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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 10:32

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Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

32. shall confess me ] Literally, confess in me: make me the central point and object of his confession.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Whosoever therefore shall confess me … – The same word in the original is translated confess and profess, 1Ti 6:12-13; 2Jo 1:7; Rom 10:10. It means to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, and our dependence on him for salvation, and our attachment to him, in every proper manner. This profession may be made in uniting with a church, at the communion, in conversation, and in conduct. The Scriptures mean, by a profession of religion, an exhibition of it in every circumstance of the life and before all people. It is not merely in one act that we must do it, but in every act. We must be ashamed neither of the person, the character, the doctrines, nor the requirements of Christ. If we are; if we deny him in these things before people; if we are unwilling to express our attachment to him in every way possible, then it is right that he should disown all connection with us, or deny us before God, and he will do it.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 10:32

Shall confess Me before men.

I. The nature of that confession which Christianity requires. An open avowal of the Person and Messiahship of Jesus. A conscious adherence to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. A declaration of the benefits received. Zealously promoting the cause of Christian truth.

II. The honourable distinction with which a steady course of Christian fortitude will be crowned. By an act of reparation. By an approving plaudit. By making them the partakers of His glory. Learn: That the human heart is, by nature, decidedly hostile to the spirit of the gospel. That entire change is essential to a scriptural confession of Christ. That the Christian cannot ultimately be a loser by suffering for righteousness sake. (Omricicon.)

Confession of Christ

I. What does our text require? Our confession of Christ before men. The subject of this confession. The persons before whom this confession is to be made. The manner in which this confession is to be made-verbally, practically, passively. Why? Because it falls in with the nature and design of Christianity, to prove your sincerity, in order to be useful, and because He deserves it.

II. What it ensures? His confession of us. More than recognition. The confessor before whom this confession is to be made; the season when this confession shall be made. (W. Jay.)

Confessing Christ

I. A great duty recommended to us.

1. What is meant by our confession of Christ.

2. What by confessing Him before men.

II. A suitable reward and encouragement annexed to it. What is implied in Christs confessing us before His Father. To confess Christ aright is

(1) To acknowledge and adore the Divinity of His Person;

(2) To believe the Divinity of His doctrine;

(3) To acknowledge and rely upon the all-sufficiency of His merits and mediation for us;

(4) To show the efficacy of our belief upon our lives. We must confess Christ both before good men and bad men. (Matthew Hole.)

Mutual confession of Jesus Christ and His disciples

I. This confession of Christ by men.

1. Before we can speak openly of Christ according to His true character, we must know and appreciate Him. Knowledge is ability to confess; appreciation is disposition to confess; both are power.

2. This confession is variously made.

(1) In season it is a verbal acknowledgment of Christ;

(2) By the observance of His ordinances;

(3) By the reception of His disciples and servants, especially of such as most represent Him;

(4) By the worship of His holy name;

(5) By the endurance of shame and persecution for His sake;

(6) By living to Him and living for Him.

II. The confession of men by Jesus Christ.

1. It is connected here with the confessing of Christ by men.

2. It is both present and future.

3. It is full and complete. Lessons: secret discipleship can never fulfil our duties, or exhaust our obligations. (S. Martin.)

The duty of confessing Christ before men

I. The duty specified (Rom 10:10).

1. To confess Christ before men is to show that we are uniformly influenced by a supreme regard to His will (Tit 1:16; Luk 6:46; Joh 15:14; Neh 5:1).

2. To publicly attest the reality of those hopes and joys which Christianity professes to inspire, and claims as peculiarly her own.

3. To manifest a decided attachment to His people (Mat 10:40; Mat 25:40).

II. The difficulties attendant on this duty. Such a decided and consistent testimony to Christ will be attended with difficulties (Mat 10:36).

1. Common temptations.

2. Ridicule.

3. Calumny.

III. The promise annexed to the discharge. Christ will confess His people; it is not said He will do so before men; by striking interpositions of providence. While they are partially confessing Him on earth, He is graciously confessing them in heaven. (E. Cooper.)

Double confession

I. Mans confession of Christ. It implies

(1) Knowledge of Christ;

(2) Belief in Christ;

(3) Love to Christ:

(4) Reception of Christ. Its characteristics.

1. It is a personal confession.

2. It is a public confession.

3. It is an honourable confession-me.

II. Christs confession of man.

1. It is a return for our confession.

2. It is a personal confession.

3. It is a confession on the greatest occasion.

4. It is a confession before the greatest Being. (T. O. Griffiths.)

Confessing Christ

Something more than fifty years ago there was a small dinner party at the other end of London. The ladies had withdrawn, and under the guidance of one member of the company the conversation took a turn, of which it will be enough here and now to say that it was utterly dishonourable to Jesus Christ our Lord. One of the guests said nothing, but presently asked the hosts permission to ring the bell, and when the servant appeared he ordered his carriage. He then, with the courtesy of perfect self-command, expressed his regret at being obliged to retire; but explained that he was still a Christian. Mark the phrase, for it made a deep impression at the time-Still a Christian. Perhaps it occurs to you that the guest who was capable of this act of simple courage must have been a bishop, or at least a clergyman. He was not. The party was made up entirely of laymen, and the guest in question became the great prime minister of the early years of Queen Victoria. He was the late Sir Robert Peel. (Canon Liddon.)

The greatest King

On a certain occasion one of the bravest officers of Frederick the Great declined the kings invitation to dinner, because he intended next morning to receive the Holy Communion. The next time he was present at the royal table the king and his guests began to rally him for his scruples, and to mock at the sacred ordinance. The old man rose, saluted the king, who was no man to be trifled with, and told him respectfully but firmly that there was a greater King than Frederick, and that he never allowed that Holy One to be insulted in his presence. The courtiers looked on in amazement, trembling for the safety of the general; but Frederick, instead of resenting the rebuke, clasped the hand of his brave servant, and expressed his sorrow that he could not believe so firmly, or declare his faith so fearlessly. (Canon Ashwell.)

Confessing Christ:-Signing the Scotch Covenant

As the hour drew near, people from all quarters flocked to the spot, and before the commissioners appeared, the Greyfriars Church and Churchyard, Edinburgh, were densely filled with the gravest, the wisest, and the best of Scotlands pious sons and daughters, The long roll of parchment was brought, the meaning and purpose of the covenant explained. Then a deep and solemn pause ensued: not the pause of irresolution, but of modest diffidence, each thinking every other more worthy than himself to place the first name upon the sacred bond. An aged nobleman, the venerable Earl of Sutherland, at last stepped slowly and reverentially forward, and with throbbing heart and trembling hand, subscribed Scotlands Covenant with God. All hesitation in a moment disappeared. Name followed name in quick succession, till all within the church had given their signatures. It was then removed into the churchyard, and spread out on a level gravestone. Here the scene became still more impressive. The intense emotions of many became irrepressible. Some wept aloud: some burst into a shout of exultation; some after their names added the words till death; and sonic, opening a vein, subscribed with their own warm blood. When every particle of space was filled there was another solemn pause. The nation had framed a covenant in former days, and had violated its engagements; if they too should break this sacred bond, how deep would be their guilt! Such seems to have been their thoughts, for, as if moved by one spirit-the One Eternal Spirit-with low, heart-wrung groans, and faces bathed in tears, they lifted up, with one consent, their right hands to heaven, avowing by this sublime appeal that they had now joined themselves unto the Lord in an everlasting covenant, which should not be forgotten. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The confession of Christ

Some confess, but believe not, as hypocrites; others believe, but confess not, as timorous and Peter-like professors in the days of persecution; others do neither confess nor believe in Christ, as atheists; others both confess and believe, and they be true Christians. (D. Willet.)

The best use of the mouth

Had the faith of the heart been sufficient, God would not have given thee a mouth. (Chrysostom.)

The sin of denying Christ

I. What is meant by denying of Christ before men? It is

(1)to deny His mission and Messiahship;

(2) to disown Him for the Son of God and Saviour of the world; and

(3) not to receive Him for the person annointed and appointed of God for the redemption of mankind. It is (a) to deny the Divinity of Christ; (b) the Incarnation or manhood of Christ; (c) the satisfaction of Christ for sin; (d) the resurrection of Christ; (e) the authority of Christ over His Church and kingdom.

II. What are the motives or inducements that lead men thus to deny Christ? The two principal are

(1) Fear of persecution;

(2) Hopes of preferment. Both clap a wrong bias upon the mind, that turns it from Christ to Belial.

III. How, OR in what manner, is this denying done?

(1) Sometimes in verbis, by words and oral expressions;

(2) Sometimes in scriptis, by blasphemous writings; and

(3) sometimes in operibus, by wicked works.

IV. What is meant by Christ denying of when before his father in heaven? It must be His disowning the deniers of Him, as false and deceitful followers of Him, the misery whereof is inexpressible. (Matthew Poole.)

Interest deposed and truth restored

I. How many ways Christ and his truths may be denied; and what is the denial here chiefly intended.

1. By erroneous, heretical judgment.

2. By oral confession.

3. By our actions and practice.

II. What are the causes inducing men to deny Christ in his truths.

1. The seeming supposed absurdity of many truths.

2. Their unprofitableness. To be pious is the way to be poor.

3. Their apparent danger.

III. How far a man may consult his safety in time of persecution without denying Christ.

1. By withdrawing his person.

2. By concealing his judgment.

IV. What it is for Christ to deny us before his father in heaven.

1. The action itself-He will deny them.

2. The circumstance-Before His Father, etc. A mans folly will be spread before the angels.

V. The uses which may be drawn from the truths delivered.

1. Confess Him in His truth.

2. In His members.

3. The baseness of a dastardly spirit. (R. South, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men] That is, whosoever shall acknowledge me to be the Messiah, and have his heart and life regulated by my spirit and doctrine. It is not merely sufficient to have the heart right before God; there must be a firm, manly, and public profession of Christ before men. “I am no hypocrite,” says one; neither should you be. “I will keep my religion to myself” i.e. you will not confess Christ before men; then he will renounce you before God.

We confess or own Christ when we own his doctrine, his ministers, his servants, and when no fear hinders us from supporting and assisting them in times of necessity.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

As this is a time for you publicly to own me, so there will be a time (in the day of judgment) for me to confess and publicly own you, before the angels of God (which Luke addeth to this sentence, Mat 12:8): as men deal with me in this life, so I shall deal with them in that day. Our Saviour speaketh much the same thing, as repeated by Mar 8:38; Luk 9:26; only there instead of whosoever shall deny me, it is, whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words. Christ requireth of us not only a believing on him, but an external profession: nor that only, but a confession of him, which signifieth a profession of him and his gospel in the face of opposition and enemies: see Rom 10:10; 2Ti 2:12. It is dangerous, either through shame or fear, to withhold our public owning and acknowledgment of Christ, and his truths, when we are called to it; much more to deny them; but the guilt is greater when it is through shame, for where fear is the cause the temptation is more high. This text must be understood of those who persist in such denial, for Peter denied his Master, yet was graciously upon his repentance received by him.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

32. Whosoever therefore shallconfess me before mendespising the shame.

him will I confess alsobefore my Father which is in heavenI will not be ashamed ofhim, but will own him before the most august of all assemblies.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,…. The confession of Christ here, more especially designed, does not so much intend, though it may include, that which is less public, and is necessary to be made by every believer in Christ: for it is not enough to believe in him, with the heart, but confession of him must also be made with the mouth; and which lies in ascribing their whole salvation to him, giving him the glory of it; declaring their faith in him to others, and what he has done for their souls; and subjecting themselves to his ordinances, and joining in fellowship with his church and people: which confession, as it ought to be both by words and deeds, and to be hearty and sincere, so likewise visible, open, and before men. This, I say, may be included in the sense of these words; but what they chiefly relate to, is a confession of Christ by his ministers, in the public preaching of the Gospel; who ought openly, and boldly, to acknowledge, and declare, that Christ is truly and properly God, the eternal Son of God, the only mediator between God and men, the Saviour and Redeemer of lost sinners; through whose blood alone is the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of grace; by whose righteousness only men can be justified before God; and by whose sacrifice and satisfaction sin is only expiated; that he died for, and in the room and stead of his people, rose again for their justification, ascended to heaven in their name, is set down at the right hand of God, and ever lives to make intercession for them, and will come again, and judge both quick and dead: such a free and open confession of Christ ought to be made by all his ministers before men, and in spite of all the rage and opposition of earth and hell; and such shall not fail of being taken notice of, and requited by Christ; for he himself says,

him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven: as he has a perfect knowledge of them, and bears an affectionate love to them; so he will openly own, and acknowledge them as his ministers, and speak in the praise and commendation of their works and labours; though they have been performed through the gifts, grace, and strength, which he has communicated to them: he will introduce them into his Father’s presence, and recommend them to him, to be honoured, blessed, and glorified by him.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Shall confess me ( ). An Aramaic idiom, not Hebrew, see also Lu 12:8. So also here, “him will I also confess” ( ‘ ). Literally this Aramaic idiom reproduced in the Greek means “confess in me,” indicating a sense of unity with Christ and of Christ with the man who takes the open stand for him.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Confess me [ ] . A peculiar but very significant expression. Lit., “Confess in me.” The idea is that of confessing Christ out of a state of oneness with him. “Abide in me, and being in me, confess me.” It implies indentification of the confessor with the confessed, and thus takes confession out of the category of mere formal or verbal acknowledgment. “Not every one that saith unto me ‘Lord ! Lord !’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The true confessor of Christ is one whose faith rests in him. Observe that this gives great force to the corresponding clause, in which Christ places himself in a similar relation with those whom he confesses. “I will confess in him.” It shall be as if I spoke abiding in him. “I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me” (Joh 17:23).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,” (pas oun hostis homologesei en hemoi emprosthen ton anthropon). “Therefore everyone who shall confess me, in the presence of men,” before men. Luk 12:8; Rom 10:9-10; Rev 2:13; Rev 3:5; Psa 119:46; 1Ti 4:12-13.

2) “Him will I confess also,” (homologeso kago en auto) “I will also confess him,” or in him “that one,” literally “I will confess,” as if abiding in and speaking forth from and for him, Joh 17:23, at the hour of judgment.

3) “Before my Father which is in heaven.” (emprosthen tou patros mou en tois ouranois) “In the presence of my Father in the heavens,” publicly, in the last days, or in the throne-heaven, where He abides, Heb 1:1-3.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Mat 10:32

. Whosoever therefore shall confess me He now applies to his present subject what he formerly said in a general manner about contempt of death: for we must struggle against the dread of death, that it may not keep us back from an open confession of faith, which God strictly demands, and which the world cannot endure. For this purpose the disciples of Christ must be bold and courageous, that they may be always ready for martyrdom. Now confession of Christ, though it is regarded by the greater part of men as a trifling matter, is here represented to be a main part of divine worship, and a distinguished exercise of godliness. And justly is it so represented: for if earthly princes, in order to enlarge and protect their glory, and to increase their wealth, call their subjects to arms, why should not believers maintain, at least in language, the glory of their heavenly King?

