Matthew 10

Mt 10:1-5.

MISSION OF THE

TWELVE

APOSTLES.

Mr 6:7-13;

Lu 9:1-6).

The last three verses of the ninth chapter form the proper introduction

to the Mission of the Twelve, as is evident from the remarkable fact

that the Mission of the Seventy was prefaced by the very same words.

(See on

Lu 10:2).

1. And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them

power--The word signifies both "power," and "authority" or "right."

Even if it were not evident that here both ideas are included, we find

both words expressly used in the parallel passage of Luke

(Lu 9:1)

--"He gave them power and authority"--in other words, He both

qualified and authorized them.

against--or "over."

2. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these--The other

Evangelists enumerate the twelve in immediate connection with their

appointment

(Mr 3:13-19;

Lu 6:13-16).

But our Evangelist, not intending to record the appointment, but only

the Mission of the Twelve, gives their names here. And as in the Acts

(Ac 1:13)

we have a list of the Eleven who met daily in the upper room with the

other disciples after their Master's ascension until the day of

Pentecost, we have four catalogues in all for comparison.

The first, Simon, who is called Peter--(See on

Joh 1:42).

and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his

brother--named after James, as the younger of the two.

3. Philip and Bartholomew--That this person is the same with "Nathanael

of Cana in Galilee" is justly concluded for the three following reasons:

First, because Bartholomew is not so properly an individual's name as a

family surname; next, because not only in this list, but in Mark's and

Luke's

(Mr 3:18;

Lu 6:14),

he follows the name of "Philip," who was the instrument of bringing

Nathanael first to Jesus

(Joh 1:45);

and again, when our Lord, after His resurrection, appeared at the Sea

of Tiberias, "Nathanael of Cana in Galilee" is mentioned along with six

others, all of them apostles, as being present

(Joh 21:2).

Matthew the publican--In none of the four lists of the Twelve is

this apostle so branded but in his own, as if he would have all to know

how deep a debtor he had been to his Lord. (See on

Mt 1:3, 5, 6;

9:9).

James the son of Alphaeus--the same person apparently who is called

Cleopas or Clopas

(Lu 24:18;

Joh 19:25);

and, as he was the husband of Mary, sister to the Virgin, James the

Less must have been our Lord's cousin.

and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus--the same, without doubt,

as "Judas the brother of James," mentioned in both the lists of Luke

(Lu 6:16;

Ac 1:13),

while no one of the name of Lebbaeus or Thaddaeus is so. It is he who

in John

(Joh 14:22)

is sweetly called "Judas, not Iscariot." That he was the author of the

Catholic Epistle of "Jude," and not "the Lord's brother"

(Mt 13:55),

unless these be the same, is most likely.

4. Simon the Canaanite--rather "Kananite," but better still, "the

Zealot," as he is called in

Lu 6:15,

where the original term should not have been retained as in our version

("Simon, called Zelotes"), but rendered "Simon, called the Zealot." The

word "Kananite" is just the Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic,

term for "Zealot." Probably before his acquaintance with Jesus, he

belonged to the sect of the Zealots, who bound themselves, as a sort of

voluntary ecclesiastical police, to see that the law was not broken

with impunity.

and Judas Iscariot--that is, Judas of Kerioth, a town of Judah

(Jos 15:25);

so called to distinguish him from "Judas the brother of James"

(Lu 6:16).

who also betrayed him--a note of infamy attached to his name in all

the catalogues of the Twelve.

Mt 10:5-42.

THE

TWELVE

RECEIVE

THEIR

INSTRUCTIONS.

This directory divides itself into three distinct parts. The first

part

(Mt 10:5-15)

contains directions for the brief and temporary mission on which they

were now going forth, with respect to the places they were to go to,

the works they were to do, the message they were to bear, and the

manner in which they were to conduct themselves. The second part

(Mt 10:16-23)

contains directions of no such limited and temporary nature, but opens

out into the permanent exercise of the Gospel ministry. The

third part

(Mt 10:24-42)

is of wider application still, reaching not only to the ministry of the

Gospel in every age, but to the service of Christ in the widest sense.

