaria, their country lay between Judea and Galilee, so that they could not avoid going into the way of the Samaritans, but they must not enter into any of their cities. Christ had declined manifesting himself to the Gentiles or Samaritans, and therefore the apostles must not preach to them. If the gospel be hid from any place, Christ thereby hides himself from that place. This restraint was upon them only in their first mission, afterwards they were appointed to go into all the world, and teach all nations.
2. But to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. To them Christ appropriated his own ministry (Mat 15:24), for he was a minister of the circumcision (Rom 15:8): and, therefore, to them the apostles, who were but his attendants and agents, must be confined. The first offer of salvation must be made to the Jews, Act 3:26. Note, Christ had a particular and very tender concern for the house of Israel; they were beloved for the fathers' sakes, Rom 11:28. He looked with compassion upon them as lost sheep, whom he, as a shepherd, was to gather out of the by-paths of sin and error, into which they were gone astray, and in which, if not brought back, they would wander endlessly; see Jer 2:6. The Gentiles also had been as lost sheep, Pe1 2:25. Christ gives this description of those to whom they were sent, to quicken them to diligence in their work, they were sent to the house of Israel (of which number they themselves lately were), whom they could not but pity, and be desirous to help.
II. The preaching work which he appointed them. He did not send them forth without an errand; no, As ye go, preach, Mat 10:7. They were to be itinerant preachers: wherever they come they must proclaim the beginning of the gospel, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Not that they must say nothing else, but this must be their text; on this subject they must enlarge: let people know, that the kingdom of the Messiah, who is the Lord from heaven, is now to be set up according to the scriptures; from whence it follows, that men must repent of their sins and forsake them, that they might be admitted to the privileges of that kingdom. It is said (Mar 6:12), they went out, and preached that men should repent; which was the proper use and application of this doctrine, concerning the approach of the kingdom of heaven. They must, therefore, expect to hear more of this long-looked-for Messiah shortly, and must be ready to receive his doctrine, to believe in him, and to submit to his yoke. The preaching of this was like the morning light, to give notice of the approach of the rising sun. How unlike was this to the preaching of Jonah, which proclaimed ruin at hand! Jon 3:4. This proclaims salvation at hand, nigh them that fear God; mercy and truth meet together (Psa 85:9, Psa 85:10), that is, the kingdom of heaven at hand: not so much the personal presence of the king; that must not be doated upon; but a spiritual kingdom which is to be set up, when his bodily presence is removed, in the hearts of men.
Now this was the same that John the Baptist and Christ had preached before. Note, People need to have good truths pressed again and again upon them, and if they be preached and heard with new affections, they are as if they were fresh to us. Christ, in the gospel, is the same yesterday, today, and for ever, Heb 13:8. Afterwards, indeed, when the Spirit was poured out, and the Christian church was formed, this kingdom of heaven came, which was now spoken of as at hand; but the kingdom of heaven must still be the subject of our preaching: now it is come, we must tell people it is come to them, and must lay before them the precepts and privileges of it; and there is a kingdom of glory yet to come, which we must speak of as at hand, and quicken people to diligence from the consideration of that.
III. The power he gave them to work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrine, Mat 10:8. When he sent them to preach the same doctrine that he had preached, he empowered them to confirm it, by the same divine seals, which could never be set to a lie. This is not necessary now the kingdom of God is come; to call for miracles now is to lay again the foundation when the building is reared. The point being settled, and the doctrine of Christ sufficiently attested, by the miracles which Christ and his apostles wrought, it is tempting God to ask for more signs. They are directed here,
1. To use their power in doing good: not "Go and remove mountains," or "fetch fire from heaven," but, Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers. They are sent abroad as public blessings, to intimate to the world, that love and goodness were the spirit and genius of that gospel which they came to preach, and of that kingdom which they were employed to set up. By this it would appear, that they were the servants of that God who is good and does good, and whose mercy is over all his works; and that the intention of the doctrine they preached, was to heal sick souls, and to raise those that were dead in sin; and therefore, perhaps, that of raising the dead is mentioned; for though we read not of their raising any to life before the resurrection of Christ, yet they were instrumental to raise many to spiritual life.
2. In doing good freely; Freely ye heave received, freely give. Those that had power to heal all diseases, had an opportunity to enrich themselves; who would not purchase such easy certain cures at any rate? Therefore they are cautioned not to make a gain of the power they had to work miracles: they must cure gratis, further to exemplify the nature and complexion of the gospel kingdom, which is made up, not only of grace, but of free grace. Gratia gratis data (Rom 3:24), freely by his grace, Buy medicines without money, and without price, Isa 55:1. And the reason is, because freely you have received. Their power to heal the sick cost them nothing, and, therefore, they must not make any secular advantage to themselves of it. Simon Magus would not have offered money for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, if he had not hoped to get money by them; Act 8:18. Note, The consideration of Christ's freeness in doing good to us, should make us free in doing good to others.
IV. The provision that must be made for them in this expedition; it is a thing to be considered in sending an ambassador, who must bear the charge of the embassy. As to that,
1. They must make no provision for it themselves, Mat 10:9, Mat 10:10. Provide neither gold nor silver. As, on the one hand, they shall not raise estates by their work, so, on the other hand, they shall not spend what little they have of their own upon it. This was confined to the present mission, and Christ would teach them, (1.) To act under the conduct of human prudence. They were now to make but a short excursion, and were soon to return to their Master, and to their head-quarters again, and, therefore, why should they burthen themselves with that which they would have no occasion for? (2.) To act in dependence upon Divine Providence. They must be taught to live, without taking thought for life, Mat 6:25, etc. Note, They who go upon Christ's errand, have, of all people, most reason to trust him for food convenient. Doubtless he will not be wanting to those that are working for him. Those whom he employs, as they are taken under special protection, so they are entitled to special provisions. Christ's hired servants shall have bread enough and to spare; while we abide faithful to God and our duty, and are in care to do our work well, we may cast all our other care upon God; Jehovah-jireh, let the Lord provide for us and ours as he thinks fit.
2. They might expect that those to whom they were sent would provide for them what was necessary, Mat 10:10. The workman is worthy of his meat. They must not expect to be fed by miracles, as Elijah was: but they might depend upon God to incline the hearts of those they went among, to be kind to them, and provide for them. Though they who serve at the altar may not expect to grow rich by the altar, yet they may expect to live, and to live comfortably upon it, Co1 9:13, Co1 9:14. It is fit they should have their maintenance from their work. Ministers are, and must be, workmen, labourers, and they that are so are worthy of their meat, so as not to be forced to any other labour for the earning of it. Christ would have his disciples, as not to distrust their God, so not to distrust their countrymen, so far as to doubt of a comfortable subsistence among them. If you preach to them, and endeavour to do good among them, surely they will give you meat and drink enough for your necessities: and if they do, never desire dainties; God will pay you your wages hereafter, and it will be running on in the mean time.
V. The proceedings they were to observe in dealing with any place, Mat 10:11-15. They went abroad they knew not whither, uninvited, unexpected, knowing none, and known of none; the land of their nativity was to them a strange land; what rule must they go by? what course must they take? Christ would not send them out without full instructions, and here they are.