It is therefore certain that those persons extinguish faith, (as far as lies in their powers) who inwardly suppress it, as if the outward profession of it were unnecessary. With good reason does Christ here call us his witnesses, by whose mouth his name shall be celebrated in the world. In other words, he intends that the profession of his name shall be set in opposition to false religions: and as it is a revolting matter, he enjoins the testimony which we must bear, that the faith of each person may not remain concealed in the heart, but may be openly professed before men. And does not he who refuses or is silent deny the Son of God, and thus banish himself from the heavenly family?

A more public confession of faith, no doubt, is demanded from teachers than from persons in a private station. Besides, all are not endued with an equal measure of faith, and in proportion as any one excels in the gifts of the Spirit, he ought to go before others by his example. But there is no believer whom the Son of God does not require to be his witness. In what place, at what time, with what degree of frequency, in what manner, and to what extent, we ought to profess our faith, cannot easily be determined by a fixed rule: but we must consider the occasion, that not one of us may fail to discharge his duty at the proper time. We must also ask from the Lord the spirit of wisdom and courage, that under his direction we may know what is proper, and may boldly follow whatever we shall have ascertained that he commands us.

Him will I also confess. A promise is added to inflame our zeal in this matter. But we must attend to the points of contrast. If we draw a comparison between ourselves and the Son of God, how base is it to refuse our testimony to him, when on his part he offers his testimony to us by way of reward? If mortals, and men who are of no worth, are brought into comparison with God and the angels and all the heavenly glory, how much more valuable is that which Christ promises than that which he requires? Although men are unbelieving and rebellious, yet the testimony which we deliver to them is estimated by Christ as if it had been made in the presence of God and of the angels.

Thus also by way of amplification, Mark and Luke (602) add, in this adulterous and sinful generation; the meaning of which is, that we must not imagine our labor to be lost, because there is a want of proper disposition in our hearers. Now if any one is not sufficiently moved by the promise, it is followed by an awful threatening. When Christ shall make his appearance to judge the world, he will deny all who have basely denied him before men Let the enemies of the cross now go away, and flatter themselves in their hypocrisy, when Christ blots their names out of the book of life: for whom will God acknowledge as his children at the last day, but those who are presented to him by Christ? But he declares that he will bear witness against them, that they may not insinuate themselves on false grounds. When it is said that Christ will come in the glory of the Father and of the angels, the meaning is, that his divine glory will then be fully manifested; and that the angels, as they now surround the throne of God, will render their services to him by honoring his majesty. The passage from the twelfth chapter of Luke’s Gospel corresponds to the text of Matthew. What we have inserted out of the ninth chapter, and out of Mark, appears to have been spoken at another time: but as the doctrine is quite the same, I have chosen to introduce them together.

(602) This is a blunder: for the clause in question is not found in Luke, but in Mark only. The french version sets the matter right. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

Section 23

JESUS COMMISSIONS TWELVE APOSTLES TO EVANGELIZE GALILEE

IV. JESUS REQUIRES AND REWARDS LOYALTY OF HIS SERVANTS
TEXT: 10:3239
A. THE SUPREME HONOR FOR LOYALTY (10:32)

32.

Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven.

B. THE SUPREME DISGRACE FOR DISLOYALTY OR COWARDICE (10:33)

33.

But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

C. THE INEVITABLE ENMITIES INVOLVED IN LOYALTY TO JESUS (10:3436)

34.

Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to

35.

send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the

36.

daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: and a mans foes shall be they of his own household.

D. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS THROUGH SACRIFICE AND SURRENDER (10:3739)

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.

38.

And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not

39.

worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

This revelation of blood, sweat and tears, of trial, suffering and death must have been very discouraging to Jesus disciples as He sent them out. Yet Jesus considered this revelation absolutely necessary to the adequate accomplishment of their mission. Can you show several reasons why He would have predicted these painful pictures? This is surely no way to hold ones disciples, is it? Would this tactic win friends and influence people today? Why?

In what way do you think Jesus had in mind that the disciples would be confessing Him before men? Under what sort of circumstances would they be doing this? Sometimes this passage is cited to indicate the necessity for a public declaration of ones willingness to follow Christ, a declaration which is made before the congregation of believers at the conclusion of a Sunday morning gathering for worship. Is this what Jesus had in mind? if so, how could such an application be justified? If not, why not? How does such an application fit the antithesis: denying Him before men?

Have you ever denied Jesus before men since becoming His disciple? Be honest now. How, when, where and why did you do it? What encouragement do you find in this text that strengthens you against repeating that sin?

Do you think it would have been better or worse for Jesus disciples (you included) had Jesus not told this bitter truth about the consequences of being persecuted as His disciple? Why?

Do you think that the Prince of Peace can be telling the truth when He denies that His purpose was to bring peace on earth? Did not the angels shout the news from heaven that Jesus birth meant peace? How, then, can Jesus expect us to believe that His purpose for coming to earth was not to bring peace, but, rather, a sword? What kind of peace does Jesus reject and what kind of sword does He bring?

Some think that Jesus did not intend to bring a sword to earth, that it was not His purpose, but only the result of His work. Do you agree? If so, on what basis? If not, why not?

Do you think that it is right to go around splitting up families over religion? If so, then how do you understand the most basic of all commandments to honor your father and mother and similar commands regarding family care? If not, then how do you justify Jesus avowed purpose to set members of the same family against each other?

Do you think that Jesus knew from personal experience what He was here declaring, regarding enemies in ones own home? What makes you say this?

Is there anyone really worthy of Jesus? Then, what does Jesus mean by declaring that anyone who does not make the necessary sacrifices is not worthy of me?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

So every one who stands up and acknowledges that he is my disciple, I will gladly own him as my own in front of the great Judge, my Father in heaven. But I will repudiate before God anyone who either is afraid to stand up for me in front of men or else publicly denies being my disciple.
You must never suppose that my mission is to bring peace on earth at any price. In fact, that kind of peace is impossible. My mission is rather to separate the wicked from the truly righteous, but this is going to cause trouble. I will not have peace at the expense of truth! Allegiance to me is going to cause, for example, a man to be set against his own father or a daughter against, her own mother! A young wife will go against her mother-in-law. A fellow will find enemies right under his own roof!
No one who cares more for his father or his mother than he does for me deserves to belong to me! The same is true of the man who holds his son or daughter dearer to him than he does me: he does not deserve to belong to me! Likewise the man who refuses to be crucified, because he is walking in my footsteps, is not fit to be called my disciple! If you hold your own life dear, I can guarantee you that you will lose it, But the man who will let himself be killed for MY sake, saves his life forever!

SUMMARY

You, my disciples, do not stand before the judgment seat of Herod or imperial Rome: you stand before the judgment throne of the living God! You must decide now how it will fare with you then: I will own or disown you as my disciples before God, on the basis of your allegiance or disloyalty here on earth. This choice is not a simple one, because it is going to rearrange all your present loyalties. You will have to decide whether your family is to come first, ahead of your loyalty to me. This choice may lead you to your death, but remember: the prudent are damned! He who is willing to give up everything he holds deareven his own lifejust to please me, will be able to secure the only life that is worth living! But decide, and decide now.

NOTES

A. THE SUPREME HONOR FOR LOYALTY (10:32)

Mat. 10:32 Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, is the broad, general introduction to this audacious declaration of Jesus regal authority. This dictum has to do with disciples in general. Its universal character becomes immediately clear if we artificially insert the word apostle, so as to make the sentence apply only to the Twelve. While the Apostles themselves certainly and rightly took this admonition personally, nevertheless, its very general character is not only very apparent, but is also in perfect harmony with the more comprehensive tone of this entire concluding section (Mat. 10:24-42; see on Mat. 10:24). Therefore neatly links this marvelous promise to the warnings, the gentle coaxing, the facing of unpleasant realities and the challenges Jesus has just put before His people in the earlier minutes of this sermon. This is the logical conclusion especially of the demand that the disciple be absolutely fearless. (Cf. Mat. 10:19; Mat. 10:26; Mat. 10:28; Mat. 10:31)

While it would seem most appropriate to consider the word on, here translated therefore, in this inferential sense, i.e. drawing a conclusion in relation to statements made before, yet the suggestion of Dana and Mantey (Manual Grammar, 255, 256) that on here has an emphatic or intensive use, is not without merit. Some suggestive translations they would substitute for therefore are: be sure that . . . . to be sure, surely, by all means, indeed, etc. Try inserting these words in place of therefore to feel the emphasis thus produced. However, despite the good examples adduced by Mantey, it may yet be wondered in Matthews sentence here whether Jesus is not rather drawing a proper conclusion to all the precedes. If, then, on may well have this special emphatic force, all the better for its ambiguity, since the sentiment expressed by Jesus in this sentence is easily inferential as well as emphatic.

The Master had already intimated that the disciples must fear only Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mat. 10:28) Here He makes this point explicit by stating it in two parallel phrases that leave little room for doubt. How well He knew the propensity of man to save his neck at all cost! Simply, almost quietly, he puts compelling authority into His speech. This is a precious promise, but its logical converse is necessarily a threat to the fearful and unbelieving, stating clearly whom we are to fear. It is Jesus who holds our fate in His hands.

Every one who shall confess me (homologsei en emol) This seemingly unusual expression which uses the preposition en after the verb is not to be translated literally confess in my case . . . I will confess in his case before the Father (see Plummer, Luke, 320; Morgan, Matthew, 110), but is to be taken as an Aramaism because of the normal use of the preposition be after odi in that language. (Arndt-Gingrich, 571, Lenski, Matthew, 412). The confession involved here is an agreeing with something affirmed, and admission of ones own position, a declaration more or less public of what one believes, an acknowledgement to being or believing something.

What or whom is the disciple to confess? His belonging to a particular sect of the Church? His adherence to a temporary formulation of the Gospel, a creed? His support of certain ecclesiastical organizations and programs? His understanding or interpretation of certain Scripture texts? According to Jesus, what is the critical issue, the only really burning question? Whoever shall confess ME. What a man thinks about Jesus is the only important issue over which he should have to stand trial and give account, because if he be mistaken about this one question, how can he be right, or even significantly near it, in relation to any other issue? There is so much clear evidence for a proper decision regarding Jesus, that to fail to decide rightly about Him, automatically affects ones ability to evaluate the evidence on all other significant questions. While it may be admitted that many wise and good men of earth have both studied the evidence about Jesus and have rejected Him as supreme Lord, still the Master Himself is here declaring that such men damn themselves, since the imperious nature of His double affirmation (Mat. 10:32-33) presumes that the evidence He has given to lead to a right decision has been both sufficient and clear. The problem lies then not in the nature of the evidence but in the moral makeup of the men whose intellectual bias did not permit them to evaluate properly the evidence or surrender their will to Him. The Judge here expresses His opinion on the wisdom and goodness of those men, who, whether ignorant, deceived or conceited, reject Him,

But does this confession of Jesus mean merely to acknowledge adherence to certain propositions regarding His identity, position and consequent authority? At least this, (Rom. 10:9-10; Act. 2:36; 1Jn. 2:22-23; 1Jn. 4:2-3; 1Jn. 4:15; 2Jn. 1:7; 2Jn. 1:9) But it is more, for how can one confess the absolute lordship of Jesus while at the same time ignoring the plain import of any command, declaration, promise or warning He gives? (Luk. 6:46) He is then to be confessed:

by our recognizing and responding to His position and function;

by our recognition of His authorized representatives (Mat. 10:40);

by our recognition of His message (Luk. 9:26; Joh. 12:47-50);

by our recognition of Him in His people (Mat. 25:40; Mat. 25:45; Act. 9:4-5);

by our joyful admission that we personally are committed to Him because we need, trust and love Him and try to serve Him as Lord of all lords;

by that obvious consistency between our profession of adherence to Him and our personal morality that truly and deeply affects all our attitudes and actions.

There may be other expressions of our confession, but these are sufficient to suggest that they all have importance because of what we think about Jesus. We will be willing to die before relenting on any proposition regarding Jesus person. Witness the Virgin-birth controversy and the vigorous rejection of the modern Arianism of the Jehovahs Witnesses who, like Arius of Alexandria (c. 313 A.D.), deny the identity of Jesus with Jehovah God. We spend years of careful research, examining the authenticity, reliability and integrity of the documents of the Apostles, just because our confession of Christ depends for its content upon the dictates of those books. Witness the several hundred-years war that has raged in the field of biblical criticism. Further, our confession of Jesus drives us to lay down our lives for the brethren, since, in confessing Him, we confess those who belong to Him.

But someone might object that, contextually, Jesus has in mind most probably a hostile situation in which the disciple is called upon to admit (or deny) his discipleship to Jesus on pain of death. But it is most significant that Jesus just ordered, Confess me before men, without specifying which men, whether hostile, indifferent or friendly. Even otherwise friendly men (they might even be Christians!), who are themselves unwilling to pay the high costs of discipleship, can make it very difficult for the earnest disciple to confess his loyalty to Jesus in the little, but practical, business of everydays living. They dampen his enthusiasm, lest his zeal expose their lack of it, when in reality their befouled conscience demands that they follow his good example. It may be even more difficult to remain morally alert and skillful in confessing Christ in some Christian environments than in those openly hostile. Before men only means publicly and reminds us of the earlier command to give Christs message the widest possible coverage (Mat. 10:26-27, despite the ever-present menace of those who can kill the body. (Mat. 10:28) The only justification for the Churchs existence is to proclaim the wonderful deeds and moral excellence of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1Pe. 2:9) This is the work of the Church, as Morgan put it (Matthew, 107):

The work to be done is not described in detail here, but it is inferentially seen. It is that of confessing Christ, before men. That is the Churchs work. It is all-inclusive. When we have said that, we have said everything we can say about the Apostles, the evangelist, the prophet, the pastor and teacher, and the disciple and servant. Whatever our gift may be within the Church, or as a member of the Church, our work is to confess Christ before men. . . . By confession we are to reveal Him, to flash His glory, to make Him known. The Church of Jesus Christ is not constituted in order to discuss philosophies or indulge in speculations. It is created to confess Christ, and it never ought to rest for one moment until the last weary, sin-bound soul, in the furthest region of the world, has heard His evangel, has beheld His glory.

This confession is not merely that initial commitment to Jesus made at the beginning of our discipleship nor merely that bold declaration stated at trials where life or death is riding with the answer. It is, rather, the normal way of life and work of every single disciple whereby he shows who his real Master is.