It is a strong confirmation of this threefold division, that each

part closes with the words, "VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU"

(Mt 10:15, 23, 42).

Directions for the Present Mission

(Mt 10:5-15).

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--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"

(Ac 1:8).

6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel--Until

Christ's death, which broke down the middle wall of partition

(Eph 2:14),

the Gospel commission was to the Jews only, who, though the visible

people of God, were "lost sheep," not merely in the sense which all

sinners are

(Isa 53:6;

1Pe 2:25;

compare with

Lu 19:10),

but as abandoned and left to wander from the right way by faithless

shepherds

(Jer 50:6, 17;

Eze 34:2-6,

&c.).

7. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at

hand--(See on

Mt 3:2).

8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out

devils--(The italicized clause--"raise the dead"--is wanting in

many manuscripts). Here we have the first communication of supernatural

power by Christ Himself to His followers--thus anticipating the gifts

of Pentecost. And right royally does He dispense it.

freely ye have received, freely give--Divine saying, divinely said!

(Compare

De 15:10, 11;

Ac 3:6)

--an apple of gold in a setting of silver

(Pr 25:11).

It reminds us of that other golden saying of our Lord, rescued from

oblivion by Paul, "It is more blessed to give than to receive"

(Ac 20:35).

Who can estimate what the world owes to such sayings, and with what

beautiful foliage and rich fruit such seeds have covered, and will yet

cover, this earth!

9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses--"for"

your purses; literally, "your belts," in which they kept their money.

10. Nor scrip for your journey--the bag used by travellers for holding

provisions.

neither two coats--or tunics, worn next the skin. The meaning is, Take

no change of dress, no additional articles.

neither shoes--that is, change of them.

nor yet staves--The received text here has "a staff," but our

version follows another reading, "staves," which is found in the

received text of Luke

(Lu 9:3).

The true reading, however, evidently is "a staff"--meaning, that they

were not to procure even that much expressly for this missionary

journey, but to go with what they had. No doubt it was the

misunderstanding of this that gave rise to the reading "staves" in so

many manuscripts Even if this reading were genuine, it could not mean

"more than one"; for who, as ALFORD well asks,

would think of taking a spare staff?

for the workman is worthy of his meat--his "food" or "maintenance"; a

principle which, being universally recognized in secular affairs, is

here authoritatively applied to the services of the Lord's workmen, and

churches

(Ro 15:27;

1Co 9:11;

Ga 6:6),

and once as "scripture"

(1Ti 5:18).

11. And into whatsoever city or town--town or village.

ye shall enter inquire--carefully.

who in it is worthy--or "meet" to entertain such messengers; not in

point of rank, of course, but of congenial disposition.

and there abide till ye go thence--not shifting about, as if

discontented, but returning the welcome given with a courteous,

contented, accommodating disposition.

12. And when ye come into an house--or "the house," but it means not

the worthy house, but the house ye first enter, to try if it be worthy.

salute it--show it the usual civilities.

13. And if the house be worthy--showing this by giving you a welcome.

let your peace come upon it--This is best explained by the injunction

to the Seventy, "And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be

to this house"

(Lu 10:5).

This was the ancient salutation of the East, and it prevails to this

day. But from the lips of Christ and His messengers, it means something

far higher, both in the gift and the giving of it, than in the current

salutation. (See on

Joh 14:27).

but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you--If your peace

finds a shut, instead of an open, door in the heart of any household,

take it back to yourselves, who know how to value it; and it will taste

the sweeter to you for having been offered, even though rejected.

14. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye

depart out of that house or city--for possibly a whole town might not

furnish one "worthy."

shake off the dust of your feet--"for a testimony against them," as

Mark and Luke add

(Mr 6:11;

Lu 10:11).

connection with such, and all responsibility for the

guilt of rejecting them and their message. Such symbolical actions

were common in ancient times, even among others than the Jews, as

strikingly appears in Pilate

(Mt 27:24).