1. They are here directed how to conduct themselves toward those that were strangers to them; How to do,
(1.) In strange towns and cities: when you come to a town, enquire who in it is worthy. [1.] It is supposed that there were some such in every place, as were better disposed than others to receive the gospel, and the preachers of it; though it was a time of general corruption and apostasy. Note, In the worst of times and places, we may charitably hope that there are some who distinguish themselves, and are better than their neighbours; some who swim against the stream, and are as wheat among the chaff. There were saints in Nero's household. Enquire who is worthy, who there are that have some fear of God before their eyes, and have made a good improvement of the light and knowledge they have. The best are far from meriting the favour of a gospel offer; but some would be more likely than others to give the apostles and their message a favourable entertainment, and would not trample these pearls under their feet. Note, Previous dispositions to that which is good, are both directions and encouragements to ministers, in dealing with people. There is most hope of the word being profitable to those who are already so well inclined, as that it is acceptable to them; and there is here and there one such. [2.] They must enquire out such; not enquire for the best inns; public houses were no proper places for them that neither took money with them (Mat 10:9), nor expected to receive any (Mat 10:8); but they must look out for accommodations in private houses, with those that would entertain them well, and expect no other recompence for it but a prophet's reward, an apostle's reward, their praying and preaching. Note, They that entertain the gospel, must neither grudge the expense of it, nor promise themselves to get by it in this world. They must enquire, not who is rich, but who is worthy; not who is the best gentleman, but who is the best man. Note, Christ's disciples, wherever they come, should ask for the good people of the place, and be acquainted with them; when we took God for our God, we took his people for our people, and like will rejoice in its like. Paul in all his travels found out the brethren, if there were any, Act 28:14. It is implied, that if they did enquire who was worthy, they might discover them. They that were better than their neighbours would be taken notice of, and any one could tell them, there lives an honest, sober, good man; for this is a character which, like the ointment of the right hand, betrays itself and fills the house with its odours. Every body knew where the seer's house was, Sa1 9:18. [3.] In the house of those they found worthy, they must continue; which intimates that they were to make so short a stay at each town, that they needed not change their lodging, but whatever house providence brought them to at first, there they must continue till they left that town. They are justly suspected, as having no good design, that are often changing their quarters. Note, It becomes the disciples of Christ to make the best of that which is, to abide by it, and not be for shifting upon every dislike or inconvenience.
(2.) In strange houses. When they had found the house of one they thought worthy, they must at their entrance salute it. "In those common civilities, be beforehand with people, in token of your humility. Think it not a disparagement, to invite yourselves into a house, nor stand upon the punctilio of being invited. Salute the family, [1.] To draw on further discourse, and so to introduce your message." (From matters of common conversation, we may insensibly pass into that communication which is good to the use of edifying.) [2.] "To try whether you are welcome or not; you will take notice whether the salutation be received with shyness and coldness, or with a ready return. He that will not receive your salutation kindly, will not receive your message kindly; for he that is unskilful and unfaithful in a little, will also be in much, Luk 16:10. [3.] To insinuate yourselves into their good opinion. Salute the family, that they may see that though you are serious, you are not morose." Note, Religion teaches us to be courteous and civil, and obliging to all with whom we have to do. Though the apostles went out backed with the authority of the Son of God himself, yet their instructions were, when they came into a house, not to command it, but to salute it; for love's sake rather to beseech, is the evangelical way, Plm 1:8, Plm 1:9. Souls are first drawn to Christ with the cords of a man, and kept to him by the bands of love, Hos 11:4. When Peter made the first offer of the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile, Peter was first saluted; see Act 10:25, for the Gentiles courted that which the Jews were courted to.
When they had saluted the family after a godly sort, they must by the return, judge concerning the family, and proceed accordingly. Note, The eye of God is upon us, to observe what entertainment we give to good people and good ministers; if the house be worthy, let your peace come and rest upon it; if not, let it return to you, Mat 10:13. It seems then, that after they had enquired for the most worthy (Mat 10:11), it was possible they might light upon those that were unworthy. Note, Though it is wisdom to hearken to, yet it is folly to rely upon, common report and opinion; we ought to use a judgment of discretion, and to see with our own eyes. The wisdom of the prudent is himself to understand his own way. Now this rule is intended,
First, For satisfaction to the apostles. The common salutation was, Peace be unto you; this, as they used it, was turned into gospel; it was the peace of God, the peace of the kingdom of heaven, that they wished. Now lest they should make a scruple of pronouncing this blessing upon all promiscuously, because many were utterly unworthy of it, this is to clear them of that scruple; Christ tells them that this gospel prayer (for so it was now become) should be put up for all, as the gospel proffer was made to all indefinitely, and that they should leave it to God who knows the heart, and every man's true character, to determine the issue of it. If the house be worthy, it will reap the benefit of your blessing; if now, there is no harm done, you will not lose the benefit of it; it shall return to you, as David's prayers for his ungrateful enemies did, Psa 35:13. Note, It becomes us to judge charitably of all, to pray heartily for all, and to conduct ourselves courteously to all, for that is our part, and then to leave it with God to determine what effect it shall have upon them, for that is his part.
Secondly, For direction to them. "If, upon your salutation, it appear that they are indeed worthy, let them have more of your company, and so let your peace come upon them; preach the gospel to them, peace by Jesus Christ; but if otherwise, if they carry it rudely to you, and shut their doors against you, let your peace, as much as in you lies, return to you. Retract what you have said, and turn your backs upon them; by slighting this, they have made themselves unworthy of the rest of your favours, and cut themselves short of them." Note, Great blessings are often lost by a neglect seemingly small and inconsiderable, when men are in their probation and upon their behaviour. Thus Esau lost his birthright (Gen 25:34), and Saul his kingdom, Sa1 13:13, Sa1 13:14.
2. They are here directed how to carry it towards those that were refusers of them. The case is put (Mat 10:14) of those that would not receive them, nor hear their words. The apostles might think, that now they had such a doctrine to preach, and such a power to work miracles for the confirmation of it, no doubt but they should be universally entertained and made welcome: they are, therefore, told before, that there would be those that would slight them, and put contempt on them and their message. Note, The best and most powerful preachers of the gospel must expect to meet with some, that will not so much as give them the hearing, nor show them any token of respect. Many turn a deaf ear, even to the joyful sound, and will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charm they never so wisely. Observe, "They will not receive you, and they will not hear your words." Note, Contempt of the gospel, and contempt of gospel ministers, commonly go together, and they will either of them be construed into a contempt of Christ, and will be reckoned for accordingly.
Now in this case we have here,
(1.) The directions given to the apostles what to do. They must depart out of that house or city. Note, The gospel will not tarry long with those that put it away from them. At their departure they must shake off the dust of their feet, [1.] In detestation of their wickedness; it was so abominable, that it did even pollute the ground they went upon, which must therefore be shaken off as a filthy thing. The apostles must have no fellowship nor communion with them; must not so much as carry away the dust of their city with them. The work of them that turn aside shall not cleave to me, Psa 101:3. The prophet was not to eat or drink in Bethel, Kg1 13:9. [2.] As a denunciation of wrath against them. It was to signify, that they were base and vile as dust, and that God would shake them off. The dust of the apostles' feet, which they left behind them, would witness against them, and be brought in as evidence, that the gospel had been preached to them, Mar 6:11. Compare Jam 5:3. See this practised, Act 13:51, Act 18:6. Note, They who despise God and his gospel shall be lightly esteemed.
(2.) The doom passed upon such wilful recusants, Mat 10:15. It shall be more tolerable, in the day of judgment, for the land of Sodom, as wicked a place as it was. Note, [1.] There is a day of judgment coming, when all those that refused the gospel will certainly be called to account for it; however they now make a jest of it. They that would not hear the doctrine that would save them, shall be made to hear the sentence that will ruin them. Their judgment is respited till that day. [2.] There are different degrees of punishment in that day. All the pains of hell will be intolerable; but some will be more so than others. Some sinners sink deeper into hell than others, and are beaten with more stripes. [3.] The condemnation of those that reject the gospel, will in that day be severer and heavier than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom is said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, Jde 1:7. But that vengeance will come with an aggravation upon those that despise the great salvation. Sodom and Gomorrah were exceedingly wicked (Gen 13:13), and that which filled up the measure of their iniquity was, that they received not the angels that were sent to them, but abused them (Gen 19:4, Gen 19:5), and hearkened not to their words, Mat 10:14. And yet it will be more tolerable for them than for those who receive not Christ's ministers and hearken not to their words. God's wrath against them will be more flaming, and their own reflections upon themselves more cutting. Son, remember I will sound most dreadfully in the ears of such as had a fair offer made them of eternal life, and chose death rather. The iniquity of Israel, when God sent them his servants the prophets, is represented as, upon that account, more heinous than the iniquity of Sodom (Eze 16:48, Eze 16:49), much more now he sent them his Son, the great Prophet.