Before men is not to be construed as contrasting with before the saints, as if Jesus meant, before men of the world and not before the Church. Indeed, there is no command or consistent NT practice for a guide to confession exclusively before the assembly of the Church. It is, of course, reasonable and proper to declare oneself a believer in the presence of the rest of the Church, before expecting to be admitted to the group. And yet some Christians act as if only a confession before the church were here intended, and as if the public confession of faith they once made at a meeting of the Church exhausted all their responsibility in this regard. Before men means good men and bad, poor men and rich, ignorant and learned, Christians or not.

Before men, it is true, may well mean, and in the case of many Christians it has meant, to stand in formal trials as before councils, synagogues, governors and kings, and declare ones allegiance to the Son of God. (Mat. 10:17-18) In this sense, the Church has only one justification for getting into trouble with the law: for exalting Christ as King above Caesar and as Lawgiver above Moses or another religious tribunal or authority. But as the individual Christian stands alone before these earthly potentates, he must remember the wide disparity between the judges before whom he must give testimony. Feel the contrast: before men . . . before my Father; the temporary versus the eternal; the corruptible versus the gloriously incorruptible. It is a temptation to ask the obvious: who would exchange the approval of God for the applause of men? But lest we answer this too glibly, we need to see with greater clarity the difficulty of refusing this world that seems so much more real, because it is so much more immediate and tangible. As in Mat. 10:28, so here, Jesus reminds His people that, in reality, though they are physically standing before the judgment of infinitely feeble human judges whose ultimate jurisdiction halts at death, even though they may now have the relative ascendency for the present, yet in such moments these same disciples are under the even more critical scrutiny of the unseen, living God, the Judge whose unlimited authority and power execute a verdict of infinitely greater consequence! The Savior knows that this dilemma between life, peace and security with the approval of earths enemies of the faith on the one hand, and life, peace and security in the judgment of God on the other, is capable of resolution only to the man who has already died to this world and all its relationships. (See on Mat. 10:34-39)

What is to be gained by confessing Christ? Him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. Since Jesus has made this clear beforehand, the disciple can have peace-bringing confidence throughout his life, since he need not fear the judgment. (Cf. 1Jn. 2:28; 1Jn. 3:21; 1Jn. 4:17; 1Jn. 5:14; Rom. 10:9-10; Heb. 3:6; Heb. 10:19-23; Heb. 10:35) While we actively confess Jesus Christ on earth, our prayers obtain a receptive hearing with God, for our Mediator through Whom we pray acknowledges that we are His, as our faithful confession testifies. (1Ti. 2:5-6) There is the joy of sharing His suffering, since we see ourselves identified with the Lord Himself who has passed this moment of trial too. (Cf. 1Pe. 4:13; Php. 3:10; 1Ti. 6:13) There is also that rejoicing that comes from an approving conscience that knows the gladness at having victoriously passed the critical moment of trial. (Cf. Act. 4:23-31; Act. 5:40-42) Sometimes during the days of fixing of the revelation, such bold confession was blessed with deliverance from danger. (Cf. Peter, Act. 5:12-42; Act. 12:1-17; Paul, 2Ti. 4:16-17) But not always, as the traditionally brutal deaths of these same Apostles testify. But the principle promise of Jesus here is that willing acknowledgement whereby Jesus endorses us as His disciples before the Father at the great accounting.

This is the fifth motive for enduring the dangers and hardships faced by disciples in this life. It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a motivation higher than this: to accept all the pain and death in the service of Jesus Christ and know that the conclusion of life brings us, not judgment, but joy! To be personally introduced to God just because we did only what it was our duty to do is nothing short of incredible! (Cf. Luk. 17:10) How many of the little people of earth long for just a glimpse of the earths great ones! How very few are permitted a private audience with the great, or are privileged to be their intimate friends. But not only to be presented to God but also permitted to live with Him for eternity: this is too good to be true! (Rev. 3:5; Rev. 20:11-15; Rev. 21:1-7) But how can God permit so great a reward for so insignificant a response on our part? Two reasons:

Confession of Christ, with all that this involves, is not insignificant, since this affects every facet of our lives and is the very life-direction of a disciple.

Our Father intends to save the savable on the basis of His mercy. None can presume to earn His reward by putting Him in debt to them merely because they, sinners, confess Jesus. On the other hand, Gods plan is to draw us to Him by exalting Jesus. So if we but confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father, He is more than willing to consider us as righteous even though we are not, because we are willing to trust Him. (Cf. Rom. 3:21-26; Rom. 4:1 to Rom. 5:1)

The question arises at this point whether Christians will actually have to stand trial on that great day. This hesitant doubt is suggested by passages as Joh. 5:24, He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment (krsin), but has passed from death to life. (Cf. Joh. 5:29; 2Pe. 2:9) But even these texts can be harmonized with the more numerous and more explicit passages which picture the, believers as standing for judgment. (See passages below regarding the Judge.) They can be harmonized, since the believer accepts in Jesus Christ all the negative features of the final judgment: its revelation of the heinousness of sin, its condemnation and its sentence of punishment. These features were already accepted by him who understands the meaning of the cross, dies to himself in order to rise again to new life in the Beloved. (1Pe. 2:24) From that moment on, all that the wicked may well fear at the hands of God, has become a matter of joyfully past history for the Christian. But it is this negative side of Gods justice that is the import of the word judgment (krisis) in Joh. 5:24; Joh. 5:29 and 2Pe. 2:9. The point is that every disciple will give account of himself before God and the criterion is settled by this text, since all other criteria mentioned elsewhere may be subsumed under these two words: confess (or deny) Christ before men.

But who will judge the world, God or Christ? The figure of Himself that Jesus presents here seems to be in the function of an Advocate. (Cf. 1Jn. 2:1-2) In the NT both figures are used: God is the Judge of all men (Heb. 12:23; 1Co. 4:5; 1Co. 5:13; Rom. 2:2-3; Rom. 3:4-6; Rom. 11:33; Rom. 14:10; 1Pe. 1:17; 1Pe. 2:23), but we must stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2Co. 5:10; Joh. 5:22; Joh. 5:27; Joh. 9:39; Act. 10:42; 1Co. 4:4-5; 2Ti. 4:1). The harmony is to be found in the synthetic statement of Paul: God will judge the world by Jesus (Act. 17:31; Rom. 2:16). What God does in the Person of Jesus, He may be said to do for Himself. The marvelous revelation that results from these Scriptures is what the Lord actually affirms in Mat. 10:40, that he who deals with Jesus is dealing with Almighty God, and vice versa, he who would deal with God must answer to Jesus. This is the most fundamental doctrine of Christianity: only those who are recognized by Jesus are saved. Those who would climb in any other way are thieves and robbers! (Joh. 10:1-5; Joh. 10:7-18; Joh. 10:27-30; cf. Mat. 11:27; Joh. 14:6; 1Ti. 2:5)

. THE SUPREME DISGRACE FOR DISLOYALTY OR COWARDICE (10:33)

Mat. 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men . . . These ominous words spell out the necessary antithesis to the glorious promise for loyalty just described. Just a glance at the sentence structure of the two declarations reveals how perfectly balanced is each element. Again the declaration is directed to any disciple, not merely the Apostles, who might be tempted to deny Christ. While this warning is specifically intended for the timorous person who, for fear of men, fails to acknowledge his allegiance to Jesus, nevertheless its practical impact will be felt by all whose lives and convictions reflect their rejection of all that He is and offers. So to deny me before men means to repudiate or disown Christ in any of the various expressions whereby one who is a loving disciple should have confessed Him. (Cf. Luk. 12:8-9; Act. 3:13-14; Jud. 1:4; 2Pe. 2:1; Tit. 1:16; 1Jn. 2:22; 1Ti. 5:8; 2Ti. 2:11-13; Rev. 2:13; Rev. 3:8)

To deny me before men has a more ominous side than most recognize. Even amateur philosophers can become quite adept at pointing out the fatal flaw in others philosophies, or views of life. This fatal flaw is but that noticeable inconsistency between the official or stated conclusions of a theory, and the way that the philosopher himself lives or practices that theory. Many Christians speak loudly about the supreme lordship of Jesus of Nazareth, thinking thereby to do Him honor by so fine and public a confession. But in unguarded moments they damn themselves intellectually in the eyes of worldlings who really know something of the will of Christ, and they are probably damning themselves eternally in the eyes of Jesus, when they fail to produce in words or deeds or attitudes what their confession demands of them at those critical moments where their real religion may be tested most surely. Listen, for example, to the comments, feelings or answers a given Christian expresses to the following questions:

Do you think some people are expendable if they refuse to support your church program?

In this modern world is it possible to practice the other cheek policy, when the individual Christian is insulted?

Who do you think is really well off in this world?

Is the possession of wealth a necessary danger to a mans Christianity?

Should whites (or Negroes, Chinese, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, or any other racial group being discussed) be permitted to take an active part in your church?

These deliberately loaded questions are samples of some of the ways in which a Christian unwittingly damns himself and denies Christ by allowing himself the liberty of opinion after Jesus has already spoken. Certainly there is grace and forgiveness for this, but it is important that the saint recognize that he is doing it that he might confess it, repent and be forgiven. Perhaps the esteem of the worldling may be regained too by that intellectual honesty and genuine humility that knows how to say I have sinned, I have imperfectly represented Christ. You may judge me by Christ, but do not judge Christ by me. It is painfully obvious that I am not yet made perfect, but I thank you for pointing out my inconsistency to me! A Christians confession is not a long string of pretences with regard to himself, but the consistent admission to allegiance to Jesus. Hence, when he is overtaken in any fault, in humility he can emphasize once again his deep need for and dependence upon Jesus. A confession of this sort, growing as it does out of a practical denial, can be the most beautiful and most vividly remembered.

But why would men who have known and loved Jesus, men who have even been saved from death by His power, ever be driven to the point where they would actually refuse to admit any connection with Him? Ask Peter. (Cf. Mat. 26:30-35; Mat. 26:69-75; Mar. 14:26-31; Mar. 14:66-72; Luk. 22:31-34; Luk. 22:54-62; Joh. 13:36-38; Joh. 18:15-18; Joh. 18:25-27) In our hours of deeper reflection and honesty have we not had to weep bitterly with him, because we were not prepared for the crisis brought on by some of our own fears?

Our fear of being hated by men (Mat. 10:21-22);

Our fear of being reviled (Mat. 10:25)

Our fear of being persecuted or murdered (Mat. 10:23; Mat. 5:10-12);

Our fear of merely losing the good-will of the people upon whom our business, our profit, our advantages and ultimately our success in life are based. (Luk. 6:22; Joh. 9:22; Joh. 16:2)

These fears and more are the precise reason why Jesus has pounded so steadily throughout this discourse on the theme: Do not be anxious . . . Have no fear of them . . . Do not fear those who kill the body! He knows that the fundamental instinct of self-preservation will be particularly strong in such crises. Yet even the most fundamental of human drives must never be permitted to loom larger than ones commitment to his God! Some disciples would certainly be tempted to prudence or compromise, when, in reality, this would mean a practical denial of their commitment to Him. All of the rationalizations that could be offered do not change the fact that those who make them are deceiving themselves. They but hide from themselves the real motive for their cowardice. The Master foresees and forestalls this by shouting the warning: If to save your neck, save face, save your business, save your family, you deny your relation to me, you will lose your soul!

Him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven. The consequences of ones denial of Jesus, when properly evaluated, are, as Lenski exclaims, terrible beyond all description! And not all of the consequences are future:

The nagging awareness that the former disciple has failed under fire, that he has dishonored his Lord, is something not easily shaken off. The corrosive power of unrelieved guilt is incalculable. And Jesus advance notice of how it will go with such a person at the judgment is deliberately calculated to produce this guilt, in the hope of hereby producing repentance. (2Co. 7:8-11)

The result of a guilty conscience is a useless life, since the individual, who has once known Jesus Christ and faced the demands made upon his mind by the evidences of His Lordship, cannot find ultimate joy or contentment in lesser things. As a result he wanders from this to that, restlessly seeking some consuming passion to take the place of that Lord whom he has removed from the center of his existence. And, whether he admits, or even feels, the uselessness of his life thus lived, all the pseudo-gods he has sought to serve prove worse than useless to help him when he stands before the living God.

For the man who dies in this condition, his last hours can be nothing but terrifying, since he must know that he is about to face the only Lawyer who could have pleaded his case (1Jn. 2:1-2), but has now been raised to the bench to become his Judge (2Co. 5:10). The sworn word of that Magistrate is: I will deny him: (Mar. 8:38; Luk. 9:26)

In short, from the moment of the denial, if unrepaired by repentance and vigorous confession, only a sinister future awaits this hopeless wretch. Oh my soul, can I grasp the horror, the pain and the regret of such a horrible eventuality? Can that proper fear of the Lord grip me so fast that all the menaces of men seem like the harmless barking of chained dogs?

Before my Father who is in heaven. All that has been said before about a holy God who wreaks vengeance upon impenitent sinners, and especially upon renegade disciples, is now felt in its full force. (See on Mat. 10:28) He who falls into the hands of the living God does so because of his failure to confess Jesus! Nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed! (Mat. 10:26) Denial of Jesus can be hidden for some time on earth, but it too will be unmercifully exposed with a finality that will last for eternity. Not only will Jesus deny the coward, the fearful and unbelieving before the Father, but also before the angels of God. (Luk. 12:9) This suggests that, should even the slightest denial of Christ escape the notice of these ministering servants who labor continually on behalf of the saints, Jesus will expose even this. (Cf. Heb. 1:14; Mat. 18:11; Rev. 19:9-10) Thus will God be fully vendicated in His judgment.

Barclay (Matthew, I, 403) indicated several practical ways men often deny Christ:

We may deny Him with our words . . . (Such a person) did not propose to allow his Christianity to interfere with the society he kept and the pleasures he loved. Sometimes we say to other people, practically in so many words, that we are Church members, but not to worry about it too much; that we have no intention of being different; that we are prepared to take our full share in all the pleasures of the world; and that we do not expect people to take any special trouble to respect any vague principles that we may have.

We can deny Him by our silence . . . (when there was) the opportunity to speak some word for Christ, to utter some protest against evil, to take some stand, to show what side we are on. Again and again on such occasions it is easier to keep silence than to speak. But such silence is in itself a denial of Jesus Christ.

We can deny Him by our actions. We can live in such a way that our life is a continuous denial of the faith which in words we profess. He who has given his allegiance to the gospel of purity may be guilty of all kinds of petty dishonesties and breaches of strict honor. He who has undertaken to follow the Master who bade him take up a cross can live a life that is dominated by attention to his own ease and comfort. He who has entered the service of Him who Himself forgave and bade His followers to forgive can live a life of bitterness and resentment and variance with his fellow-men. He whose eyes are meant to be on that Christ who died for love of men can live a life in which the idea of Christian service and Christian charity and Christian generosity are conspicuous by their absence.