And even to this day it prevails in the East.

15. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable--more bearable.

for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city--Those

Cities of the Plain, which were given to the flames for their

loathsome impurities, shall be treated as less criminal, we are here

taught, than those places which, though morally respectable, reject the

Gospel message and affront those that bear it.

Directions for the Future and Permanent Exercise of the Christian

Ministry

(Mt 10:16-23).

16. Behold, I send you forth--The "I" here is emphatic, holding up

Himself as the Fountain of the Gospel ministry, as He is also the Great

Burden of it.

as sheep--defenseless.

in the midst of wolves--ready to make a prey of you

(Joh 10:12).

To be left exposed, as sheep to wolves, would have been startling

enough; but that the sheep should be sent among the wolves would

sound strange indeed. No wonder this announcement begins with the

exclamation, "Behold."

be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves--Wonderful

combination this! Alone, the wisdom of the serpent is mere cunning, and

the harmlessness of the dove little better than weakness: but in

combination, the wisdom of the serpent would save them from unnecessary

exposure to danger; the harmlessness of the dove, from sinful expedients

to escape it. In the apostolic age of Christianity, how harmoniously

were these qualities displayed! Instead of the fanatical thirst for

martyrdom, to which a later age gave birth, there was a manly

combination of unflinching zeal and calm discretion, before which

nothing was able to stand.

17. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the

councils--the local courts, used here for civil magistrates in

general.

and they will scourge you in their synagogues--By this is meant

persecution at the hands of the ecclesiastics.

18. And ye shall be brought before governors--provincial rulers.

and kings--the highest tribunals.

for my sake, for a testimony against them--rather, "to them," in order

to bear testimony to the truth and its glorious effects.

and the Gentiles--"to the Gentiles"; a hint that their message would

not long be confined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Acts

of the Apostles are the best commentary on these warnings.

19. But when they deliver you up, take no thought--be not

solicitous or anxious. (See on

Mt 6:25).

how or what ye shall speak--that is, either in what manner ye shall

make your defense, or of what matter it shall consist.

for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall

speak--(See

Ex 4:12;

Jer 1:7).

20. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which

speaketh in you--How remarkably this has been verified, the whole

history of persecution thrillingly proclaims--from the Acts of the

Apostles to the latest martyrology.

21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the

father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents,

and cause them to be put to death--for example, by lodging information

against them with the authorities. The deep and virulent hostility of

the old nature and life to the new--as of Belial to Christ--was to issue

in awful wrenches of the dearest ties; and the disciples, in the

prospect of their cause and themselves being launched upon society, are

here prepared for the worst.

22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake--The

universality of this hatred would make it evident to them, that since it

would not be owing to any temporary excitement, local virulence, or

personal prejudice, on the part of their enemies, so no amount of

discretion on their part, consistent with entire fidelity to the truth,

would avail to stifle that enmity--though it might soften its violence,

and in some cases avert the outward manifestations of it.

but he that endureth to the end shall be saved--a great saying,

repeated, in connection with similar warnings, in the prophecy of the

destruction of Jerusalem

(Mt 24:13);

and often reiterated by the apostle as a warning against "drawing back

unto perdition"

(Heb 3:6, 13;

6:4-6; 10:23, 26-29, 38, 39,

&c.). As "drawing back unto perdition" is merely the palpable evidence

of the want of "root" from the first in the Christian profession

(Lu 8:13),

so "enduring to the end" is just the proper evidence of its reality and

solidity.

23. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another--"into

the other." This, though applicable to all time, and exemplified

opportunities which Israel was to have of "knowing the time of His

visitations."

for verily I say unto you--what will startle you, but at the same time

show you the solemnity of your mission, and the need of economizing the

time for it.