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 vv5–41 These twelve Jesus sent forth,.... And no other but…
These twelve Jesus sent forth,.... And no other but them, under the character of apostles. These had been with him a considerable time, to whom he had been gradually communicating spiritual knowledge; and by the benefit of private conference with him, and the observation they had made upon his doctrine and conduct, were greatly qualified for public usefulness: wherefore he gives them a commission, furnishes them with power and authority; and sends them forth from him by pairs, that they might be assisting to one another, and bear a joint testimony to the Gospel they preached; but before he sent them forth from his presence, he gave them some directions where they should go, and to whom they should minister, and where not:
and he commanded them, as their Lord and Master; he gave them strict orders, which he expected them to comply with, and closely enjoined them, as they must answer it to him again,
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saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles; meaning, not the customs' and manners of the Heathens, they were to avoid; but that they were not to steer their course, or take their journey towards them: they were not, as yet, to go among them, and preach the Gospel to them; the calling of the Gentiles was not a matter, as yet, so clearly revealed and known, nor was the time of their calling come: besides it was the will of God, that the Gospel should be first preached to the Jews, to take off all excuse from them, and that their obstinacy and perverseness in rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, might manifestly appear; and since Christ himself was the minister of the circumcision, he would have his apostles, for the present, whilst he was on earth, act agreeably to the character he bore, that there might be an entire harmony in their conduct.
And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: the word "any" is supplied, and that very rightly; for, not the city of Samaria, the metropolis of that country, as the Arabic version reads it, is only meant, but any, and every city of the Samaritans: not that it was strictly unlawful and criminal to go thither; for he himself went into one of their cities, and so did his apostles, Joh 4:4 Luk 9:52 and after his death preached the Gospel there; but he judged it not proper and expedient at this time, and as yet, to do it; that is, not before their preaching it to the Jews; for there was a very great hatred subsisting between the Jews, and the Samaritans, insomuch that they had no conversation with each other in things civil or religious. The Samaritans, though they boasted of their descent from Jacob, were a mongrel sort of people, partly Jews, and partly Gentiles, a mixture of both; and therefore are distinguished from both and though they had, and held the law, and five books of Moses, yet corrupted them in many places, to serve their purpose, and countenance their religion, particularly their worshipping at Mount Gerizim; on which account they were looked upon by the Jews as apostates, idolaters, and even as Heathens (f), and are therefore here joined with them; and to shun giving offence to the Jews, seems to be the reason of this prohibition; see Gill on Joh 4:20.
(f) T. Hieros. Shekelim, fol. 46. 2. Bartenora in Misn. Taharot, c. 5. sect. 8.
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 vv5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 These twelve Jesus sent forth - Herein exercising his…
These twelve Jesus sent forth - Herein exercising his supreme authority, as God over all. None but God can give men authority to preach his word. Go not - Their commission was thus confined now, because the calling of the Gentiles was deferred till after the more plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost. Enter not - Not to preach; but they might to buy what they wanted, John iv, 9.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5–42 Verse 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded]…
Verse 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded] To be properly qualified for a minister of Christ, a man must be,
1. filled with the spirit of holiness;
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2. called to this particular work;
3. instructed in its nature, c. and,
4. commissioned to go forth, and testify the Gospel of the grace of God.
These are four different gifts which a man must receive from God by Christ Jesus. To these let him add all the human qualifications he can possibly attain; as in his arduous work he will require every gift and every grace.
Go not into the way of the Gentiles] Our Lord only intended that the first offers of salvation should be made to the Jewish people; and that the heathen should not be noticed in this first mission, that no stumbling-block might be cast in the way of the Jews.
Into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not] The Samaritans had afterwards the Gospel preached to them by Christ himself, Joh 4:4, c., for the reason assigned above. Such as God seems at first to pass by are often those for whom he has designed his greatest benefits, (witness the Samaritans, and the Gentiles in general,) but he has his own proper time to discover and reveal them.
The history of the Samaritans is sufficiently known from the Old Testament. Properly speaking, the inhabitants of the city of Samaria should be termed Samaritans but this epithet belongs chiefly to the people sent into that part of the promised land by Salmanezer, king of Assyria, in the year of the world 3283, when he carried the Israelites that dwelt there captives beyond the Euphrates, and sent a mixed people, principally Cuthites, to dwell in their place. These were altogether heathens at first; but they afterwards incorporated the worship of the true God with that of their idols. See the whole account, 2Kg 17:5, c. From this time they feared Jehovah, and served other gods till after the Babylonish captivity. From Alexander the Great, Sanballat, their governor, obtained permission to build a temple upon Mount Gerizim, which the Jews conceiving to be in opposition to their temple at Jerusalem, hated them with a perfect hatred, and would have no fellowship with them. The Samaritans acknowledge the Divine authority of the law of Moses, and carefully preserve it in their own characters, which are probably the genuine ancient Hebrew the character which is now called Hebrew being that of the Chaldeans. The Samaritan Pentateuch is printed in the London Polyglott, and is an undeniable record. A poor remnant of this people is found still at Naplouse, the ancient Shechem; but they exist in a state of very great poverty and distress, and probably will soon become extinct.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27, 29, 32, 34, 37, 39 Mat 10:5-6. These twelve Jesus sent forth — Namely,…
Mat 10:5-6. These twelve Jesus sent forth — Namely, to preach the gospel and to work miracles; exercising therein his supreme authority over his Church. And commanded, Go not into the way of the Gentiles — That is, into their country. Their commission was thus confined now, because the calling of the Gentiles was deferred till after the more plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost. And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not — In travelling through Palestine the apostles would often have occasion to go into Samaria; but they were not to enter the cities thereof with a design to preach. It is true, in the beginning of his ministry, our Lord himself preached to the Samaritans with great success, Joh 4:41-42; and therefore, had he sent his apostles among them, numbers, in all probability, would have been induced to believe; but the inveterate enmity which the Jews bore to the Samaritans made the conversion of the latter improper at this time, as it would have laid a great stumbling-block in the way of the conversion of the Jews: as preaching now to the Gentiles would also have done. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel — He calls the Jews lost sheep, because, as he had told his disciples, Mat 9:36, they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd, and so were in danger of perishing. See Isaiah 49.
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 vv5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40 Into the way of the Gentiles - That is,…
Into the way of the Gentiles - That is, among the Gentiles, or nowhere but among the Jews. The full time for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles was not come. It was proper that it should be first preached to the Jews, the ancient covenant people of God, and the people among whom the Messiah was born. Afterward he gave them a charge to go into all the world, Mat 28:19.
And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not - The Samaritans occupied the country formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh. This region was situated between Jerusalem and Galilee; so that in passing from the one to the other, it was a direct course to pass through Samaria. The capital of the country was Samaria, formerly a large and splendid city. It was situated about 15 miles to the northwest of the city of Shechem or Sychar (see the notes at Joh 4:5), and about 40 miles to the north of Jerusalem. For a description of this city, see the notes at Isa 28:1. Sychar or Shechem was also a city within the limits of Samaria.
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This people was formerly composed of a few of the ten tribes and a mixture of foreigners. When the ten tribes were carried away into captivity to Babylon, the King of Assyria sent people from Cutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim to inhabit their country, 2Ki 17:24; Ezr 4:2-11. These people at first worshipped the idols of their own nations; but, being troubled with lions, which had increased greatly while the country remained uninhabited, they supposed it was because they had not honored the God of the country. A Jewish priest was therefore sent to them from Babylon to instruct them in the Jewish religion. They were instructed partially from the books of Moses, but still retained many of their old rites and idolatrous customs, and embraced a religion made up of Judaism and idolatry, 2Ki 17:26-28.
The grounds of difference between the two nations were the following:
1. The Jews, after their return from Babylon, set about rebuilding their temple. The Samaritans offered to aid them. The Jews, however, perceiving that it was not from a love of true religion, but that they might obtain a part of the favors granted to the Jews by Cyrus, rejected their offer. The consequence was, that a stare of long and bitter animosity arose between them and the Jews.
2. While Nehemiah was engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem, the Samaritans used every art to thwart him in his undertaking, Neh 6:1-14.
3. The Samaritans at length obtained leave of the Persian monarch to build a temple for themselves. This was erected on “Mount Gerizim,” and they strenuously contended that that was the place designated by Moses as the place where the nation should worship. Sanballat, the leader of the Samaritans, constituted his son-in-law, Manasses, high priest. The religion of the Samaritans thus became perpetuated, and an irreconcilable hatred arose between them and the Jews. See the notes at Joh 4:20.