Our General Himself has come up through the ranks, has stood Himself precisely where He expects His troops to stand. (1Ti. 6:13; Heb. 2:14-18! Mat. 4:14-16; Mat. 5:7-9) So He is not requiring of His men one thing more than what He Himself has done. The Christian, when standing trial for his faith and adherence to Jesus in a thousand ways across the years, can take courage and remain confident, since he knows, My Lord has stood here before!

C. THE INEVITABLE ENMITIES INVOLVED IN LOYALTY TO JESUS (10:3436)

After having outlined the disciples relationships to their task, to the opposition they must expect, and to the Lord whom they serve, Jesus now describes the inescapable decisions to be made by His workers about their relationship to outsiders among whom they will live and work and to whom they are sent.

Mat. 10:34 Think not that I came to send peace on the earth. Due to their misunderstanding of certain messianic prophecies, many Jews would have been inclined to think this very thing. (Cf. Isa. 2:2-4; Isa. 9:6-7; Isa. 66:12; Psa. 72:7; see notes on Rabbinic thought in Edersheim, Life, II, 710ff.) We can sense the sheer, severe honesty of Jesus better when we remember that it was a popular Jewish conviction that the Christ would usher in an epoch of great prosperity and universal peace. This concept of Jesus not only does not echo the materialistic expectations popular among His own people, but it also demonstrates the abyss that separated His vision of the Messianic Kingdom from theirs, The war pictured by Jesus, symbolized by the sword, is of an entirely different character than that envisioned by those who hoped for a monolithic national army of Hebrews only, who would march under the Messiah against the nations of the world over which they would triumph. Jesus is no creature of His period, but a revolutionary Creator whose original message comes from God. But those wild-eyed revolutionaries of every age who have attempted to claim Jesus good name for their cause, or who would uphold Him as their example for disrupting normal society, must beware lest they find themselves and their declared aims in open contradiction with THIS Revolutionary! It is absolutely essential therefore that Jesus followers not expect a fools paradise. The painful honesty of Jesus here stands out in striking contrast to those wild enthusiasts who attract followers with seductive but delusive promises. Later, Jesus can temper the harshness of this statement, but even then, not too much: I have said this to you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (Joh. 16:33)

I came to . . . What the Master now describes expresses the stated purpose of His earthly mission. So what He unfolds in this and the following verses is neither extra, optional nor unnecessary, since the result of this His work, the decisions His followers must make and the inevitable enmities which result are all intimately involved in Jesus intended mission.

I came not to send peace (on the earth), but a sword. But how can this obvious declaration of the Messiah Himself be harmonized with the general picture drawn of Him as the great prince of Peace? (Cf. Isa. 9:6-7; Luk. 2:14) There are two possibilities:

This is a Hebraistic expression, emphatically stated to carry a point without intending to exclude absolutely what is negated. (See e.g. notes on Mat. 9:13) Accordingly, Jesus is saying, I came not only to bring peace, but also a sword. As indicated above, due to the preconceptions of that day, it was entirely essential to the successful communication of His divine message that Jesus startle His hearers, so that this particularly unwelcome news not slip past, quite unnoticed by unwary listeners.

Then, in harmony with the foregoing, it is also unquestionably true that Jesus did not come to bring peace on earth to just any and every rebel against Gods good government. Though He came to bring true harmony between God and man as well as true brotherhood among men, yet to accomplish this magnificent mission, Jesus could not leave men the way they were.

But why cannot men have peace the way they are? Plummer (Matthew, 156) is right to point out that peace cannot be enforced. Open hostility can be put down by force; but good will can come only by voluntary consent. So long as mens wills are opposed to the Gospel, there can be no peace. In fact, war, division and fire must necessarily break out where the claims of Jesus are proclaimed in a hostile world. Feel the intense emotion of the Lord as He speaks about this revolution. (Luk. 12:49-51) Plummer (Luke, 334), commenting on that text, shows the vigor and depth of His language:

The history of Christs ministry shows that (the fire) was kindled. . . . Christ came to set the world on fire, and the conflagration had already begun. Mal. 3:2. bptisma d ch baptisthnai. Having used the metaphor of fire, Christ now uses the metaphor of water. The one sets forth the result of His coming as it affects the world, the other as it affects Himself. The world is lit up with flames, and Christ is bathed in blood: Mar. 10:38.

So long as His disciples act in their true character, they are the very conscience of society. They are the very character of God walking daily among their sinful fellows, family and friends. The embarrassing contrast between righteousness and iniquity that results from this contact, must, in a thousand different ways, cause that painful condemning of the sinful practices and attitudes of those who are accustomed to that way of life. But this being the worlds conscience is not easy business, because one must suffer all the excuses, evasions and harsh abuse that is the daily experience of every individual conscience.

Jesus Himself knows that He is Himself such a conscience. He too must disturb their self-complacency, awaken their deadened fear of the living God. His influence, then, cannot be peaceful in the sense that He leaves men tranquilly undisturbed. As Rix (PHC, 259) puts it:

(His influence) was a reforming, dividing, disturbing, dissolving, revolutionary influence. It was a pungent, painful, sacrificial influence. The history of Christianity is not a peaceful history. This fact is brought forward sometimes as a proof that Christianity has been a failure. But before we admit the validity of this objection, let us consider this prior question: is the assumption upon which it is based a valid one? Is peace the first aim of Christianity? Is it the main object of the Christian religion to give you an undisturbed and placid life? It is an ignoble view of life which regards its highest good as a placid and undisturbed existence. To live is to endure and overcome, to aspire and to attain. . . . It is not the best thing in the world for a man to have no doubts, to ask no questions, to be free from all speculation and all wonder. It is not the best thing for a man to receive his opinions ready-made and to reiterate them unthinkingly till he comes to look upon them as infallible.

But the disturbance Christ brings produces immediate war, since men perversely cling to their sins, combat Christ and His messengers and line up against those who accept His discipline. This automatically divides the world into two hostile camps. (Cf. Luk. 12:51) As Jesus will immediately point out, the lines will be drawn even in families, between those who follow Him and those who do not. But Jesus must provoke this kind of war; otherwise, men would go on to their doom perfectly satisfied with themselves, unaware of their fate.

While the figure of the sword may mean war, as explained above, it is also possible that the main emphasis of Jesus is on the use of a sword to split asunder what had before been of one piece or a unity. Commenting on this aspect, Barclay (Matthew, I, 405) says:

When some great cause emerges, it is bound to divide people; there are bound to be those who answer, and those who refuse, the challenge. To be confronted with Jesus is necessarily to be confronted with the choice whether to accept Him or to reject Him; and the world is always divided into those who have accepted Christ and those who have not.

Though He is the very bond of lasting peace and true union, Jesus Himself is the sharpest line of separation between men and the greatest disturber of easy consciences. He brought no peace to Herod or Jerusalem (Mat. 2:3). His very birth brought anguish and heartbreak to all parents in Bethlehem with boys under two. His birth brought a sword that pierced His mothers soul and signaled the rise and fall of many in Israel (Luk. 2:34-35). The Babes protection brought additional fears and frustrations to Joseph (Mat. 1:18-19; Mat. 2:13-14; Mat. 2:22). But the angels song is still true for this Babe has brought peace that passes understanding to men with whom (God) is well pleased. (Luk. 2:14; Eph. 2:14; Php. 4:7) But to enjoy this peace, men have always had to decide about Jesus Christ, and this decision has involved many other choices of which the Lord now begins a short list:

Mat. 10:35 For shows that Jesus intends to illustrate concretely what He means by a sword. These examples that follow are only typical and by no means propose to exhaust the divisions possible in human relationships, since other separations are obviously conceivable in families otherwise constituted. I came to: what follows this verb expresses the purpose and result of the Lords earthly mission. What He lists here, then, is not avoidable, since the breakdown of some of these family ties partakes of the essential nature of the life to which the Master calls us. This crisis cannot be evaded without compromise of conscience.

a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother,
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and a mans foes shall be they of his own household.

These words are quoted practically verbatim from Mic. 7:6. Did Jesus mean for His disciples to understand Him as speaking within the framework set for them by Micah?

It might be that Jesus is merely appropriating the well-known expressions of the ancient prophet. Micah had used this language to describe the height of treachery rampant in an era of injustice at all levels of society. However, Jesus context is not so much general injustice as the particular heartlessness of those who refuse to accept Jesus and the religious convictions of His disciples. It may be, then, that the Master intends only to take Micahs language proverbially, as aptly describing treachery in any age, not merely that of the prophet himself. In this case, the form, not the context, suits Jesus purpose.

Keil (Minor Prophets, I, 507) suggests an alternate view:

This verse is applied by Christ to the period of the krsis which will attend His coming, in His instruction to the apostles in Mat. 10:35-36 (cf. Luk. 12:53) . . . in the sense, that at the outbreak of the judgment and of the visitation the faithlessness will reach the height of treachery to the nearest friends, yea, even of the dissolution of every family tie. (cf. Mat. 24:10; Mat. 24:12)

Apparently, Keil sees the Lords use of this language as intending to point out a condition crying out for judgment. However, again the context here is not specifically eschatological, as Lukes seeming parallel might tend to suggest.

Since the Lord does not document His words as being those of Micah, and since His purpose differs somewhat from that of the prophet, it is probably better to see only a free use of appropriate language. Jesus intention is to bring into sharp relief the bitterness of religious intolerance.

I came to set a man at variance against . . . Here is one of the first intimations of the individualistic and personal character of Jesus religion. (Cf. Mat. 3:7-10) It makes a clear break with the patriarchal concept of religion whereby the whole family, including the children, by virtue of their birth into the family, become participants in all the religious privileges of the paternal head. There is no suggestion in the NT that baptism was intended as a substitute for circumcision, and thus to be applied to infants. Rather, Jesus insists here on the extremely personal character of our adherence to Him, by demanding the unhesitating severing of even the dearest relationships that become a hindrance to absolute fidelity to Him. This is not a concept, therefore, that can be applied in any sense to those without the faculty to make such a decision, i.e. infants. Yet it is a fundamental tenet in Jesus system.

At variance against. A disciple might wishfully hope that, though he be rejected, misunderstood and reviled for his new-found faith by society, yet surely his own family would understand. But McGarvey (Matthew-Mark, 94) correctly feels the psychological impact of Jesus statement:

When a man abandons the religion of his ancestors his own kindred feel more keenly than others the shame which the world attaches to the act, and are exasperated against the supposed apostate in a degree proportionate to their nearness to him.

Jesus is not, however, promoting here a method of missions, whereby He would be seen as deliberately extracting the individual from his people and home in order to become a disciple, ignoring, and thereby failing to retain the friendly relations whereby the family and eventually much of his former society could be won to the Lord. Even within the highly individualistic framework of Jesus warning it may yet be possible to attain the intriguing ideals of a Peoples Movement Christward, as urged and described by McGavran (The Bridges of God), wherein a chain-reaction of individual decisions to accept Christ makes it possible for larger segments of a given human community to move whole from paganism or Judaism into the new faith in Christ. Thus individuals are able to make decisions within this larger community change of faith. But while Jesus is not discussing a method of missions, yet He is talking about the necessary expectations that any given disciple of His must confront due to his own painfully individualistic allegiance to Him. While McGavrans thesis is ideally suited to making possible the wider and more rapid evangelization of a people, yet the major obstacle to such a movement is ostracism, a peoples defense against any new thing felt seriously to endanger the community life. . . . The most successful answer to ostracism is the conversion of chains of families. The lone convert is particularly susceptible to boycott. (Bridges, 20) . But this is just Jesus point. To this, McGavran answers (Bridges, 23):

Yet becoming a Christian also meant leaving relatives. Every such decision involved separation from those not yet convinced. . . . What produced this dividing force was not merely individual conviction. It was individual conviction heated hot in a glowing group movement in a human chain reaction. Very few individuals standing alone could renounce father and mother and kinsmen. But reinforced by the burning faith that our people are following the new way, such fathers and mothers and kinsmen as refused to follow the Messiah could be renounced. There were heartbreaks and tears, the parting was tremendously difficult, but to men borne forward on the way of group action it was possible.

This may be true where the wave of group action is already rolling high, but where it is not, where the evangelization has just begun, or where an apostate Church is the majority religion or the State Church, the disciple of Jesus is to expect, social intercourse to be cut off so drastically that no one will give the new convert warmth, shelter or support. If he falls sick, he can expect his former associates to have nothing to do with him, since, for all they care, he can die. It is very easy to overstate our evidence for the rapid, people-wide growth of the Church during the early days of its history, (Act. 2:41-47; Act. 4:4; Act. 4:32 ff.; Act. 6:1; Act. 6:7; Act. 8:6; Act. 8:12; Act. 9:35; Act. 9:42; Act. 11:19-26; Act. 21:20) Though it be true that the Christian Church was a movement of great numbers, so that a large enough segment of the Jewish people became Christian with the consequence that whole families and sometimes whole villages turned to the Lord (cf. Act. 9:35), nevertheless the validity of Christs words here in this text was demonstrated time and again as the ostracism rose right within the ranks of the Jewish people itself. The horrible persecution of the Church by the Jewish religious establishment was not the only frightening prospect confronted by early converts from Jewry. (Cf. Acts 4; Act. 5:17-42; Act. 6:8 to Act. 8:4) They lost family, possessions, connections, honors and opportunities. (Cf. Heb. 10:32-34; Mat. 19:29) The rapid people-movement was not at all trouble-free, so as to make Christs warning here unnecessary. In fairness to McGavran, it must be said that he is not saying that had the Apostles used the techniques he outlines, the transfer from Judaism to Christianity would have been much smoother. Nor does he minimize the inevitable banishment of the Christian from intimate society of the unconverted relatives or associates, since his real antithesis is a method of missions too often used, which mistakes Jesus warning in our text for the norm, hence ignores important relationships within a people that could be used advantageously to produce much more rapid evangelization of that people. Let it never be said that Jesus is urging variance against ones family for variance sake, but rather variance for Jesus sake. Jesus is not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance. (Luk. 13:1-9; 2Pe. 3:9) Any disciple who has learned this cannot deliberately seek to alienate his family merely by some indiscretion thought to be showing faithfulness to Jesus.

On the other hand, there is the keen temptation, described by Barclay, (Matthew, I, 406):

The bitterest thing about this warfare was that a mans foes would be those of his own household. It can happen that a man loves his wife and his family so much that he may refuse some great adventure, some avenue of service, some call to sacrifice, either because he does not wish to leave them, or because to accept it would involve them in danger and in risk. . . . It has happened that a man has refused Gods call to some adventurous bit of service, because he allowed personal attachments to immobilize him

The fact remains that it is possible for mans loved ones to become in effect his enemies, if the thought of them keeps him from doing what he knows God wishes and wants him to do.