Ye shall not have gone over--Ye shall in nowise have completed.

the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come--To understand

this--as LANGE and others do--in the first instance, of Christ's own

peregrinations, as if He had said, "Waste not your time upon hostile

places, for I Myself will be after you ere your work be over"--seems

almost trifling. "The coming of the Son of man" has a fixed doctrinal

sense, here referring immediately to the crisis of Israel's history as

the visible kingdom of God, when Christ was to come and judge it; when

"the wrath would come upon it to the uttermost"; and when, on the ruins

of Jerusalem and the old economy, He would establish His own kingdom.

This, in the uniform language of Scripture, is more immediately "the

coming of the Son of man," "the day of vengeance of our God"

(Mt 16:28; 24:27, 34;

compare with

Heb 10:25;

Jas 5:7-9)

--but only as being such a lively anticipation of His second coming

for vengeance and deliverance. So understood, it is parallel with

Mt 24:14

(on which see).

Directions for the Service of Christ in Its Widest Sense

(Mt 10:24-42).

24. The disciple is not above his master--teacher.

nor the servant above his lord--another maxim which our Lord repeats

in various connections

(Lu 6:40;

Joh 13:16; 15:20).

25. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the

servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house

Beelzebub--All the Greek manuscripts, write "Beelzebul," which

undoubtedly is the right form of this word. The other reading came in no

doubt from the Old Testament "Baalzebub," the god of Ekron

(2Ki 1:2),

which it was designed to express. As all idolatry was regarded as devil

worship

(Le 17:7;

De 32:17;

Ps 106:37;

1Co 10:20),

so there seems to have been something peculiarly satanic about the

worship of this hateful god, which caused his name to be a synonym of

Satan. Though we nowhere read that our Lord was actually called

"Beelzebul," He was charged with being in league with Satan under that

hateful name

(Mt 12:24, 26),

and more than once Himself was charged with "having a devil" or "demon"

(Mr 3:30;

Joh 7:20; 8:48).

Here it is used to denote the most opprobrious language which could be

applied by one to another.

how much more shall they call them of his household--"the inmates."

Three relations in which Christ stands to His people are here mentioned:

He is their Teacher--they His disciples; He is their Lord--they His

servants; He is the Master of the household--they its inmates. In all

these relations, He says here, He and they are so bound up together that

they cannot look to fare better than He, and should think it enough if

they fare no worse.

26. Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall

not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known--that is, There is

no use, and no need, of concealing anything; right and wrong, truth and

error, are about to come into open and deadly collision; and the day is

coming when all hidden things shall be disclosed, everything seen as it

is, and every one have his due

(1Co 4:5).

27. What I tell you in darkness--in the privacy of a teaching for

which men are not yet ripe.

that speak ye in the light--for when ye go forth all will be ready.

and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops--Give

free and fearless utterance to all that I have taught you while yet with

you. Objection: But this may cost us our life? Answer: It may,

but there their power ends:

28. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill

the soul--In

Lu 12:4,

"and after that have no more that they can do."

but rather fear him--In Luke

(Lu 12:5)

this is peculiarly solemn, "I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear,"

even Him

which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell--A decisive

proof this that there is a hell for the body as well as the soul in the

eternal world; in other words, that the torment that awaits the lost

will have elements of suffering adapted to the material as well

as the spiritual part of our nature, both of which, we are assured,

will exist for ever. In the corresponding warning contained in Luke

(Lu 12:4),

Jesus calls His disciples "My friends," as if He had felt that such

sufferings constituted a bond of peculiar tenderness between Him and

them.

29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?--In Luke

(Lu 12:6)

it is "five sparrows for two farthings"; so that, if the purchaser took

two farthings' worth, he got one in addition--of such small value were

they.

and one of them shall not fall on the ground--exhausted or killed

without your Father--"Not one of them is forgotten before God," as it

is in Luke

(Lu 12:6).

