Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 10:9
And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
9. The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you ] So that our Lord’s last messages resembled His first preaching, Mat 4:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Luk 10:9
The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you
Nearness to the kingdom
This is a part of the discourse which Christ gave to His disciples when they were going forth to preach under His ministration.
Their message was, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. They were Jews in Jewry. They were preaching to their own countrymen–especially in Galilee; and this was a part of their message: the approach of the kingdom of God to all those that heard. Nothing more striking than the spiritual insight of our Lord. What is spiritual insight? As it existed in our Master, it was a perception of developed and perfect forms of morality and religion as constituent elements of human life in the broadest statement. It included–
1. A far more exalted idea of right and wrong than has been developed by human society.
2. A perception of character and conduct far more exalted than any that ordinary life develops.
3. A perception of the whole sphere of man. To Him life was a unit, and the life beyond was a part of it. Beyond all darkness He saw life and man in their higher relations, and in their possibilities. This higher spiritual condition, this perfectness of human nature in its aggregate emotions, now and hereafter, He called The kingdom; The new kingdom; The kingdom of heaven; The kingdom of God; and it was this that He told His disciples to preach when they went abroad. Whenever outward circumstances brought men to a place where the influences that acted upon them tended to develop their higher nature, and carry them forward along the path of perfectibility, or where their state of mind tended to make them perceptive of truths which at other times had little power with them, or where they were by outward things made sensible to things insensible, lifting them to the relation of the heavenly life, then He spoke of them as being near the kingdom of God. They were in a condition out of which should easily and naturally come spiritual development. What were some of those times?
What may we gather in regard to them from a general inspection of Christs ministry, and of His teachings to the people, and from our own experiences?
1. Times of general religious interest in communities bring the kingdom of God very near to men.
2. Any revelation to a mans consciousness of his exceeding need of change, of development, of exaltation; any influence which shall strike through a man, giving him a discriminating power by which he can separate between right and wrong, between better and worse, between good and better–any such revelation or influence brings him near to the kingdom of heaven.
3. Anything that brings to the personal consciousness and experience of a man a sense of his degraded condition may be said to bring the kingdom of God near to him.
4. Anything that reveals to a man the reality of his whole estate, and shows him a higher and supernal life, and gives him a consciousness of the stern, terrific danger that threatens him, is bringing him to the border of Gods kingdom.
5. All the perceptions of concrete goodness which men gain, and which strike into their mind, bring them near to the kingdom of heaven.
6. All experiences of the unsatisfying condition of earthly life, are, or may be, instruments of bringing men to the very border of the kingdom of God.
7. Any cause of thought in ourselves, or any cause of thought in others brought to bear upon us, which opens clearly the nature of manhood, or the possibilities of the future endless development of human life, brings men not far from the kingdom of God. (H. W. Beecher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.] , is just upon you. This was the general text on which they were to preach all their sermons. See it explained, Mt 3:2.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And heal the sick that are therein,…. Of all their bodily diseases, which would not only show their power and warrant, theft mission and commission, but also their goodness and beneficence to men; and would be a sufficient return for what they ate and drank:
and say unto them; not only to the sick that are healed, and those in the house in which they were, but to all the inhabitants of the city;
the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you: the Gospel dispensation, the kingdom of the Messiah, and even the Messiah himself, as might be concluded from the miracles they wrought; and thus by their ministry and works, were they to go before Christ, and prepare his way.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Is come nigh unto you ( ‘ ). Perfect active indicative of as in Mt 3:2 of the Baptist and Mr 1:15 of Jesus. Note ‘ here.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And heal the sick that are therein,” (kai therapeuete tous en aute astheneis) “And heal the sick ones in it,” in the city, a thing I have given you power to do, Mat 10:1. And your host will be rewarded and your authority affirmed.
2) “And say unto them,” (kai legete autois) “And you tell them,” directly and explicitly, a second thing I have sent you to do, as follows:
3) “The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” (engiken ep humas he basileia tou theou) “The kingdom of God has drawn near upon you all;” It is the same message John the Baptist came preaching, Mat 3:2, and the same message that Jesus preached in the beginning of His ministry, Mat 4:17; Mar 1:14-15. The way of redemption has never changed, though the method and order of Divine services have, Act 10:43; Heb 3:1-6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(9) The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.Here again the form of the words is peculiar to St. Luke. This was to be the burden of those who, as preachers, were, in the strictest sense, the heralds of the great King.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Ver. 9. See Mat 3:2 ; Mat 4:17 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9. ] . . . is a later announcement than generally . . . ., Mat 10:7 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 10:9 . The functions of the missionaries briefly indicated = heal the sick, and announce that the kingdom is at their doors ( ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
heal. See on Luk 6:13.
therein = in (Greek. en. App-104.) it.
unto = to. The kingdom of God. See App-114.
come nigh = drawn nigh.
unto. Greek. epi. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
9.] . . . is a later announcement than generally . . . ., Mat 10:7.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 10:9. , in it) viz. in the city. So all the sick in a whole region might be healed.-, is come nigh) See Luk 10:1, at the end.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
heal: Luk 9:2, Mat 10:8, Mar 6:13, Act 28:7-10
The kingdom: Luk 10:11, Luk 17:20, Luk 17:21, Dan 2:44, Mat 3:2, Mat 4:17, Mat 10:7, Mar 4:30, Joh 3:3, Joh 3:5, Act 28:28, Act 28:31
Reciprocal: Mat 4:23 – healing Mat 13:19 – the word Mar 1:15 – the kingdom Luk 10:17 – General Luk 11:2 – Thy kingdom Luk 11:20 – the kingdom Luk 16:16 – the kingdom Act 28:8 – and healed 1Co 12:9 – the gifts Eph 2:17 – that
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MESSAGE
Say unto them, the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luk 10:9
It was a simple message that Christ entrusted to His earnest, expectant band of young field-preachers: The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. Twice He repeated it in the final short epitome of instructions with which He armed them for the delightful experiment they were about to make.