4. Afterward Samaria became a place of resort for all the outlaws of Judea. They received willingly all the Jewish criminals and refugees from justice. The violators of the Jewish laws, and those who had been excommunicated, betook themselves for safety to Samaria, and greatly increased their numbers and the hatred which subsisted between the two nations.
5. The Samaritans received only the five books of Moses, and rejected the writings of the prophets and all the Jewish traditions. From these causes arose an irreconcilable difference between them, so that the Jews regarded them as the worst of the human race Joh 8:48, and had no dealings with them, Joh 4:9.
Our Saviour, however, preached the gospel to them afterward John 4:6-26, and the apostles imitated his example, Act 8:25. The gospel was, however, first preached to the Jews.
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 vv7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41 And going, &c. What the apostles were to preach,…
And going, &c. What the apostles were to preach, is the second thing to be taken notice of in their mission. We here learn what it is, viz. that The kingdom of heaven is at hand. We here behold the great dignity to which the apostles were raised, when sent to preach. For, says St. Chrysostom, they are not sent to announce sensible things, like Moses and the prophets, but something wholly new, and before unheard of. They are not like the prophets, to confine themselves to the preaching of temporal things, their doctrine is wholly heavenly; they are sent to announce the good things of eternity. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
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 vv5, 11, 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 32, 34 2. The Mission, the Message, and the promised Support.…
2. The Mission, the Message, and the promised Support. Mat_10:5-10
5These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles,12 and into any [a] city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead,13 cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 9Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in 10your purses [girdles]14; Nor scrip [bag] for your journey, neither [nor] two coats, neither [nor] shoes,15 nor yet staves [a staff]Matthew 16 : for the workman is worthy of his meat.17
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EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The instruction to the Apostles is contained in Mat_10:5-42. The parallel passages are in the ninth, tenth, and twelfth chaps. of Luke. As Matthew was an eyewitness, we have sufficient guarantee for the accuracy of the instructions as reported by him.
Mat_10:5. The way of the Gentiles;—i. e., to the Gentiles, or into Gentile territory. This with special reference to their own condition, and to the circumstance that they were to take the road toward Jerusalem, as appears from the following clause.
Into any city of the Samaritans.—Samaria lay on their way from Galilee to Judæa. The Lord does not prohibit their passing through Samaria, but only their settling for evangelistic purposes, for which the time had not yet arrived. This passage, with its injunction, not to the Gentiles, nor to the Samaritans, but to the Jews, contrasts with the command after His resurrection: “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” The Lord assigns to the Samaritans a position intermediate between the Jews and the Gentiles, which is fully borne out by their history. They had greater claim on the gospel than the Gentiles, but less than the Jews. This seems to imply (what Hengstenberg denies) that they were a mixed race, whose religion consisted of a combination of Jewish and heathen elements. The Samaritans were the descendants of the heathen colonists (Gerlach: Phœnicians and Syrians?) whom Shalmaneser sent into the country after the deportation of the Ten Tribes into Assyria (2Ki_17:24), and of the remnant of Israelites left behind, with whom they intermarried. When the Jews returned from the Babylonish captivity, they prevented the Samaritans from taking part in rebuilding the temple. Accordingly, the latter reared, under Sanballat and Manasseh (Neh_13:28), a sanctuary of their own, on Mount Gerizim, which was destroyed by Hyrcanus, 109 b. c. The place, however, was regarded sacred, and prayer was offered there. The Jews treated the Samaritans as heretics (not absolutely as heathens). Their enmity was, perhaps, partly accounted for by the conduct of the Samaritans, who neither consistently espoused the cause of Judaism nor that of heathenism. This led to bitter hatred and jealousy between these neighboring populations. In later times, the Samaritans continued strict Monotheists, cherished the hope of a coming Messiah, and adopted the Pentateuch as their authority in matters of faith. But even then heathen elements appeared among them. See Acts 8.
We must not overlook the difference between μὴἀπέλθητε and μὴεἰσέλθητε. The conversation between the Lord and the woman of Samaria, and His appearance in one of their cities, fully prove that this was merely a provisional arrangement for the disciples. The Lord Himself generally acted on the principle of proceeding from the particular to the universal (Mat_15:24), since His kingdom had first to be founded and established in Israel. But withal, He ever prosecuted His great object of extending His kingdom to the utmost boundary of the earth. This temporary limitation to Israel was, however, the condition necessary for the attainment of this object: Mat_8:11, etc. In the case of His disciples, He strictly insisted on this methodical procedure; and the express prohibition in this instance shows how readily the opposite might have taken place, or, in other words, how deeply they were already imbued with the spirit of catholicity. Accordingly, it is absurd to urge that this prohibition is incompatible with John 4 (Strauss), or with Mat_28:19 (Gfrörer, Köstlin). Heubner: To have sent the disciples to the Gentiles and the Samaritans, would have been to close the way to the hearts of the Jews. A people had first to be gathered among them, for theirs were the calling and the promises. During Christ’s brief ministry on earth, there was neither time nor room for going beyond the boundaries of Canaan.
Mat_10:8. Raise the dead.—“The first instance in which the dead were raised by apostolic agency, occurs in the Book of Acts (Mat_9:36); but the Seventy reported on their return, that the evil spirits were subject to them, Luk_10:17.” Gerlach.
Freely ye have received.—This refers both to their teaching, and to the miraculous help which they were to bring.
Mat_10:9. In your purses, or rather girdles.—The girdle of the upper garment served at the same time as purse. In the East, the rich wear pockets in their dresses.—Neither gold, nor silver, nor brass (copper, small coins; Vulg.: pecunia). A descending climax, showing that even the least profit from their office was prohibited; but implying neither a vow of poverty nor of mendicancy, in the popish sense. They were to introduce the great principle, that the messengers of the gospel had claim on daily support and free hospitality.
Mat_10:10. The prohibition to provide themselves with two under garments, and to bestow care on travelling shoes and travelling staves, may have been a symbolical mode of enjoining that they were rather to stay in one place, than to hurry from one to another,—in general, that they were to be lightly attired, and free of care. Perhaps the word ὑποδήματα means travelling shoes in the strict sense, as distinguished from σανδάλια. The ὐπόδημα κοῖλον refers to the Roman calceus. According to Mark, they were not to put on two under garments. This is merely a stronger expression. But it may be regarded as intended by way of explanation, that in that Gospel the messengers of Christ are directed to take a staff, and to be shod with sandals. This staff of which Mark speaks, is not to be understood as in opposition to several staves (hence, perhaps, the reading ῥάβδους, in several Codd.), but to a larger outfit for the journey. Hence the two accounts substantially agree. They were not to concern themselves about the staff, far less to make a profit of it by their office.