Mat. 10:36 A mans foes shall be they of his own household. McGarvey (Fourfold, 367) observes:

If the Jew and the pagan thus held their religions at a higher value than the ties of kindred (so as to persecute their Christian kin, HEF), much more should the Christian value his religion above these ties.

Even so, we must never forget that our real enemy is always and only Satan, even though he may make good use of an unknowing and unwilling tool in the person of ones own kin to do his work. (Sometimes he adopts an unsuspecting Christian to his purpose to destroy the Church from within. Is it not possible that Jesus has sometimes reflected: What do I need enemies for, when I have disciples like that one!?) But the disciple must ever recall that they of ones own household are never the ultimate enemy, but PEOPLE, even though they are blinded by bitter religious hate. These are people for whom Jesus came to die, just as much as are those who do accept Him. This is the reason why the disciples are never to respond with vitriolic invectives against the opposition. Perhaps the very meekness and consideration and constancy of Jesus disciples will be the very means of opening the mind of the opponents to the truth. (Cf. 1Pe. 3:1-2) Paradoxically, they are foes in one sense, but beloved in another. (Cf. Rom. 11:28)

D. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS THROUGH SACRIFICE AND SURRENDER TO THE SAVIOR (10:3739)

Fully knowing that many are willing to endure almost anything in death or life, in the realm of spirits or earthly monarchs, in the world of what happens today or in the world tomorrow, in the forces of the universe, of heaven or hell, the Lord now pictures that one influence that would be able to seduce them away from Him. He knows the danger to be found in the tender tension in families where natural affection would prove stronger than our chosen affection for Christ.

Mat. 10:37 He that loveth (ho philn, not ho agapn) Before beginning the exegesis of Jesus meaning, it is imperative that we note which words He uses, lest we miss His emphasis, not having listened to His choice of terms. He is talking about phila, not agp. (See notes on Mat. 5:43-48, Vol. I, 308322 for a study of this latter word.) The master has in mind, not that invincible good will that always does what is in the best interest of the object of ones love, even if the person thus loved remains disagreeable or becomes the enemy. Rather, He puts the emphasis on phila (= friendship; in this connection examine Jas. 4:4 where this noun appears the only time in the N.T.) Phil, while having some of the same area of meaning as agap, is better understood to touch more deeply the sentiments or emotional attachment of the individual and should be translated love, have affection for, like, . . . kiss. (Arndt-Gingrich, 866f.) The Lord, then, is talking about cherishing what is dear to us at the expense of our loyalty to Him

He that loveth father, mother, son or daughter more than me: this is no question of our relative affection for that individual, as if we must somehow diminish our affection for each individual, in order to have sufficient affection left over for Jesus. Rather, He means the whole of our affection for any individual, which conflicts with the whole of our affection for Jesus. This is psychologically sound, for every one of us is capable of indefinite affection for each person we know, should we feel inclined so to express ourselves. Jesus does not ask that we diminish any affection we have for any person, least of all for those of our own family. He is, rather, proscribing that conflict of loyalty that prefers our selfish, unbelieving family, to His claims on the life of His disciple caught at that crisis of choice between the two.

What makes this a hard saying of Jesus is its antithesis, stated on a later occasion (Luk. 14:26; Luk. 14:33):

If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple . . . So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

This is not only difficult for most to accept, but seems to make hate the antithesis of affection, as we have it in Matthews text. But the incisive writing of C. S. Lewis (Four Loves, 17ff., 166ff.) puts these seemingly contradictory maxims of the Lord into their proper relationship. Loving anything or anyone above God Himself, is to make an idol of the object of our love. So when our loves claim or will or would hold us back from following Him, then we must take them from the throne of our heart, even though our decision will seem to them sufficiently like hatred. Lewis is right, of course, but this is where the difficulty arises, since most people who become disciples of Jesus, do so full-grown with a rather completely developed circle of friends, relatives and loved ones, a relationship already very strong and of long duration. Jesus seemingly harsh (and only apparently contradictory) demands require that we put our loves into their proper order, long in advance of crises, so that when the test comes, it will be no brutal surprise to anyone. Lewis goes on to point out that it is absolutely essential that all who know us should also know, from a thousand talks, exactly what we are and how we feel about God. This helps all our loved ones to set their lives in order psychologically in relation to us, to come to understand us on this matter of our commitment to Christ, long before the crucial test of loyalty. When the crisis arises it is too late to begin telling a loved one that our love had a secret reservation all along, i.e., our commitment to the Master. It is precisely at this point that Jesus demands for the widest and most public confession of our adherence to Him, begin to make sense in a personal way. (See on Mat. 10:26-27; Mat. 10:32-33)

There is very keen refinement in this temptation to deny Christ because of some loved one! When we see that our attachment to Him will cause danger or death to some loved one, we hesitate to jeopardize their life or safety by taking that conscious step that would throw them into exactly that position. What should we do at that moment? We must have already learned that, with us or without us they remain in Gods care, just as much as they ever were before we came along. In that moment then, let us commit them to Him. Even if our confession or our taking a special stand for Christ brings them pain or death (because of what others do to them as a direct result of our own faithfulness), it must not deter us from taking that stand or making that confession. Every loyalty must give place to loyalty to God. Peter calls persecution a refining fire (1Pe. 1:6-8), because it burns out of our attachment to Jesus all the impure motives. These trials make us examine every phase of our faith for which we are called upon to suffer. We will not willingly suffer for what we do not deem absolutely essential. Thus we examine even these closest, dearest relationships in the light of their eternal consequences. Sentiment and affection had, in better times, covered up these implications, not permitting us to evaluate them objectively. This is why Jesus unsparingly strips off that protective covering of sentiment and rigorously bares the extreme danger that these loved ones can be to us.

He that loveth father or mother, son or daughter more than me . . . The Lord knows the extraordinary seduction that material possessions can be, and in no uncertain terms requires that a disciple be ready to relinquish his hold on ANY possession. (Cf. Mat. 19:16-30; Luk. 14:25-33; cf. Php. 3:7) But here the Master decrees that those human relationships which we deem most truly real and valuable and would hold as most intrinsically our own, must be sacrificed, if they prove to be more than me! Any Christian who acknowledges a higher lordship than Jesus Christ, is not fit for the Kingdom of God. (Cf. Joh. 8:31-34; Rom. 6:16; Luk. 9:62) There can be no prior or unbreakable commitments to any other, if Jesus be Lord.

Worthy of me. But who could pretend to be actually worthy of Jesus? (Cf. 2Co. 2:16) No one can stack up merits or earn credits with God, merely by accumulating any number of good deeds to be remembered in a ledger of merit. (Cf. Col. 1:12-13; 2Co. 3:5-6; Joh. 15:5) Arndt-Gingrich (77) translate it: He does not deserve to belong to me, or perhaps, he is not suited to me. Worthy of me, however, is the disciples goal, because it describes a manner of life that would be a credit to Jesus. Living worthy of Him means having that same intransigence before temptations, that same love of righteousness, that same mercifulness with sinners, that same patience under trial, that reflects so well what He would have done under similar circumstances. Bystanders could see in their minds eye and remember Jesus, precisely because they would be able to see His attitudes and actions duplicated in His people.

Mat. 10:38 And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me. Whereas before, Jesus had presented influences that perhaps could have allured us away from Him, here He unmasks the one that would repel us from Him: the suffering of shame and death. Rather than speak of crowns and glory to these disciples who were expecting any day to participate in a glorious messianic procession that would signal the beginning of the messianic kingdom, Jesus flashes before the startled Apostles a vision of the real procession in which they will march, a vision as shocking as it is terrible. To appreciate the spectacle Jesus words convey, imagine the Lord, with His own cross on His shoulders, waving His men on up Golgothas height, shouting, Come on, its over the top we godo you expect to live forever?

How many times had these very men witnessed a straggling line of condemned Galileans shuffling along to their tortured death, bearing their crosses, hurried along by Roman guards? How often had these men watched the death agony of human beings nailed to those wooden trees while their pain, thirst and anger mingled with blood, sweat and flies in the hot Palestinean sun? The Roman general, Quintilius. Varus, quelled the uprisings Simon and Judas, and crucified 2000 Jews that had supported these insurrections in Galilee. He lined the roads of Galilee with these gruesome markers. To the Apostles, then, Jesus challenge put in these words is no less than the demand that they pronounce and execute the death sentence upon themselves. Any astute political observer or sociologist who had listened to Jesus very long could have observed that anyone who took Jesus seriously enough to enlist in His movement would be committing political, religious and commercial suicide. And Jesus would agree. This is why the Master, at this point in their discipleship, requires that His men finish the funeral, so they can get on with more important things.

The genius of such a requirement is immediately obvious: no enemy can, through threats of death, stop a revolutionary movement made up of men and women who have already accepted their own death as an accomplished fact, a justified judgment and a willing surrender! (Cf. Rom. 6:1-11; Gal. 2:20; Gal. 5:24; Gal. 6:14; Gal. 6:17) The disciple is to see that there are two ways of obeying the will of Christ:

Actively, by doing what He has bound us to say and do, whereinsofar we are free to do it, i.e. so long as others permit us to express our commitment to Christ.

Passively, by suffering the opposition, the persecution and martyrdom at the hands of those who do not permit us to do His bidding in any other way. (Php. 1:29)

But already the literal cross has passed from a means of physical execution, into that figurative, spiritual reality that all Christian theology has come to recognize. Anyone who has signed his own death warrant by accepting the risk of losing all for Jesus, even his own life on a wooden stake along a public highway, has already begun to arrange his life spiritually in the very direction Jesus intends. (See on Mat. 16:24-28) The cross is painfully personal and must be willingly assumed, since no other can either shoulder it for us or even lay it on our shoulders. Each must take his cross, i.e. do what he must for Christs sake, even at the price of the most heartbreaking sacrifices or the most excruciating death, This is precisely what doing the will of God cost Jesus.

This willing self-crucifixion of our own will, emotions, ambitions and desires means, as Barclay (Matthew, I, 408) says:

The Christian many have to sacrifice his personal ambitions, the ease and comfort that he might have enjoyed, the career he might have achieved; he may have to lay aside his dreams, to realize that the shining things of which he caught a glimpse are not for him. He will certainly have to sacrifice his will, for no Christian can ever again do what he likes: he must do what Christ likes.

The impressive list Jesus had already given explained the various ramifications of the cross, as suffering:

being dragged before hostile religious and civil authorities (Mat. 10:17)

receiving an inhospitable reception when trying to bring the Gospel of peace to others (Mat. 10:14)

being betrayed to death by relatives (Mat. 10:21)

being tempted to fear men more than God (Mat. 10:8)

facing the constant allurement of denying everything just to have a moments peace (Mat. 10:33)

slander that tears at the heart (Mat. 10:25)

There is another reason for this drastic demand as part of this commission of the Twelve as Jesus sends them out on their first trial run. How badly they needed this special teaching regarding the cross in their own future, is seen in the fact that they have studied under Jesus many months now. They have just enough training to make them cocksure but not great rabbis. They have every temptation now to out-pharisee the Pharisees, i.e. to be proud, sectarian, more argumentative than convincing, more self-seeking than useful to others. They will be tempted to defend themselves instead of preach the Gospel. To them these words may well mean:

He who loves his own opinions, his own group more than me, is not worthy of me.
No man is worthy of me who prides himself in his debating ability, forgetting that his opponents are people for whom I came to die, forgetting his great responsibility to make the truth known in love, forgetting that people can be changed if they are not battered into the ground.
He who confuses opposition raised by honest doubters for bitter persecution is not worthy of me.
He that confuses his own interests for mine, thinking that those who oppose him, for whatever reason, are thereby opposing me, is not worthy of me.
He who knows he is right and remains uncompromising, but is unkind to those yet in the wrong, is unworthy of me.
He who deceives himself into thinking he is standing for me, when actually he has never taken the trouble to study both sides of an issue so he will have responsible reasons for what he believes to be my meaning, or when he has made his conclusion out of selfish or deceptive motives, is not worthy of me.

Mat. 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it;

and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

The key to this paradox is the definition and importance one puts upon his life. Life (psych) is a many-sided word, a fact which may create problems for all who would understand and decide aright in which way they wish to preserve their life. Arndt-Gingrich (901, 902) define psych:

literallya. of life on earth in its external, physical aspects . . . (breath of) life, life-principle, soul . . . earthly life itself . . . b. the soul as seat and center of the inner life of man in its many and varied aspects . . . c. the soul as seat and center of life that transcends the earthly . . . d. Since the soul is the center of both the earthly (1a) and the supernatural (1c) life, a man can find himself facing the question in which character he wishes to preserve it for himself . . . Mar. 8:35. Cf. Mat. 10:39; Mat. 16:25; Luk. 9:24; Luk. 17:33; Joh. 12:25 . . .

by metonymy that which possesses life or a soul . . . a living creature . . . Pl. persons, lit. souls . . .

What is the real meaning, purpose and value of life? This question, the most practical search of the philosopher and the inevitable object of every thinking person, is here categorically answered by the Lord: Life is losing oneself in the unselfish service of someone else. This simple declaration becomes, then, the acid test of our appreciation of, and submission to, Jesus Lordship and wisdom. The disciple who disagrees with this fundamental principle of Jesus, either by what he thinks or by the way he runs his life, is in reality no disciple, regardless of all his pretensions to the contrary! Feel the contrast:

What men call Life:

What God calls Life:

The selfish struggle to satisfy self; self-glorification;

Doing what needs to be done, regardless of personal comfort or costs.

The praise of other men is the most satisfying goal;

Praise of God ones highest joy,

A constantly growing supply of wealth and possessions;

Losing oneself in humble, self-effacing service to God and men.

That eager grasping after more pleasures, adventures, excitement, comfort, ease, security;

Surrendering ones selfish, self-seeking life.

Fulfilment of ambitions;

Spending, not hoarding, ones powers, interest, possessions.

Hoarding life by denying ones commitment to Jesus.

Honorable, unflinching confession of Jesus, though it brings certain suffering and death.

Note the judgment Jesus pronounces upon each way of life:

He shall lose all that real life involves.

He gains all the real life that Christs leading promises and produces.

He quit too early, satisfying himself too easily with that which is a mere substitute for life as it is meant to be lived.

He gains a place in human history and human hearts accorded the truly great who humbly served others.

The man who makes this life the end-all of his existence, really fails the more he seems to succeed.

The man who looks with unwavering confidence to the faithfulness of God, really succeeds the more he seems to fail (by worldly standards).