30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered--See

Lu 21:18

(and compare for the language

1Sa 14:45;

Ac 27:34).

31. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows--Was

ever language of such simplicity felt to carry such weight as this does?

But here lies much of the charm and power of our Lord's teaching.

32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men--despising the

shame.

him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven--I will

not be ashamed of him, but will own him before the most august of all

assemblies.

33. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny

before my Father which is in heaven--before that same assembly: "He

shall have from Me his own treatment of Me on the earth." (But see on

Mt 16:27).

34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to

send peace, but a sword--strife, discord, conflict; deadly opposition

between eternally hostile principles, penetrating into and rending

asunder the dearest ties.

35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and

the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her

mother-in-law--(See on

Lu 12:51-53).

36. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household--This

saying, which is quoted, as is the whole verse, from

Mic 7:6,

is but an extension of the Psalmist's complaint

(Ps 41:9; 55:12-14),

which had its most affecting illustration in the treason of Judas

against our Lord Himself

(Joh 13:18;

Mt 26:48-50).

Hence would arise the necessity of a choice between Christ and the

nearest relations, which would put them to the severest test.

37. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of

me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of

me--(Compare

De 33:9).

As the preference of the one would, in the case supposed, necessitate

the abandonment of the other, our Lord here, with a sublime, yet awful

self-respect, asserts His own claims to supreme affection.

38. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not

worthy of me--a saying which our Lord once and again emphatically

reiterates

(Mt 16:24;

Lu 9:23; 14:27).

We have become so accustomed to this expression--"taking up one's

cross"--in the sense of "being prepared for trials in general for

Christ's sake," that we are apt to lose sight of its primary and proper

sense here--"a preparedness to go forth even to crucifixion," as when

our Lord had to bear His own cross on His way to Calvary--a saying the

more remarkable as our Lord had not as yet given a hint that He would

die this death, nor was crucifixion a Jewish mode of capital

punishment.

39. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life

for my sake shall find it--another of those pregnant sayings which our

Lord so often reiterates

(Mt 16:25;

Lu 17:33;

Joh 12:25).

The pith of such paradoxical maxims depends on the double sense

attached to the word "life"--a lower and a higher, the natural and the

spiritual, the temporal and eternal. An entire sacrifice of the lower,

with all its relationships and interests--or, a willingness to make it

which is the same thing--is indispensable to the preservation of the

higher life; and he who cannot bring himself to surrender the one for

the sake of the other shall eventually lose both.

40. He that receiveth you--entertaineth you,

receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me--As

the treatment which an ambassador receives is understood and regarded as

expressing the light in which he that sends him is viewed, so, says our

Lord here, "Your authority is Mine, as Mine is My Father's."

41. He that receiveth a prophet--one divinely commissioned to deliver

a message from heaven. Predicting future events was no necessary part of

a prophet's office, especially as the word is used in the New Testament.

in the name of a prophet--for his office's sake and love to his master.

(See

2Ki 4:9

and see on

2Ki 4:10).

shall receive a prophet's reward--What an encouragement to those who

are not prophets! (See

Joh 3:5-8).

and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous

man--from sympathy with his character and esteem for himself as such

shall receive a righteous man's reward--for he must himself have the

seed of righteousness who has any real sympathy with it and complacency

in him who possesses it.

42. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little

ones--Beautiful epithet! Originally taken from

Zec 13:7.

The reference is to their lowliness in spirit, their littleness in the

eyes of an undiscerning world, while high in Heaven's esteem.

a cup of cold water only--meaning, the smallest service.

in the name of a disciple--or, as it is in Mark

(Mr 9:41),

because ye are Christ's: from love to Me, and to him from his

connection with Me.

verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward--There is

here a descending climax--"a prophet," "a righteous man," "a little

one"; signifying that however low we come down in our services to those

that are Christ's, all that is done for His sake, and that bears the

stamp of love to His blessed name, shall be divinely appreciated and

owned and rewarded.