For the workman is worthy of his meat [living].—This serves as key to the preceding passage. Their maintenance and their office were not to be severed. They were to trust to their office for their maintenance, and their maintenance was to be exclusively for their office (1Co_9:14; Gal_6:6). Olshausen rightly calls attention to the difference of times expressed in Luk_22:35. Among those who were prepared to receive the gospel, they required no provision for the future; not so among enemies, although in that case also anxious care was to be banished ( Mat_10:19). The laborer is ἄξιος, worthy, —indicating his personal value, of which he should be conscious with dignity, i. e., with humility and confidence.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The instructions which the Lord gave to His ambassadors, were, in the first place, intended for their first mission. But the terms are so pregnant, the directions so deep in their bearing, and so general in their application, that they may be taken as the type of all the commissions given by Christ to His servants. This remark applies, first, to the aim of their mission, viz., to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; i. e., in the first place, always to those who are most willing and prepared to receive the truth, as well as to the most needy. Next, as to the negative direction about their way, we gather that we are not to reverse the Divine order and arrangement in preaching the gospel,—a rule which Paul invariably followed, Act_16:6; Act_16:9. Then, as to their commission. They are, (a) to preach: to announce that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (b) To confirm their word,—1. by quickening,—healing the sick, and even raising the dead; 2. by purifying,—cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. The servants of Christ must always aim after these two effects in their activity.—Lastly, as to their reward. Freely they receive, freely they give. And yet there is no need for care, since the laborer is worthy of support. The preaching of the gospel must never be degraded into an ordinary worldly employment; nor, on the other hand, should the evangelist be afraid or ashamed to accept of sufficient support from those to whom he preaches, and that according to their own mode of living. We are unfit for building up the kingdom of heaven, or of self-sacrificing love, if we approach the work in a spirit of covetousness or of anxious care, distrusting the supplies of the Church. That this freedom from care does not exclude necessary provision, as indicated by our circumstances and by those of the persons around us, nor the careful preservation of such provision, appears from the history of the miraculous feeding of the multitude. In both these instances there was a small provision, and a larger one was preserved. Gerlach mentions the cloak of Paul as a case in point, 2Ti_4:13. But this last circumstance also shows how free from all outward care the Apostles had been.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Christ sending forth His messengers: 1. The messengers; 2. the aim; 3. the way; 4. the message; 5. the price (freely, in the love of Christ); 6. the provision and the support.—The mission of the twelve Apostles, in its continuance to the end of the world.—Fulfilment of the prediction, “How beautiful upon the mountains!” etc., Isa_52:7.—How Divine wisdom orders the way of Divine love: 1. As need increases, help enlarges; 2. through limitation to universality; 3. from those who are most susceptible, to those who are less susceptible; 4. through the quickening of the people of God, to that of the world.—True and false separatism, as distinguished from true and false universalism, in the spread of the faith.—Missionary zeal must accommodate itself to right order, and move in the right direction.—How does the Lord indicate the manner in which to carry on His work? 1. By His word; 2. by the history of His kingdom; 3. by His spirit.—The eternal obligation to carry the gospel to the Jews, as derived from the injunction to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.—Symbolical meaning of the injunction: 1. To go to the lost; 2. to the lost sheep; 3. to those on whom the hope of the Church rests.—The message of salvation: 1. An announcement of the kingdom of heaven by the word; 2. an exhibition of the word of God by deeds.—How the ambassadors of the Church must prove their Divine mission: 1. By healing the sick, not by torturing the whole; 2. by raising the dead, not by killing the living; 3. by cleansing the lepers (heretics), not by representing as heretics those who are pure; 4. by casting out devils, not by setting them free.—Freely ye have received, freely give: the fundamental principle for the spread of the kingdom of God.—Freedom from care of the messengers of Jesus.—The pilgrims lightly attired, carrying in their hearts the treasures of heaven: 1. Outwardly, unburdened; 2. inwardly, laden with the greatest riches.—The laborer is worthy of his hire; or, those who publish the gospel should live by the gospel.
Starke:—The kingdom of Christ is not earthly, nor of this world, but consists of heavenly and spiritual treasures.—The office of the ministry is not a trade.—Quesnel:—What it is to have neither gold nor silver in our scrips, but to have them in our hearts.—A true minister of the gospel is not hindered by anything in his mission, but is ever ready to go.—Duty of the Church to maintain its ministers.
Gerlach:—Disinterestedness one of the great characteristics of the servants of Christ.—The grace of God is free, even though it be communicated by the instrumentality of man.
Heubner:—Go not whither inclination carries, but whither God sends you.—The greed of Gehazi punished.—Ministers must not seek their own ease or advancement.
Footnotes:
[12] Mat_10:5.—[Εἰς ὁδὸν ἐθνῶν μὴ ὰπέλθητε. Ewald: Hin zu Heiden ziehet nicht; Lange: Gehet nicht abwärts auf die Strause der Heiden; Campbell, Norton: Go not away to Gentiles; Conant: Go not away to Gentiles (omitting the article); the N. T. of the Am. Bible Union: Go not into the way to the Gentiles; ὁδὸς ἐθνων = Heidenweg, i. e., way to the heathen.—P. S.]
[13] Mat_10:8.—The words: νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε are wanting in Codd. E., F., K., L., M., etc., in many transl., and fathers, and hence omitted by Scholz and Tisc endorf. But they are supported by the important Codd. B., C., D. [and Cod. Sinait.], and old versions, and the omission may be easily explained from the fact that no raising of the dead occurred on this first mission. Griesbach and Lachmann [also Alford in the fourth edition] give the words after θεραπεύετε. [This is the proper order of the oldest MSS. including the Cod. Sinait, and hence Lange correctly translates: Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, etc. So also Dr. Conant, and the N. T. of the Am. Bible Union.—P. S.]
[14] Mat_10:9.—[Εἰς τὰς ζώνας; Lange: Gürtel (-taschen).]
[15] Mat_10:10.—[More literally: sandals, ὑποδήματα. But Lange retains the more popular: Schuhe.]
[16] Mat_10:10.—[Dr. Conant: “The Received Text, after Stephens’ 3d ed. of 1550, has correctly ῥάβδον in the sing., as in our vernacular version from Wiclif’s to the Bishops’ Bible. King James’ revisers, following the false reading of the Complutensian and of Stephens’ first and second editions, give the plural: staves; perhaps to avoid an imaginary discrepancy with Mar_5:8.” Dr Lange adopts the singular.—P. S.]
[17] Mat_10:10.—[Lange: Unterhalt, sustenance; Conant: living. The Greek τροφή includes all that is necessary for support or sustenance of life.—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 vv5–42 THE TWELVE RECEIVE THEIR INSTRUCTIONS. (Mat. 10:5-42)
THE TWELVE RECEIVE THEIR INSTRUCTIONS. (Mat. 10:5-42)
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not--The Samaritans were Gentiles by blood; but being the descendants of those whom the king of Assyria had transported from the East to supply the place of the ten tribes carried captive, they had adopted the religion of the Jews, though with admixtures of their own: and, as the nearest neighbors of the Jews, they occupied a place intermediate between them and the Gentiles. Accordingly, when this prohibition was to be taken off, on the effusion of the Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles were told that they should be Christ's witnesses first "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea," then "in Samaria," and lastly, "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Act 1:8).
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 vv5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 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 § 57. — CHARGE TO THE APOSTLES, Mat_10:5-42.
§ 57. — CHARGE TO THE APOSTLES, Mat_10:5-42.
The unity of this discourse demonstrates the oneness of its delivery, a point disputed by Olshausen and others. It consists properly of three parts. The first (Mat_10:5-15) directs their demeanour during this present trial mission. The second (Mat_10:16-23) predicts their trials and persecutions through their whole apostolate. The third (Mat_10:24-42) states the duty of suffering, the struggle to ensue, and the results, namely, the reward and penalty of the acceptance or rejection of their Gospel. The discourse, therefore, is complete and symmetrical. There is not a sentence or a word inappropriate to the occasion.
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I. DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR PRESENT JOURNEY, Mat_10:5-15.
This first part of the discourse is also divisible into three parts: 1. Their journey and business, Mat_10:5 to Mat_8:2. Their provisions, Mat_10:9; Mat_10:3. Their reception, Mat_10:11-14.
5. Go — This was the word — Go. It embraced the commission of an apostle, and it embraces the mission of every preacher. Christ is his starting point, the world his field, souls his object; and he is not to stand, but to move; not to stay, but to GO.
Not into the way of the Gentiles — Our Lord’s direction first tells them where not to go. The way or route through the nations and tribes lying out of Palestine, is prohibited. Any city of the Samaritans — Our Lord forbids not going into the way of the Samaritans, but into any city of theirs. Samaria lay between Galilee and Judea. The way from one to the other therefore lay through Samaria. Into this way our Lord himself went, but not into any city of that section. The Gospel might be dropped by them, as by our Lord himself passingly and by the way, but not be directly carried into any centre of population.