He loses all that makes this life valuable to others and worth living for himself.

He finds all that makes life valuable to others and makes it worth living for himself.

He must face the second death!

He has passed out of death into life!

The tragedy of the self-seeking, self-saving life is already pronounced by Jesus who knows its certain outcome: such a person shall lose his life. There is no doubt or discussion: such a course is already doomed. He who tries to save his life, his marriage, his property, his position or anything else that is important to him at the expense of his commitment to Christ, loses it all. (Cf. Joh. 12:42-43) This principle is so far-reaching that even Jesus Himself could not escape it! (Joh. 12:24-25) This is why He lays down the challenge of high adventure: He knows that the only way to true happiness and real life, here and hereafter, is to SPEND life, not sparing it, but serving others and so fulfilling Gods purpose for us here. (See notes on Mat. 5:43-48; Mat. 7:12, Vol. I)

He that loseth his life for my sake is not necessarily, although he certainly could be, a Christian martyr. (Cf. Rev. 21:11) Obviously a person could not take up his cross daily, if this meant martyrdom the first time around! A violent death is not to be preferred to a humble, self-denying life of daily service so intent on ministering to others that ones own selfish ambitions dwindle and die from neglect. This is the real loss of ones life for Jesus sake. Imagine the puzzlement of the solicitous and selfish: But you dont have time for yourself any more! To this the saint responds: Really, I had not noticed, but, frankly, if you knew what a scoundrel I am, you would not have time for me either!

Shall find it. There is no faith where there is no risk. In this exalted promise of a proven gentleman, Jesus turns up to their maximum the test fires that try mens faith. From this point on, every one of Jesus listeners must decide personally whether He knows what He is talking about, whether HIS world is real. Jesus promises test a mans faith just as really as do His most exacting commands.

For my sake: this is the secret of Christs power over men, the key to His ability to transform men from the self-seeking, self-complacent, self-willed, ambitious rebels they are, into saints of God. Once a man comprehends clearly who Jesus is and what He has done for that one man, once that man desires to respond in gratitude for Jesus self-humiliation on the cross, there is no end to what that man will do for Jesus sake. (See notes on Mat. 5:11, Vol. I, 226) But the secret is our commitment, not to a system nor a doctrine nor even a way of looking at religion, but our sense of belonging to Him. (1Pe. 2:20-25) Plummer (Matthew, 157) calls our attention to the audacity of Jesus demands and claims:

Again we have a claim which is monstrous if He who makes it is not conscious of being Divine. Who is it that is going to own us or renounce us before Gods judgment-seat (32, 33)? Who is it that promises with such confidence that the man who loses his life for His sake shall find it? And these momentous utterances are spoken as if the Speaker had no shadow of doubt as to their truth, and as if He expected that His hearers would at once accept them. What is more, thousands of Christians, generation after generation, have shaped their lives by them and have proved their truth by repeated experience.

FACT QUESTIONS

List several instances in which disciples of Jesus actually denied Him before men.

List several instances in which disciples of Jesus actually confessed Him before men .

List several instances in which disciples actually felt the sword of Jesus in their own lives, as their loyalty to the Master cost them their family, friends, position, comfort, wealth or the like.

Illustrate from instances in Jesus life how He personally underwent all the difficulties that He here pictures for His disciples. Leave out the trials of the last week of His life and the crucifixion. Search out other poignant illustrations of His personal suffering many, many times before that last week.

Explain the meaning of the terms: peace on the earth and sword as Jesus intended them in this text. Show how this use differs from some usual connotations of these words.

When and where will Jesus confess or deny men before His Father?

Show the deeper harmony between the ancient prophecy that describes a part of Jesus mission to be the Prince of Peace, and the overt declaration of Jesus Himself that He did not intend to bring peace on earth.

Explain the remark Jesus made about finding and losing ones life. What is this life to which He refers?

Explain the meaning of the expression to take up ones cross. Show what this expression would have impressed on the minds of the Apostles who first heard it, and then state as well as you can the same meaning in modern English without any loss in significance or flavor that Jesus intended.

10.

Explain how Jesus disciples are to be worthy of Him.

11.

What is the content of the confession that Jesus requires of His disciples to make before men? In other words, what are we to say about Jesus that makes all the difference between confessing Him and denying Him?

12.

State the declarations in this section that emphasize Jesus authority.

SERMON

ON SELF-DENIAL AND CROSS-BEARING:
THE INFLUENCE OF THE CROSS IN THE LIFE OF THE BELIEVER
TEXT: 10:38

Introduction:

The very word cross immediately evokes the image of the instrument of torture on which Jesus died. However in the NT at least one fourth of the references to the cross (6 in 27) do not refer to His cross at all, but rather to the cross of every believer. (Mat. 10:38; Mat. 16:24; Mar. 8:34; Luk. 9:23; Luk. 14:27; Gal. 6:14) But how does the cross involve the life of every Christian? To answer this question, we need to see:

The MEANING of the Cross in the Life of the Believer.

This is not simply, or only, martyrdom, a literal death on the cross.

This is obvious from the fact that Jesus Himself at the moment He uttered this challenge apparently did not expect any disciple to comply literally with the command.

Therefore, the cross is figurative.

But, though figurative, this cannot mean it is somehow less real.

In fact, it is something so very real that our whole discipleship and consequent salvation depends upon it! (Luk. 14:27)

Nor can it mean merely martyrdom, because Jesus expected all true disciples to comply immediately as if it were a matter of life and death.

This is true, even though some disciples, who were acceptable to the Lord, never tasted martyrdom and yet they may be presumed to have borne their cross worthily.

Some disciples who were standing there immediately present did not suffer martyrdom for several years and yet may be presumed to have begun bearing their cross shortly after the Lord said this, and for some time until their death.

If the cross must be taken literally or legalistically, what do we do with those poor souls who died by decapitation, by being boiled alive or burned at the stake? Though these did not die on the cross, should it be deduced from this that they did not somehow bear their cross worthily?

Nor is bearing ones cross simply the sum total of the pains and difficulties that assault the disciple throughout life.

The Lord does not take notice of the size of the callouses on out hands. He looks rather at how we earned them.

There are large numbers of people who suffer greatly without intending for one minute to bear any kind of cross: as far as they are concerned, their suffering has nothing to do with Jesus, since they have no connection with Him.

So the cross is not simply the normal suffering in life.

The true meaning of the cross is our imitation of, and identification with, Jesus, i.e. our assuming the same attitudes He manifested throughout His life.

The cross probably has the same meaning in the life of the disciple as it had for the life of his Master. (Mat. 10:24-25; Heb. 13:24-25)

Jesus had already felt the effects of the cross for the entire 33 years that preceded that mortal crisis that took place on Golgotha. (Heb. 2:18; Heb. 4:15)

All of the temptations Jesus faced and defeated are evidences of His conquest of His ego, the victory over His selfish passions.

So the meaning of cross-bearing and the nature of self-denial is putting to death in our lives all that:

hinders fellowship with our God;

harms relations with our fellowman;

holds self apart for self alone.

Having understood the meaning of the cross, we are driven to look into . . .

II.

The NECESSITY of the Cross in the Life of the Believer:

In order to solve societys deepest problem, mans own beastly selfishness, the cross is necessary.

Self-denial is absolutely essential to the well-being of society in all its relationships, since it is the key to the removal of selfishness, the root of all of societys problems.

It is the voluntary placing ourselves at the service of others AS IF we were their inferiors, even though in many cases we are their superiors (and too often we think we are when we are not!). Examples: parent/child; student/professor; employer/employee; government/citizens; merchant/ customer; elders/younger.

To be able to fulfil the very spirit of Jesus ideals, the cross is necessary.

The faith Jesus taught requires not only a belief in His doctrine or an intellectual adherence to His ideals.

Rather, He demands that conquest of the ego, that total defeat of self.

This is something much more difficult, much more profound than a superficial assent to a new creed, however well-stated, convenient but innocuous.

This is, rather, the willing execution of that rebel who would kick God off His throne, and seat himself in His place, ruling his own little universe.

This self-renunciation is more basic than that external conformity to a new, however superficial, set of ideals.

This is literally starting over, because Jesus wants to change the man from within by making him a new creature!

Jesus knows how impossible it is to require that the old man, in his present condition, reach those ideals which are absolutely necessary and obligatory to please God, and live lives worthy of sons of God.

Law, any law, could require a certain external conformity to certain norms, but it could not touch the heart, could not require that a man think or feel rightly.

For this result, it is necessary to begin again by creating the new man from within.

The result? In this way alone can we reach the spirit, not only the form, of the ideals of Jesus.

ABLE to put Jesus ideals into practice, the cross is necessary:

So long as that rebel remains alive, so long will Jesus ideals be impracticable, unreachable.

It is when man throws down his last line of defense that barricades him against his God, when he lays himself bare to the righteous sentence of death against him, without justifications or excuses, when he DIES, only then can that new man rise in him, created in the image of Jesus. Only then is he able to be the man that, in his dreams, he might have been.

The cross is necessary in order to be able to ENJOY Christianity:

The cross rudely puts an end to that desperate clinging to two worlds, trying to grasp the best of both, but fails to win either, since he who tries it is unable, because unwilling, to pay the price and accept the discipline required to gain them. Consequently, the man who tries it remains in the middle, half-way between both worlds, deluded, frustrated, unable to reach either. So he loses the best of both,

But the cross, having put to death, put to silence the selfish cries of the old mad fool, leaves the man with his heart whole, his mind sane, his life and desires united. With one heart, undivided by contradictory claims on his attention, the man can by the grace of God confidently reach for all the fullest joys to be had in Christs service here on earth and all the best of heaven!

The cross is necessary in order to be able to hold out to the end.

The man who has already accepted his own death as

a past fact;

a victory for true justice;

a justified execution of a notorious criminal;

and a voluntary surrender of himself to God, cannot have much sympathy with those temptations that would turn him back into the wretch he used to be.

Such a man cannot count his earthly life as dear to him, whether his persecutors would make it miserable for him or his tormenters would take it from him.

This helps us to appreciate . .

III.

The REASONABLENESS of the Cross in the Life of the Believer:

In relationship to Gods character:

The death of the rebel is in perfect harmony with the solemn holiness of a just God whose righteousness has been offended.

He who has known something of the holiness of God could not seriously object to the capital punishment of anyone who would dare shake his puny, grimy fist at the Almighty.

Above all, His permission to cancel that old rebel in us and start all over is an act of pure grace and generous love!

In relation to our social relations with one another.

When selfishness if dead, where love is alive, we have nothing short of heaven on earth! (Rom. 13:8-10)

This freely chosen renunciation of our own selfish desires in favor of the needs of another, automatically brings about that gentle courtesy, that thoughtfulness, that helpfulness that smoothes out all our associations with others. (Rom. 15:1-7)

In relation to our own final destiny:

The Lord is training us, disciplining us, for a position, an eternity of infinite value and dignity. (Heb. 12:1-11)

Every time, therefore, that we succeed in doing the unselfish deed, we create in this way our own character.

Every time we fall again into selfish ways of thinking or acting, the Lord can help us to rise again and try it once more.

Our character, acquired in this way, accompanies us in death and right on through the resurrection. Nothing is ever lost of this discipline of the cross.

CONCLUSION: Let us affirm with the Apostle Paul Gal. 2:20; Gal. 5:24; Gal. 6:14.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(32) Shall confess me.Literally, make his confession in and for me; and so in the corresponding clause. The promise points forward to the great day when the Son of Man shall be enthroned in His kingdom, and then before His Father and before the angels of God (Luk. 12:8) shall acknowledge His faithful servants. The words are remarkable (1) in their calm assertion of this final sovereignty, and (2) in extending the scope of the discourse beyond the apostles themselves to all who should receive their witness.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

32. Whosoever Whether of yourselves who preach, or of those who hear your preaching. Shall confess me Shall acknowledge in the face of persecution that I am his Lord and Master. Him will I confess It requires courage and truthfulness to confess one amid enemies and despisers, however glorious he may be. So it requires constancy and truthfulness to confess an unworthy and humble creature before a company of grand and glorious persons. The former courage is displayed toward Christ by the Christian in this world. In recompense, Christ will display the latter constancy and truth in the day of final judgment.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

And they can be sure of one further thing, and that is that if they confess (acknowledge their oneness with, and bear witness to) Him before men, they can be sure that He will confess (acknowledge positively) them before His Father in Heaven. The ‘I’ is emphatic. He will not only own up to them as His own but will positively stand with all His authority as their guarantor. The assumption here is clearly that they are to see that confession of them by Him as having eternal significance, demonstrating therefore that Jesus Himself has eternal significance. Note also His powerful distinction between ‘My Father’ and ‘your Father’ (Mat 10:30). As ‘their Father’ He watches over them, but it is only because He is Jesus’ Father that He can finally accept them. For their acceptance is through Him.

Note how in the chiasmus this is paralleled with Mat 10:23. Thus their being confessed before His Father in Heaven will connect in some way with the coming of the Son of Man. But that is not conclusive of the meaning of Mat 10:23, for this confession of them might be in the near future after His resurrection, or after death (Mat 10:28) or in the far future at His second coming, or indeed all three.

It should be noted that when in Mar 8:38 (compare Luk 12:8-9) we have a similar statement to this, but in terms of ‘the Son of Man’, the words were being spoken to the crowds, not specifically to the disciples alone. This tends to confirm that when speaking to the crowds Jesus was not quite as openly outspoken as He was with His disciples. Before the crowds He spoke of Himself as the Son of Man.

The whole concept is similar to that found in 1Sa 2:30 where it is God Who says, ‘those who honour Me I will honour, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed’. Thus Jesus is aligning Himself on the divine side of reality.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The conclusion:

v. 32. Whosoever, therefore, shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.

v. 33. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.

A solemn reference to the final judgment. A confession of Christ in word and deed, an open proclamation of the truth and a steadfast defense of the truth, is demanded for every follower of Christ. This is all the more necessary, since we confess by the grace of Christ, and He wants to give every one that believes in Him this grace. In denying Him, therefore, we prove ourselves destitute of all grace and lacking faith entirely. As He will stand by those with an open confession and defense that cheerfully confess Him here, so will He turn from those who by their denial of Him cut themselves off from the grace of God. There is no neutral ground; for every one the choice is only between confession and denial.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 10:32-33. Whosoever shall confess me,will I confess, &c. Acknowledge, &c. To confess, here signifies publicly to acknowledge Jesus Christ for the promised Messiah, and the Son of God. This confession extends to the receiving of his whole doctrines, and even the least of his commands. To deny Jesus Christ is, not to acknowledge, or to disown him; to renounce his doctrine, or be ashamed of the profession of it. There is an unspeakable majesty in this member of our Lord’s discourse: though in the lowest state of humanity, he declared, that his confessing us before God is the greatest happiness, and his denying us the greatest misery, that can befal us.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 10:32 f. , . . .] Nominative, like Mat 10:14 .