I. Directness of statement.The heart of Jesus was glad within Him at the utter simplicity and directness of the message. The wise and prudent would have composed it into an elaborate system, and fitted it in with schemes of philosophical thought which would have required years of study for anybody to understand. And their systems would have presented so many points of disagreement, argument, and attack, that all their energies would have been expended in polishing their own thought, refining their unintelligible jargon, and, by reducing each others views to absurdity, proving their own intellectual superiority.
II. Singleness of purpose.The kingdom on earth was begun. The call had been given. The meaning of it would be seen when He died and when He rose. Henceforth it could never be spoiled. From time to time it might be overlaid by human inventions and accretions. But there would be the original message to call men back to the truth as it is in Jesus. The attempt to dress up the truths of the Gospel in the tight-fitting clothes of human speculation, or to express its simple ideas in the jargon of current philosophy, has always been disastrous. The great Christian writer, Origen, tried to combine the Gospel with Platonism, but though his views are singularly beautiful and attractive, they led him far astray into the field of fantastic speculation, and prevented him from being recognized as a father of the Church. What was it that trammelled the life of Christendom so heavily in the Middle Ages? It was the painful labours of the schoolmen in translating the Gospel into the language of the system of Aristotle, and making it the vehicle for conveying opinion and speculation on every subject. And in the present day nothing is more discouraging than to hear ingenious preachers toilingly disguising the glad tidings of Redemption in the theories of Hegel, or striving to explain away the Atonement in a manner that would remove the offence of the Cross from a fastidious world, or depressing one doctrine and distorting or exaggerating another in order to place Gods message on a level with the accepted philosophies of the hour.
III. Simplicity of ideal.In all our preaching we need the simple truths of the Lord Jesus Christ, put forth on His authority, and urged with all the warmth and earnestness of convinced and redeemed and believing hearts. The old appeal on the broad, simple principles of sin, redemption, faith, obedience, love, grace, glory, and immortality will always have the old results. Wherever an evangelist goes forth in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to say to his hearers The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you, there he will be able to return to His Masters side, when wearied with the days toil and craving a Divine rest and refreshment, and will be able to say to Him with humble and adoring gratitude, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Thy Name.
Archdeacon W. M. Sinclair.
Illustrations
(1) What a confusion and indefinite postponement there would have been if our Lord had summoned to His side Plato and Aristotle, Epicurus and Zeno, Cicero and Seneca, Bacon, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibnitz, Hume, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Comte, and Mill! To the end of their days they would have been discussing the source of knowledge, the nature of belief, the meaning of the world of sense, the composition of the human mind, and all those other theoretical puzzles by which the intellectual giants of the human race have sublimated thought and influenced speculation. That was not what our Lord wanted. He would never have got His Gospel preached. He had a simple word straight from Almighty God to simple hearts. That simple word was the Kingdom of God among men.
(2) It was to be a kingdom of simple spiritual truths once uttered on His own authority in the name of the great Father of all things, and to be taken by even the most ignorant of men into their very heart of hearts. Our Lord looked forward at that moment to the unlettered slave in some West Indian plantation, free with a Divine internal freedom beyond the thrones of emperors, and comforting his soul under savage lash and fettering chains with hymns of grace and glory. He foresaw the boys of Madagascar willingly thrown from the rock of death on the mangling stones below, for the joy of the truths which had saved them from sin. He had before Him the heavenly peace that would fill the mind of the rustic aged Highland woman on her lonely island, where the loud echoes of the world never sound; or the grandsire as with the sonorous voice of absolute faith and entire reverence he conducts the daily worship of his little family; or the brooding of the Holy Spirit in some whitewashed barn of a building, where hearts that have never learned to doubt ponder with quiet certainty the things of God. He saw the London artisan, that overwhelmed unit in the unprecedented surroundings of five millions of busy and bustling atoms of humanity, all crowded together into one bewildering struggle of conflicting voices, gathering himself together into classes for the study of that Divine Word which alone has brought peace and patience to the soul of man.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
9
The disciples were to preach the news of the approaching kingdom of God. By healing the sick they would prove they were true prophets.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 10:9. Heal the sick. A less extended commission than that of Mat 10:8.
The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. This indicates a later message than Mat 10:7.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The Seventy were to continue the ministry of Jesus (Luk 7:21-22; Luk 9:11; Mat 4:17; Mar 1:14-15; Mar 6:12) and the Twelve (Luk 9:1-2). This verse gives the positive content of these messengers’ ministry. The mention of healing before preaching suggests that the miracles provided an opportunity for the preaching as well as validating it. Their message was that the Messiah had appeared and, therefore, the messianic kingdom was imminent. If the people had believed in Jesus, the kingdom would have begun shortly. The kingdom was near then spatially and temporally.