Why did our Lord thus limit his apostles to Palestine and to Israel? For the same reason, we may reply, that he made Israel primitively his chosen people. The whole Old Testament dispensation was limited to Israel. Amid the apostacy of the nations, God deposited his truth, his ordinances, and his oracles for safe preservation with one people. Upon one land he concentrated the light of his truth. These deposits were there held in reserve for the fulness of the times, in order that, when the proper period should arrive, that light might be diffused, and ultimately fill the whole earth. As he who would fill a whole room with light first deposits the light in the lamp, so God, to illuminate the nations, first deposits his truth in his lamp, his chosen people. It was fitting, therefore, that this first mission should not be limitless and without concentration. The land of the Messiah should be the place for preaching the Messiah. Israel, unfaithful as he had been, was still the best prepared medium to receive and propagate the Messiah’s doctrine. The oracles, the prophecies, the types, the temple, the sacrifices, all of which pointed to the Messiah, were still in Israel. Jews were therefore the first receivers and first proclaimers of the Gospel. As Christ had chosen twelve tribes from the nations, so he chose twelve apostles from the tribes. It was the mission of the apostles to indoctrinate the tribes, that the tribes might indoctrinate the nations. But after the Lord’s resurrection an enlarged commission, embracing the world, was conferred upon them. They were to go into all nations, and preach the Gospel to every creature.
The peculiar history of the Samaritans is mostly learned from the Old Testament. After the revolt of the ten tribes Samaria became their capital, and from it the population generally received the name Samaritans. In the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, the main body of the better population were taken captive and transported by Shalmanezer to Assyria. 2 Kings 17. To fill their place, a population of Assyrians was colonized by the same king in northern Palestine. These idolaters were assailed by lions; and considering their depredations to be produced by the anger of Jehovah, the God of Israel, they sent for a priest of the tribe of Levi, who came by their wish and dwelt in Bethel, to teach them the religion of the true God. A mixed religion as well as a mixed people resulted. Idolatry and Judaism were combined in their doctrines; Assyrian and Israelite blood were blended in their race. When the Jews returned from their captivity to Judea, feuds arose between the Samaritans and Jews, which last to the present hour. In the reign of Darius Nothus, king of Persia, Manasses, son of the high priest of the Jews, married the daughter of Sanballat, the governor of Samaria; and being required by the Mosaic law to divorce her, he preferred to go over to the Samaritans. Under the patronage of his father in law he became Samaritan high priest, with a temple erected for him on Mount Gerizim. From that time Jew and Samaritan became hateful to each other.
In our Saviour’s time Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Joh_4:9. The worst thing a Jew supposed he could utter of Jesus was, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil. Joh_8:48. Our Saviour in the present verse recognizes the Jews as the covenant people in distinction from Samaritans; but on several occasions he manifested his purity from the Jewish malignity against them. He made a Samaritan the hero of one of his parables, in disparagement of a Jewish priest and Levite. Luk_10:33. The Samaritans, many of them, believed upon him. Joh_4:29. See also Luke 9.
Of the Samaritans but a few families now remain, namely, at Nablous, the ancient Shechem. They have a venerable copy of the law, strictly keep the Sabbath, observe the ancient festivals, and firmly expect the Messiah.
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 vv5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 5. Go not into the way of the Gentiles]…
5. Go not into the way of the Gentiles] For the expression “way of the Gentiles” cp. ch. Mat_4:15, “the way of the sea.”
This prohibition is not laid on the Seventy (St Luk_10:1-16), they are expressly commissioned to carry tidings of the gospel to cities and places which our Lord Himself proposed to visit.
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any city of the Samaritans] The Samaritans were foreigners descended from the alien population introduced by the Assyrian king (probably Sargon), 2Ki_17:24, to supply the place of the exiled Israelites. In Luk_17:18, our Lord calls a Samaritan “this stranger,” i. e. this man of alien or foreign race. The bitterest hostility existed between Jew and Samaritan, which has not died out to this day. The origin of this international ill-feeling is related Ezr_4:2-3. Their religion was a corrupt form of Judaism. For being plagued with lions, the Samaritans summoned a priest to instruct them in the religion of the Jews. Soon, however, they lapsed from a pure worship, and in consequence of their hatred to the Jews, purposely introduced certain innovations. Their rival temple on Mount Gerizim was destroyed by John Hyrcanus about 129 b. c. See Nutt’s “Sketch of the Samaritans,” p. 19.
About twenty years previous to our Lord’s ministry the Samaritans had intensified the national antipathy by a gross act of profanation. During the celebration of the Passover they stole into the Temple Courts when the doors were opened after midnight and strewed the sacred enclosure with dead men’s bones (Jos. Ant. XVIII. 2, 2). Even after the siege of Jerusalem, when the relations between Jews and Samaritans were a little less hostile, the latter were still designated by the Jews as the “Proselytes of the lions,” from the circumstance mentioned above.
5–42. Christ’s Charge to the Apostles
This discourse falls naturally into two divisions; of which the first (Mat_10:5-15) has reference to the immediate present, the second relates rather to the church of the future. The subdivisions of the first part are: (1) Their mission field, 5, 6. (2) Their words and works, 7, 8. (3) Their equipment, 9, 10. (4) Their approach to cities and houses, 11–15.
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 vv5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 (5) Go not into the way of the Gentiles.—The…
(5) Go not into the way of the Gentiles.—The emphatic limitation seems at first sight at variance with the language which had spoken of those who should come from east and west to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and with the fact that our Lord had already taken His disciples into a city of Samaria, and told them that there also there were fields white for the harvest (Joh_4:35). We must remember, however, (1) that the limitation was confined to the mission on which they were now sent; (2) that it did but recognise a divine order, the priority of Israel in God’s dealing with mankind, “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile;” and (3) that the disciples themselves were as yet unfitted to enter on a work which required wider thoughts and hopes than they had yet attained. It was necessary that they should learn to share their Master’s pity for the lost sheep of the house of Israel before they could enter into His yearnings after the sheep that were “not of this fold” (Joh_10:16).
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 vv5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 Parallel passages: Mar_6:7, 8 Luk_9:2. These twelve Jesus sent…
Parallel passages: Mar_6:7, 8 Luk_9:2. These twelve Jesus sent forth; apesteilen . (cf. Joh_17:18) Till now they had formed an inner circle of mayhtai , (Mat_9:35, note) but now they begin their work of carrying Christ"s message to others. Apostellw corresponds with the idea of our own words "despatch" and "envoy," and conveys the accessory notions of a special commission, and so far of a delegated authority in the person sent" (Bishop Westcott, on Joh_20:21, Add. Note). Bengel suggests (on ver. 1) that the twelve were not all absent at once, but were sent out in relays; but Mar_6:30 is against this opinion. (cf. also Luk_22:35) On the New Testament conception of the name and office of an apostle, cf. Bishop Lightfoot"s classical note in "Galatians" (pp. 92-101, edit. 1869). And commanded them, saying; charged them (Revised Version). Important as the charge is, its necessary subordination to the fact that they were sent is expressed by the very form of the sentence (apesteilen)... (paraggeilav).
Vers. 5b-42. CHRIST"S COMMISSION TO HIS AGENTS. The connexion and development of thought in this important charge is exceedingly difficult to perceive, and has been understood in many ways. Perhaps that most generally accepted in this country is Alford"s, according to which the charge is divided into three sections the first (vers. 5-15) referring to the mission to the cities of Israel; the second (vers. 16-23) to the general mission of the apostles as developing itself, after the Lord should be taken from them, in preaching to Jews and Gentiles, ending with the close of the apostolic period in the narrower sense (ver. 23 referring primarily to the destruction of Jerusalem); the third (vers. 24-42) spoken directly of all the disciples of the Lord, concluding with the last great reward.
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But this threefold historical arrangement seems to be little more than fanciful, the basis of truth Underlying it probably being that the charge in its present form is due to the writer of the Gospel (nor to our Lord directly), who desired not only to record what our Lord said at the time of this mission, but also to incorporate other sayings of his that bore upon similar work, and thus to give such a summary of our Lord"s utterances as would be of special use to preachers of the gospel, irrespective of place or time.
Observe that Mt 5-7, referred to believers in their private capacity laying stress on the relation that they were to hold to the religion of the day while this chapter refers to them as representing Christ to the world. The original basis of the commission was addressed to men called to give their whole time to this work, but as the chapter stands it applies to all believers in their capacity of witnesses for Christ. The ministerial function of preaching committed to men selected for it is only an accentuation of one of the duties expected from all Christ"s followers.
The development of thought in the chapter appears to be as follows:
1. The external conditions of conveying Christ"s message, with special reference to the immediate occasion (vers. 5 b -15).