] is neither a Hebraism nor a Syriac mode of expression; nor does it stand for the dative of advantage; nor does it mean through me (Chrysostom); but the personal object of confession is conceived of as the one to whom the confession cleaves . Exactly as in Luk 12:8 . Similar to , Mat 5:34 .

In the apodosis, notice the order: confess will I also him (as really one of mine, and so on).

] namely, after my ascension to the glory of heaven as of the Father, Mat 26:64 ; comp. Rev 3:5 .

Mat 10:32-33 contain, as an inference from all that has been said since Mat 10:16 , a final observation in the form of a promise and a threatening, and expressed in so general a way that the disciples are left to make the special application for themselves.

The address, which is drawing to a close in Mat 10:33 , pursues still further the same lofty tone, and that in vivid imagery, in Mat 10:34 , so full is Jesus of the thought of the profound excitement which He feels He is destined to create.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

10. Confession and Denial; history of the kingdom of God, and judgment of the world.

Fifth warning and comfort. Mat 10:32-33

32Whosoever therefore [Every one, therefore, who]44 shall confess me before men, him will I confess also [also confess, ] before my Father which [who] is in heaven 33[in the heavens].45 But whosoever [whoever] shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which [who] is in heaven [in the heavens].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 10:32. Every one, therefore, who shall confess [acknowledge] Me; ,literally: confess in Me.46 This corresponds with the idea of . So also in Luk 12:8. [The is not equivalent to in behalf of Me, as Owen explains, but it shows the ground or root of the confession, namely, a living union with Christ. He does not mean a mere outward confession of the mouth, but a genuine and consistent confession of the whole life. He will not confess the confessing Judas, nor deny the denying Peter, because the confession of the former was hypocritical, the denial of the latter a transient weakness, followed immediately by the deepest repentance.P. S.]

[Him will I also confess him will I also deny, etc.It is worthy of notice, as Alford suggests, that both here and in the Sermon on the Mount, Mat 7:21-23, the Saviour, after mention of the Father, describes Himself as the Judge and Arbiter of eternal life and death.P. S.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Every genuine and earnest testimony for Christ is a confession, while every unchristian deed is a denial. The world, in its indifference and hesitation between heaven and hellor, rather, in its antagonism to God, under the pretence of moralitycondemns only two things: secular crimes and heavenly virtues, or the manifestations of faith; nay, the latter incur its special ire, as it considers them the worst of crimes. Hence our testimony for Christ must always be in face of the opposition of the world, which readily seizes upon it and treats it as a crime; thus converting our profession into a confession. Let it, however, be also remembered, that every genuine confession is not merely concerning Christ, but in Christconcerning all revelation, and concerning the new state of matters which this revelation is designed to inaugurate.

2. This confession of Christ on the part of His people indicates the contrast between the import of the judgment of the world and the cause of Christ. On the other hand, the confession of His people on the part of Christ before the Father, marks the contrast between the humble estate of Christians here, and the glory to which they are called. In both instances, the contrast is infinite; but it is the faith of His people on the one hand, and the love of the Saviour on the other, which influences the confession.Again: Denial on the part of Christ, implies denial of the kingdom of heaven, of love, and of life. Accordingly, this virtually implies the judgment. Substantially, it is equivalent to the verdict, I never knew you, Mat 7:23; only with increased intensity, since it applies to His messengers and witnesses, who were specially commissioned to make confession of Him. Any Christian element in such persons shall be utterly ignored, since it had not led to that true confession which is the victory over the world. They are unregenerate, and hence remain unacknowledged.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The glorious presence of God in Christ, the ground on which Christians are called to make confession: 1. It is a revelation which brings everything to light, and hence fills the Christian with joy in the word; 2. by it the whole life of believers is preserved and completed; accordingly, they are also encouraged wholly to own Jesus.The kingdom of God and the Christian life as summed up in the word confessing. 1. Our course here may be summed up as either a confession or a denial of Christ; 2. so also the judgment to come,it is either a confession or a denial on the part of Christ.As Christ is to us before men, so shall we be to Him before His Father in heaven.Unutterable cowardice and vileness of the man who attaches greater value to the judgment of men than to that of our Father in heaven.A genuine confession is a confession both in the Lord and of the Lord.A genuine confession must be in accordance with what we confess: 1. It is an outward manifestation which must also increasingly appear in the life; 2. it is a life which ever proves a manifestation of the faithfulness of God.The administration of God will be sealed and confirmed by this, that Christ shall confess His own before His Father.The great promise attaching to Christian faithfulness.

Starke:Christ is not only denied with the lips, but also by an ungodly life.Zeisius: Woe to all apostates.

Heubner:The judgment of Christ alone is decisive.

[Quesnel:To confess Jesus Christ is to follow His precept and example; to suffer for His sake; to love, teach, and practise His doctrine.We refer this great truth to the times of the martyrs, because we will not ourselves be martyrs for the truth. It belongs to all times and all believers, every one in his proper way.To appear before the tribunal of God without having Christ for our Advocate, and, on the contrary, to have Him there as a witness and a judge, how can we think of it and not expire with horror!47P. S.]

Footnotes:

[44] Mat 10:32.[ , Lange: Jeder nun, der; while in Mat 10:33 we have simply , without .P. S.

[45] Mat 10:32. both here and in Mat 10:33.

[46][De Wette and Alford: A Hebraistic or rather Syriac mode at expression for, shall make Me the object of his acknowledgment among and before men.P. S.]

[47][Dr. Adam Clarke (Com. on Mat 10:33) appropriates the last sentence from Quesnel literally, without any acknowledgment.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 1346
THE RULE OF CHRISTS PROCEDURE IN THE LAST DAY

Mat 10:32-39. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will 1 also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 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. And a mans foes shall be they of his own household. 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. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

TO stand up in the place of Jehovah, and to declare his word to men, is so awful and arduous an office, that the greatest of all the Apostles was constrained to say, Who is sufficient for these things? But, if it be so arduous under any, even the most favourable, circumstances, what must it be when we are called to utter such solemn and weighty truths as those which we have just heard? We would never forget that the word of God is delivered in terms that are broad and general; and that the modification of those terms, or the application of them to all the different circumstances that may occur, requires much caution, much wisdom, much discretion, lest, by too strong an enforcement of them, we make the heart of the righteous sad; or, by too lax an application of them, we make void the declarations of Heaven, and deceive men to their eternal ruin. May God enable us to discriminate aright, whilst, with a just mixture of tenderness and fidelity, we call your attention to the rule of Christs procedure with his people in the last day; which rule is here stated, vindicated, confirmed.

See it,

Stated

The Lord Jesus requires that we confess him before men
[It is not a mere assent to his religion, as true, that be requires; he calls us to embrace it with our whole hearts, and to let all men see our attachment to Him who is the founder of it. We must never be ashamed to acknowledge, that all our hope of acceptance with God is founded on his meritorious atonement; and that from Him, even from the fulness which God has treasured up for us in Him, we receive all the grace and all the strength whereby we are enabled to fulfil his will. We must avowedly take his word as the exclusive rule of our conduct; and not be afraid to declare, that the same is obligatory upon every soul of man. We must be as lights in a dark world: and must so walk, that all men may read in our conduct, as in a written epistle, what is the whole of his will concerning us [Note: 2Co 3:2; 2Co 3:8.]. On no account are we to put our light under a bed, or under a bushel; but to set it on a candlestick, that all may see it, and be enlightened by it. No consideration whatever should induce us to deny him in any wise. If shame, or loss, or suffering, attach to a confession of him, we must not yield to intimidation, or be prevailed upon, for a single moment, to dissemble our attachment to him. Our love to him must be paramount to every personal consideration; and our zeal for his honour be sufficient to bear us up under all the trials and difficulties which we can be exposed to for his sake.]

According as we approve ourselves to him in this respect, will be his conduct towards us in the day of judgment
[Those who have confessed him in this world, he will then confess before his heavenly Father. These, he will say, were my disciples indeed: they knew their duty to me; and they fulfilled it. I saw the trials to which they were called for my sake, and the fortitude with which they encountered all their difficulties; and therefore I say to them in thy presence, and before the whole assembled universe, Well done, good and faithful servants; enter ye into the joy of your Lord.
But widely different will be his conduct towards those who have denied him. They will come before him, perhaps with confidence, claiming him as their Lord, whom they have served and honoured: but he will say to them, Depart from me; I never knew you, never approved you, in the midst of all your professions of regard for me [Note: Mat 7:21-23.]. Father, I deny their title to the name of my disciples: I disclaim all interest in them, all connexion with them: they were ashamed of me, and I am ashamed of them: and my sentence respecting every one of them is, that they depart accursed, into everlasting tire, prepared for the devil and his angels. ]

Now, if this rule, as carried into execution thus, appear exceptionable to any of you, hear it,

II.

Vindicated

It may be complained of perhaps,

As unnecessary

[Christianity, it may be said, is a religion of love, and is intended to produce nothing but harmony upon earth. Is not this the description given of its effects by the Prophet Isaiah: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall he down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them? How, then, shall such enmity be shewn against it, as shall tempt any man to deny his Lord? It is possible that such an effect might be produced, if it did not improve the characters of men: but its avowed tendency is, to change even the vilest of men into the very image of their God: how, then, can persons so changed become objects of scorn and hatred to those around them? The rule is plainly unnecessary, because there never can be any occasion for the execution of it: Christianity can produce nothing but peace: and therefore the supposition that any should ever be tempted by persecution to deny Christ is altogether vain.
But, specious as this objection is, it is not founded in truth: for though the proper tendency of Christs religion is to diffuse peace and love, the actual effect of it is the very reverse. Think not, says our Lord, that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. 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: and a mans foes shall be they of his own household. What! it maybe asked, was this really the design for which Christ came into the world? No: but this effect is as universal and invariable as if it had been actually designed. And this may easily be accounted for. Wherever the Gospel works effectually on the heart, there a great and visible change is wrought: for the person that obeys it is turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. This change cannot fail to attract the notice of his neighbours; who are thereby reduced to the alternative of condemning it in the person changed, or of acknowledging the necessity of a similar change in themselves. But, not wishing to experience it themselves, they embrace the other alternative, and reprobate the change as enthusiastic and absurd. If the person so changed stand in any near relation to them, they feel it on that account the more offensive: because the odium attached to it is, in a measure, reflected on themselves; and the self-condemnation, which they are constrained to feel, is far more acute than if the person exciting it had no connexion with them. Hence parents and relatives are generally amongst the fiercest opposers of such a change; and a mans greatest foes are usually those of his own household. Another reason for this is, that as those who are most nearly related to us possess a greater influence over us than others, they are the first persons looked to, to exert that influence, whether of authority or love, for the reclaiming of us from our supposed errors.

Hence then it appears, that the rule is by no means unnecessary; since, if the world at large should forbear to shew their hatred of the change, a mans nearest relatives will be sure to lay all kinds of stumbling-blocks in his way, to keep him from confessing Christ, and to lead him to a denial of him.]

As unjust

[It is here taken for granted, that the person rejected by this rule has never been guilty of any flagrant transgression; and that his only offence has been, that he did not confess Christ so boldly as he ought to have done; but, on some occasions, has rather denied him. Now, can it be supposed, that for such a slight offence as this the Lord Jesus will deny, and everlastingly reject, him? Impossible: he can never inflict so severe a punishment for so trivial an offence.
But this objection has no real weight, as our Lord plainly shews us: 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. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Let any man judge in this matter for himself. Can a person who, from fear of his parents, or love to his children, proves unfaithful to his conscience, and violates his duty to his Lord, be worthy of Christ? Can the Lord Jesus Christ ever confess such an one before his Father, and say, Here is one who has served me faithfully, and is worthy of partaking with me in my kingdom and glory? Must he not rather say. Here is one who feared and loved his earthly relatives more than me; and therefore must look for his reward from them; for he is unworthy of any recompence from me? Again: supposing the person to maintain his steadfastness till matters came to the greatest extremity, and he were called, like the Roman criminals, to carry his cross, as our Lord and Saviour did, to the place of execution, in order to die upon it; still could he be deemed worthy of Christ if he drew back then? May not the Lord Jesus say to such an one, Wherefore hast thou drawn back? Did I not bear my cross for thee I Did I not come from heaven on purpose to bear it? Did I not bear it under circumstances ten thousand times more dreadful and appalling than any that thou wast ever called to encounter? And did I not do this for thee, when thou wast an enemy? Did I not drink to the very dregs the cup of bitterness, of which thou bast been called only to take the slightest taste? How, then, can I confess thee before my Father, when thou wouldest not endure such a transient pain for me? When thou hast loved thine own ease or interest more than me, how can I account thee worthy of my kingdom and glory? Thou art unworthy of me; and canst not but know that thou art so. Hadst thou been faithful unto death, thou shouldst have had awarded to thee a crown of life: but seeing thou hast turned back from me, my soul can have no pleasure in thee? Who must not subscribe to such a sentence as this?]
This rule, thus fully vindicated by our Lord, is yet further,

III.

Confirmed

[He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. A person may imagine himself a gainer by avoiding persecution, and regarding his present interests. But, what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If but the life of the body were at stake, who would accept a momentary possession of the whole world in exchange for it? How much less, then, would any person act thus, when the everlasting welfare of his soul was to be the price of his transient enjoyment? On the other hand, Who does not submit to a momentary pain, when he is assured that it shall be productive of permanent and perfect ease? and how much more may any momentary sacrifice be made in the assured prospect of eternal happiness and glory? Know, then, that this is the alternative set before you. You may not, indeed, be actually called to lay down your life for Christ; but you must be ready to do so at any moment, and in any manner that you may be called to do it: and if these terms appear too severe, nothing remains for you, but everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. If, on the contrary, you accept the Lord on these terms, even though you should be eventually required to lay down your life for his sake, you will be gainers in the issue; since the sufferings of this present life, how severe or protracted soever they may be, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Thus, are life and death set before you. Our blessed Lord has warned us, that if any man come to him, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be his disciple [Note: Luk 14:26.]. Of course, we are not called positively to hate our relations, and our own life; but comparatively we are: and nothing under heaven, whether pleasing or painful, is to have any influence upon our minds in comparison of love to the Saviours name, and zeal for his glory.]

Lest, however, this subject should be in any wise misapprehended, let me add a few words of advice
1.

Do not affect needless singularity

[Piety will make you sufficiently singular, without distinguishing yourselves by any marks, which a hypocrite may assume as well as you. Be as eminent for that as you will: but in things that have no real connexion with vital godliness, I should rather recommend a conformity with those of the age and station to which you belong.]