2. The internal conditions (vers. 16-39).
(1) Vers. 16-23: Though surrounded by enemies, you must conduct yourselves with calmness (ver. 19); with endurance (ver. 22); with wisdom (ver. 23).
(2) Vers. 24-33: Remembering that fellowship with me in suffering is essential to fellowship with me in glory.
(3) Vers. 34-39: Such fellowship with me will cost separation from the dearest on earth, yet its reward is great. 3. Final encouragement (vers. 40-42).
Vers. 5b-15. The external conditions of conveying Christs message, with special reference to the immediate occasion. Our Lord points out
(a) the sphere of their work (vers. 5 b, 6);
(b) the substance of their message (ver. 7);
(c) its accompanying signs (ver. 8);
(d) the external means and methods that they should employ (vers. 9-15).
Ver. 5b. Matthew only. The sphere of their work. The reasons for the limitation here expressly enforced are:
(1) That it was only right that the proclamation of the coming of Messiah should be thoroughly made to the Jews first. Had they accepted it, they would have become the great factors in the evangelization of the Gentiles; (cf. Rom_11:12, Rom_11:15) as they rejected it, it was necessary that the offer should, apart from them, be made to others. (Act_28:28)
(2) The apostles were as yet in no fit state spiritually to carry the message beyond their own nation, and the facts which they were in a position to proclaim might, when proclaimed alone, have proved a stumbling-block to the after-acceptance by Gentiles and Samaritaus of a fuller and therefore truer message. (cf. Mat_28:18, sqq.; Act_1:8) Therefore they are now bid perform their present duty without turning away from it, and, as we may add, will-out anticipating their entrance upon a wider sphere. Saying, Go not. This would be outside your course (apelyhte). In the Greek, however, the following words receive the emphasis. Into the (any, Revised Version) way of the Gentiles (eiv odo).
(1) These words are generally understood to mean "into any road that would lead to Gentile lands or districts." So Tyndale, "Go not into the wayes that leade to the gentyls." (For this genitive of direction, cf. Mat_4:15 Jer_2:18, and perhaps, RAPC Jdt 5:14)
(2) Weiss, "Matthaus-ev.," takes them as equivalent to "into any street in a heathen land," making the genitives, eynwn and Samareitwn , both possessive. There are serious objections to these two interpretations; to the first, that the genitives are then used in different senses; to the second, that it suggests something altogether outside the Israelitish border.
(3) Is not a third interpretation possible to consider flint our Lord had in his mind the parts of towns, otherwise Jewish, which were inhabited by heathen, just as, in the days of Omri and Ahab, such parts were assigned to Syrians in Samaria, and to Israelites in Damascus, or in modern times to Jews in Christian towns? We have not, indeed, direct evidence of Gentiles, during the time of our Lord, thus living in separate streets, but with the Jewish aversion to even letting them houses and to having more to do with them than possible (cf. Schurer, II 1:51-56), it would seem probable that, without any formal arrangement being made, the result would be separation of this kind. It is true that odov is not used elsewhere in this sense in the New Testament, but a comparison of passages in the LXX seems to justify our so interpreting it. For twOxWj, in 1Ki_20:34, means such streets, and the LXX for this is exodouv (exodon , Luke), yet twOxWj, in the sense of "streets," is often elsewhere rendered by odoi . (Jer_5:1 Jer_7:17 Eze_11:6 Nah_2:4 Nah_3:10) Compare especially 2Sa_1:20, "in the streets of Ascalon," where, for the common text, en taiv exodoiv Askalwnov , Lucian"s reads, en taiv odoiv Askalwnov . The expression thus means Go not off into any quarter (of such towns as you may come across) inhabited by Gentiles, and (both in complete parallelism and with perfect accuracy, for Samaritans dwelt alone) into any city of Samaritans enter ye not. And into any city. In the Greek both clauses are in the same order, the verb coming last. It will be noticed that the Revised Version has transposed both for the sake of uniformity. Of the Samaritans. By descent, a mixed race, from the intermingling of the remnants of the Israelitish population more especially with the heathen colonists introduced by the Assyrians; (2Ki_17:24, sqq.) by religion, so far Israelite as to have accepted the Pentateuch, and to have maintained the observance of circumcision, the sabbath, and the annual festivals. Both sides of their connexion with Israel seem to have contributed to their being placed by the Mishna between Jews and Gentiles (cf. further, Schurer, II 1:5, Sqq.). enter ye not. A slight turning away would sometimes bring them to Gentile quarters; but into a Samaritan town they would have definitely and purposely to enter. Observe that our Lord himself so far extended his own practice as not to refuse to take the opportunity of preaching to a Samaritan woman when it presented itself, and further followed up the work thus begun by continuing two days in her village. (Joh_4:40) But the nature of the exception proves the rule.
Vers. 5-15. The Lord"s charge to his apostles.
I DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR IMMEDIATE MISSION.
1. It leas to be confined to the house of Israel. This was a temporary limitation; it was wholly removed at the ascension. The Lord himself entered into the city of the Samaritans; lie healed the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman. But for the present the apostles were to preach only to the Jews; it was necessary that the gospel should be first offered unto them; they were the covenant people, the children of the kingdom. The Holy Land was to be the centre from which the light of the gospel was to be diffused throughout the world. The light must be kindled at the centre first; a Church must be formed in the birthplace of the faith; then the messengers of Christ were to go forth for the evangelization of the world. The gospel must be preached at home first; then comes missionary work. Each disciple must be a witness for Christ; first in his own immediate circle, then let him enlarge his efforts. There are lost sheep at home, in our own households, among our own friends and neighbours. God"s providence has placed them nearest to us; our first duty is to them.
2. Their preaching. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." It had been first the announcement of John the Baptist, then of the Lord himself; now his apostles were to re-echo the solemn message. The kingdom was at hand, not yet fully organized, only in its infancy; but it was in the world. The heavenly King was come; his kingdom was close at hand; men who would share its blessings must press into it.
3. Their power. The Lord had given them power to work miracles or" mercy; they must exercise it. We must care for men"s bodily wants as far as God gives us the means, not only for their spiritual needs. The apostles had received freely, without price, the gift of power from Christ; they must, give, as they received, freely, without price. St. Peter obeyed the Lord"s commandment when he refused to receive money from Simon the sorcerer in exchange for spiritual power.
4. No provision needed for their journey. The workman is worthy of his meat; the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. The apostles were to be supported by those to whom they ministered the bread of life; but they were to look for no more than that daily bread for which the Lord encourages us to pray. They were to trust in God for the supply of their daily needs; they were not to provide money; they were to go lightly clad, without the encumbrance of baggage. The Lord gave different rules afterwards. (Luk_22:36) The directions here were of temporary force; to require literal obedience to them would savour of the fanaticism of the scribes and Pharisees. But in the spirit they are of perpetual obligation. Christ"s ministers must be disinterested; they must labour not for the sake of earthly rewards, but for the love of souls, for the love of Christ; they must cast all their care upon Christ, knowing that he careth for them.
II DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR SOJOURNING IN THEIR VARIOUS STATIONS.
1. They were to choose pious households. They must begin in each town or village with those who were most likely to listen to their message. A pious household would be a fit centre from which the good tidings might spread throughout the neighbourhood. There they should remain. They were not to wander from house to house in search of pleasant places; they were to be content to stay where God"s providence had first directed them.
2. They were to bring the message of peace. "Peace be unto you!" was the common formula of Oriental salutation. The Lord would not have his servants neglect the ordinary courtesies of social life. "A servant of the Lord," Stier writes, "is truly courteous, for he has learned to be so in the high court of his King." But the salutation becomes a Christian blessing in the mouth of the Lord, or of his servants speaking in his Name; its brings peace to the household that is worthy of peace. Words of blessing do no good to the unbelieving and the unworthy. But they are not lost; the blessing returns upon him who utters it in faith and love. Christian love is very precious; every deed and word and thought of love are registered in heaven; not one is lost. If there are some who harden their hearts and will not receive the benefit, it returns in multiplied blessing upon the faithful servant of the Lord.
3. The danger of rejecting the gospel message. The Jews were accustomed to shake off the dust when they returned from foreign journeys; the dust of heathen countries defiled the Holy Land. The apostles were to do so when they left households or towns which refused to receive them and to hear their words. The action was symbolical; it was to be done in sadness, not in anger; it implied separation; it was the last solemn appeal, a warning of the coming judgment. Still Christ"s ministers must observe their Lord"s injunction not, indeed, in the letter, but in the spirit; still they must announce to the wicked the Lord"s most awful warning, "O wicked man, thou shall surely die." If they speak not to warn the wicked, he must die; but his blood will be required at their hand. The Lord himself ratifies the awful sentence. He looks forward to the judgment of the great day. It shall be more tolerable then, he says, for Sodom and Gomorrha than for those who have heard the gospel and rejected it. There are degrees or" guilt, and there are degrees of condemnation. Sin against light is far more guilty than the sin of ignorance; the greater the light, the greater the guilt, if when we have the light we come not to the light, but walk still in darkness, loving with a strange perversity darkness rather than light.
LESSONS.
1. Do not neglect home duties; care first for the souls which God has put within your influence.
2. Christ"s ministers must seek souls, not riches; his people must give freely to supply their needs.
3. Christians must he courteous in their intercourse with one another.
4. The message comes from God; those who reject it incur a most awful danger.
Limited commissions.
"Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not." We may find reason for this limitation of the sphere of the apostles in the fact that this was strictly a trial-mission, in which they were to learn how to fulfil the larger mission which would be entrusted to them by-and-by. When the war-ship is nearly ready for sea, it is required to make a trial-trip; but then its course is strictly defined and limited. But there is something more than this suggested. Our Lord really taught, by these limitations, that every man"s work is strictly defined. He should spend his strength on work within his bounds; and neither worry himself, nor let any one else worry him, by pressing claims outside his bounds. One of the great sources of Christian fretfulness is the pressure of claims on men beyond their proper spheres. The man who is only a popular preacher is worried by people because he does not teach. The man whose gift is teaching is worried because he does not preach the gospel, and save souls. The truth is that every man has his limited commission. Each one has no business with Gentiles or Samaritans. Each one has his proper sphere with his Israel, and he is wise if he keeps to it.
I CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS ARE LIMITED. The honour of doing a whole thing was never given to a single Christian yet. No man ever yet either sowed or harvested God"s entire field. Parts of work are given to individuals. Pieces of the field are given to each. We are seldom, if ever, wise when we go stepping over our borders, breaking down the fences that hedge round our particular work. Within our limits there is sphere for all our powers.
II CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS ARE VARIED. These particular men were to go to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" but other men were to go to the "Gentiles;" and yet others to the "Samaritans." These were to go and preach; others following them would have to teach. Some have just to live for Christ; some have to sing for him, to write for him, to suffer for him. Happy they who can say, "This one thing I do.
III CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS ARE UNITED. In the Divine thought and plan they fit into each other, like the strangely shaped puzzle-pieces, and make up the great whole of service for Christ. This workman and that should be doing well his own piece of work, and so the building will be surely growing into a "holy temple of the Lord. R.T.
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 vv5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42 These twelve Jesus sent forth.
Mat_10:5
These twelve Jesus sent forth.
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Unrecorded workers and heroes
Half of these twelve are never heard of again as doing any work for Christ. That fact may suggest some considerations worth pondering.
I. This peculiar and unexpected silence suggests the true worker in the churchs progress. Let us not over-estimate men. What confidence it ought to give us as we think of the tasks and fortunes of the Church!
II. Suggests what the real work of those delegated workers was.
III. How often faithful work is unrecorded and forgotten.
IV. Forgotten work is remembered, and unrecorded names are recorded above. (Dr. A. Maclaren.)
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 vv5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 5, 6. Go not into the way of the…
5, 6. Go not into the way of the Gentiles. The Jews called all “Gentiles” who were not Jews. Samaritans. The inhabitants of Samaria, a district between Judea and Galilee; descendants of a remnant of the Ten Tribes, mixed with Gentiles colonized there. They accepted the five books of Moses, but worshipped on Mount Gerizim, instead of at Jerusalem. They and the Jews had been for ages bitter enemies.
The lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Compare this commission with the one given to the apostles after the death and resurrection of the Lord (Matt. 28:19). In this commission the apostles are forbidden to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, and are confined to the house of Israel. In the other they are commanded to go into “all the world,” and to “preach the gospel to every creature;” to go “first to Jerusalem, and to Judea, and to Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth.” The first commission is Jewish; the second is world-wide. Yet both are given by the same Lord; why this wide difference? Because the new dispensation was not ushered in until after the resurrection. The Jewish law, national, exclusive, a wall of partition from Gentiles, was yet in force. Christ, “born under the law,” and the apostles also were under it until it was removed. They could not keep it and yet become missionaries to the Gentiles. But when Christ died the old dispensation, the law, died with him. “The handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross.” The old covenant passed away when the new came into force, sealed with the blood of Christ. After the death and resurrection of Christ, the law ceased to be binding upon the apostles. The distinctions of Jew and Gentile were destroyed. Hence, under the new covenant, the world-wide covenant, there was a new commission that would send the gospel to all the world. The old covenant was with the seed of Abraham; the new covenant embraced all nations. See Heb. 8:13.
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, 41 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 vv5, 6, 8, 9, 16, 19, 23, 25, 28, 34, 41 The kingdom was promised to the Jews. Gentiles could…
Gentiles
The kingdom was promised to the Jews. Gentiles could be blessed only through Christ crucified and risen. Cf. Joh 12:20-24.
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 vv5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26, 28, 32, 34, 37, 40 Instructions as to the place to preach:
Instructions as to the place to preach:
v. 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not;
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v. 6. but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
These, twelve in all, known ever after by that designation, Jesus sent away with a definite charge as to the place and sphere of their work. They should stay away from the country of the heathens and from the cities of the Samaritans. With great solemnity, in rhythmic cadence, the emphasis is brought out. The first offer of salvation, by God’s intention, was to be made to the Jewish people. As they had been His chosen nation in the Old Testament, so He now confined His own work, through His disciples, chiefly to Israel, though He was not averse to the Gentiles’ having occasional crumbs, Mat 15:1-39; Joh 4:1-54. The chief regard of the disciples was to be for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, those that were going astray without their knowledge and intention, having been worried and flayed and deliberately misled by hirelings. Neglected they were and in great danger of final perdition, but probably to be won for salvation by careful and thorough Gospel-work, preaching, not healing, being the more important.
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 vv5, 8, 11, 14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 32, 34, 37, 40, 42 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Here Jesus begins to give instructions to his disciples about what they should do and expect when they go to preach.
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General Information:
Although verse 5 begins by saying that he sent out the twelve, Jesus gave these instructions before he sent them out. (See: Order of Events)
These twelve Jesus sent out
"Jesus sent out these twelve men" or "It was these twelve men whom Jesus sent out"
sent out
Jesus sent them out for a particular purpose.
He instructed them
"He told them what they needed to do" or "He commanded them"
lost sheep of the house of Israel
This is a metaphor comparing the entire nation of Israel to sheep who have strayed from their shepherd. (See: Metaphor)
house of Israel
This refers to the nation of Israel. AT: "people of Israel" or "descendants of Israel" (See: Metonymy)
as you go
Here "you" is plural and refers to the twelve apostles. (See: Forms of You)
The kingdom of heaven has come near
The phrase "kingdom of heaven" refers to God ruling as king. This phrase is only in the book of Matthew. If possible, use the word "heaven" in your translation. See how you translated this in Matthew 3:2. AT: "Our God in heaven will soon show himself to be king" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
the twelve
send
instruct
Gentile
Samaria
ewe
house
preach
kingdom of God
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 vv5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 41, 42 10:5 Don’t go to the Gentiles: Jesus’ mission was…
10:5 Don’t go to the Gentiles: Jesus’ mission was limited to Jews at this stage (15:24). Through the Jews, God would reach the Gentiles (Isa 2:2-4; 42:6-7; 49:6; 60:3). • Jews regarded Samaritans as impure Jews (Luke 17:18) because of their intermarriage with Gentiles during and after the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles (2 Kgs 17:24-41). Tension was provoked in 128 BC when the Jewish leader John Hyrcanus destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim (Josephus, Antiquities 13.9.1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.