Do not lay too great a stress on non-essential matters

[There are some things which are essential to the maintenance of a good conscience before God: and these things must be done or forborne, according to the dictates of your own judgment. But there are many things which are really indifferent; and which may be either done or forborne, according to the views which different persons entertain respecting them. In reference to such things, endeavour to understand, and to maintain, your liberty. Only use not your own liberty to the endangering of anothers welfare; and neither judge those who allow themselves in a greater latitude than you, nor despise those who have not the same insight with you into the full liberty of the Gospel [Note: Rom 14:3.].]

Be particularly attentive to your own spirit

[You may be right in the line of. conduct you pursue, and yet be highly criminal in respect to the spirit you indulge in pursuing it. A parent, for instance, will urge upon you a conformity to the world, in some things that are positively and intrinsically evil: and you do right in resisting his solicitations or commands; because you must obey God rather than man. But if you do it with petulance and disrespect, you sin against God: for no conduct on the part of your parent can absolve you from the duty of honouring him, even whilst the sinfulness of his injunctions prevents you from obeying him. A meek, humble, modest, and respectful deportment must be observed towards all persons, and under all circumstances. Every violation of this is decidedly and unquestionably wrong. Your duty is, to shew all meekness to all men,]

Take the word of God alone as your rule

[Your friends will often bring before you the examples of different persons, as sanctioning this or that conduct. But men are no examples to you. You must go to the word and to the testimony; and be regulated only by Scripture-precepts, and Scripture-examples. If you adhere not to this standard, no one can tell whither you may be drawn. By complying with every thing that any reputed saint has ever done, you may be drawn into evils without end. Leave others to stand or fall to their own Master; and be you careful to approve yourselves to Him, whose judgment will determine your eternal state.]

Look up to God for strength to do his will

[In the passage which our blessed Lord has quoted in our text, the Prophet teaches us to make this improvement of it. The son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother; the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: a mans enemies are those of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me [Note: Mic 7:6-7.]. Yes; your God will hear you: and how difficult soever you may find it, on some occasions, to hold fast your integrity, His grace shall be sufficient for you: and you shall be able to do all things through Christ, who strengthened you.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

Ver. 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me ] A bold and wise confession of Christ is required of all his, who are therefore said to be marked in their foreheads,Rev 7:3Rev 7:3 , an open place: and they that will not profess him shall be sorted with such as through excess of pain, and defect of patience, gnaw their own tongues, Rev 16:10 . Antichrist takes it in as good part, if his bond-slaves receive his mark in their hand only; the which, as occasion serveth, they may cover or reveal, Rev 13:16 . He lets his use what decption they will, so it may help to amplify his kingdom. It was a watch word in Gregory XIII’s time, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, “My son, give me thy heart.” Dissemble, go to church, do what ye will, but Da mihi cor: be in heart a Papist, and go where you will. Christ will endure no such dealing. He will have heart and tongue too, Rom 10:9 , he will be worshipped truly, that there be no halting; and totally, that there be no halving. We may as well (saith Zwinglius) do worship at the altar of Jupiter or Venus, as hide our faith for fear of antichrist? a “He that is not with me is against me,” saith our Saviour. He likes not these political professors, these neuter passive Christians, that have fidem menstruam, faith for a month, as Hilary said of some in his time, that have religionem ephemeram, flexible religion, as Beza saith of Balduinus the French apostate, that can turn with the times, comply with the company, be (as the planet Mercury) good in conjunction with good, and bad with bad. These are they that do virtutis stragulam pudefacere, put honesty to an open shame, as the philosopher could say, And shall these men’s faith “be found to praise and honour and glory?” 1Pe 1:7 . It is not likely.

a Ad aras Iovis aut Veneris adorare ac sub antichristo fidem occultare.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

32. . ] A Hebraistic or rather perhaps Syriac mode of expression (De Wette) for, ‘shall make me the object of His acknowledgment among and before men.’ The context shews plainly that it is a practical consistent confession which is meant, and also a practical and enduring denial. The Lord will not confess the confessing Judas, nor deny the denying Peter; the traitor who denied Him in act is denied: the Apostle who confessed Him even to death will be confessed. Cf. 2Ti 2:12 . We may observe that both in the Sermon on the Mount (ch. Mat 7:21-23 ) and here, after mention of the Father , our Lord describes Himself as the Judge and Arbiter of eternal life and death.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 10:32-33 . Solemn reference to the final Judgment . points back to Mat 10:27 , containing injunction to make open proclamation of the truth. : nominative absolute at the head of the sentence. , : observe these phrases after the verb in Mat 10:32 , compared with the use of the accusative , in the following verse: “confess in me,” “deny me,” “confess in him,” “deny him”. Chrysostom’s comment is: we confess by the grace of Christ, we deny destitute of grace. Origen (Cremer, Catenae , i. p. 80) interprets the varying construction as indicating that the profit of the faithful disciple lies in fellowship with Christ and the loss of the unfaithful in the lack of such fellowship. ( , , , , “ ” , “ ,” “ ”.)

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Matthew

THE KING’S CHARGE TO HIS AMBASSADORS

Mat 10:32 – Mat 10:42 .

The first mission of the apostles, important as it was, was but a short flight to try the young birds’ wings. The larger portion of this charge to them passes far beyond the immediate occasion, and deals with the permanent relations of Christ’s servants to the world in which they live, for the purpose of bringing it into subjection to its true King. These solemn closing words, which make our present subject, contain the duty and blessedness of confessing Him, the vision of the antagonisms which He excites, His demand for all-surrendering following, and the rewards of those who receive Christ’s messengers, and therein receive Himself and His Father.

I. The duty and blessedness of confessing Him Mat 10:32 – Mat 10:33.

The ‘therefore’ is significant. It attaches the promise which follows to the immediately preceding thoughts of a watchful, fatherly care, extending like a great invisible hand over the true disciple. Because each is thus guarded, each shall be preserved to receive the honour of being confessed by Christ. No matter what may befall His witnesses, the extremest disaster shall not rob them of their reward. They may be flung down from the house-tops where they lift up their bold voices, but He who does not let a sparrow fall to the ground uncared for, will give His angels charge concerning them who are so much more precious, and they shall be borne up on outstretched wings, lest they be dashed on the pavement below. Thus preserved, they shall all attain at last to their guerdon. Nothing can come between Christ’s servant and his crown. The tender providence of the Father, whose mercy is over all His works, makes sure of that. The river of the confessor’s life may plunge underground, and be lost amid persecutions, but it will emerge again into the brighter sunshine on the other side of the mountains.

The confession which is to be thus rewarded, like the denial opposed to it, is, of course, not merely a single utterance of the lip. So far Judas Iscariot confessed Christ, and Peter denied Him. But it is the habitual acknowledgment by lip and life, unwithdrawn to the end. The context implies that the confession is maintained in the face of opposition, and that the denial is a cowardly attempt to save one’s skin at the cost of treason to Jesus. The temptation does not come in that sharpest form to us. Perhaps some cowards would be made brave if it did. It is perhaps easier to face the gibbet and the fire, and screw oneself up for once to a brief endurance, than to resist the more specious blandishments of the world, especially when it has been christened, and calls itself religious. The light laugh of scorn, the silent pressure of the low average of Christian character, the close associations in trade, literature, public and domestic life which Christians have with non-Christians, make many a man’s tongue lie silent, to the sore detriment of his own religious life. ‘Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,’ and find it hard to fulfil the easier conflict to which you are called. The sun has more power than the tempest to make the pilgrim drop his garment. But the duty remains the same for all ages. Every man is bound to make the deepest springs of his life visible, and to stand to his convictions, whatever they be. If he do not, his convictions will disappear like a piece of ice hid in a hot hand, which will melt and trickle away. This obligation lies with infinitely increased weight on Christ’s servants; and the consequences of failing to discharge it are more tragic in their cases, in the exact proportion of the greater preciousness of their faith. Corn hoarded is sure to be spoiled by weevils and rust. The bread of life hidden in our sacks will certainly go mouldy.

The reward and punishment of confession and denial come to them not as separate acts, but as each being the revelation of the spiritual condition of the doers. Christ implies that a true disciple cannot but be a confessor, and that therefore the denier must certainly be one whom He has never known. Because, therefore, each act is symptomatic of the doer, each receives the congruous and correspondent reward. The confessor is confessed; the denier is denied. What calm and assured consciousness of His place as Judge underlies these words! His recognition is God’s acceptance; His denial is darkness and misery. The correspondence between the work and the reward is beautifully brought out by the use of the same word to express each. And yet what a difference between our confession of Him and His of us! And what a hope is here for all who have tremblingly, and in the consciousness of much unworthiness, ventured to say that they were Christ’s subjects, and He their King, brother, and all! Their poor, feeble confession will be endorsed by His. He will say, ‘Yes, this man is mine, and I am his.’ That will be glory, honour, blessedness, life, heaven.

II. The vision of the discord which follows the coming of the King of peace.

It is not enough to interpret these words as meaning that our Lord’s purpose indeed was to bring peace, but that the result of His coming was strife. The ultimate purpose is peace; but an immediate purpose is conflict, as the only road to the peace. He is first King of righteousness, and after that also King of peace. But, if His kingdom be righteousness, purity, love, then unrighteousness, filthiness, and selfishness will fight against it for their lives. The ultimate purpose of Christ’s coming is to transform the world into the likeness of heaven; and all in the world which hates such likeness is embattled against Him. He saw realities, and knew men’s hearts, and was under no illusion, such as many an ardent reformer has cherished, that the fair form of truth need only be shown to men, and they will take her to their hearts. Incessant struggle is the law for the individual and for society till Christ’s purpose for both is realised.

That conflict ranges the dearest in opposite ranks. The gospel is the great solvent. As when a substance is brought into contact with some chemical compound, which has greater affinity for one of its elements than the other element has, the old combination is dissolved, and a new and more stable one is formed, so Christianity analyses and destroys in order to synthesis and construction. In Mat 10:21 our Lord had foretold that brother should deliver up brother to death. Here the severance is considered from the opposite side. The persons who are ‘set at variance’ with their kindred are here Christians. Perhaps it is fanciful to observe that they are all junior members of families, as if the young would be more likely to flock to the new light. But however that may be, the separation is mutual, but the hate is all on one side. The ‘man’s foes’ are of his own household; but he is not their foe, though he be parted from them.

III. Earthly love may be a worse foe to a true Christian than even the enmity of the dearest; and that enmity may often be excited by the Christian subordination of earthly to heavenly love. So our Lord passes from the warnings of discord and hate to the danger of the opposite-undue love.

He claims absolute supremacy in our hearts. He goes still farther, and claims the surrender, not only of affections, but of self and life to Him. What a strange claim this is! A Jewish peasant, dead nineteen hundred years since, fronts the whole race of man, and asserts His right to their love, which is strange, and to their supreme love, which is stranger still. Why should we love Him at all, if He were only a man, however pure and benevolent? We may admire, as we do many another fair nature in the past; but is there any possibility of evoking anything as warm as love to an unseen person, who can have had no knowledge of or love to us? And why should we love Him more than our dearest, from whom we have drawn, or to whom we have given, life? What explanation or justification does He give of this unexampled demand? Absolutely none. He seems to think that its reasonableness needs no elucidation. Surely never did teacher professing wisdom, modesty, and, still more, religion, put forward such a claim of right; and surely never besides did any succeed in persuading generations unborn to yield His demand, when they heard it. The strangest thing in the world’s history is that to-day there are millions who do love Jesus Christ more than all besides, and whose chief self-accusation is that they do not love Him more. The strange, audacious claim is most reasonable, if we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died for each of us, and that each man and woman to the last of the generations had a separate place in His divine human love when He died. It is meet to love Him, if that be true; it is not, unless it be. The requirement is as stringent as strange. If the two ever seem to conflict, the earthly must give way. If the earthly be withdrawn, there must be found sufficiency for comfort and peace in the heavenly. The lower must not be permitted to hinder the flight of the heavenly to its home. ‘More than Me’ is a rebuke to most of us. What a contrast between the warmth of our earthly and the tepidity or coldness of our heavenly love! How spontaneously our thoughts, when left free, turn to the one; how hard we find it to keep them fixed on the other! How sweet service is to the dear ones here; how reluctantly it is given to Christ! How we long, when parted, to rejoin them; how little we are drawn to the place where He is! We have all to confess that we are ‘not worthy of’ Him; that we requite His love with inadequate returns, and live lives which tax His love for its highest exercise, the free forgiveness of sins against itself. Compliance with that stringent law, and subordinating all earthly love to His, is the true elevating and ennobling of the earthly. It is promoted, not degraded, when it is made second, and is infinitely sweeter and deeper then than when it was set in the place of supremacy, where it had no right to be.

But Christ’s demand is not only for the surrender of the heart, but for the giving up of self, and, in a very profound sense, for the surrender of life. How enigmatical that saying about taking up the cross must have sounded to the disciples! They knew little about the cross, as a punishment; they had not yet associated it in any way with their Lord. This seems to have been the first occasion of His mentioning it, and the allusion is so veiled as to be but partially intelligible. But what was intelligible was bewildering. A strange royal procession that, of the King with a cross on His shoulder, and all His subjects behind Him with similar burdens! Through the ages that procession has marched, and it marches still. Self-denial for Christ’s sake is ‘the badge of all our tribe.’ Observe that word ‘take.’ The cross must be willingly and by ourselves assumed. No other can lay it on our shoulders. Observe that other word ‘his.’ Each man has his own special form in which self-denial is needful for him. We require pure eyes, and hearts kept in very close communion with Jesus, to ascertain what our particular cross is. He has them of many patterns, shapes, sizes, and materials. We can always make sure of strength to carry the one which He means us to carry, but not of strength to bear what is not ours.

IV. We have the rewards of those who receive Christ’s messengers, and therein receive Him and His Father.

Our Lord first identifies these twelve with Himself in a manner which must have sounded strange to them then, but have heartened them for their work by the consciousness of His mysterious oneness with them. The whole doctrine of Christ’s unity with His people lay in germ in these words, though much more was needed, both of teaching and of experience, before their depth of blessing and strengthening could be apprehended. We know that He dwells in His true subjects by His Spirit, and that a most real union subsists between the head and the members, of which the closest unions of earth are but faint shadows, so as that not only those who receive His followers receive Him, but, more wonderful still, His followers are received at the last by God Himself as joined to Him, and portions of His very self, and therefore ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ Our Lord adds to these words the thought that, in like manner, to receive Him is to receive the Father, and so implies that our relation to Him is in certain real respects parallel with His relation to the Father. We too are sent. He who sends abides with us, as the Son ever abode in God, and God in Him. We are sent to be the brightness of Christ’s glory, and to manifest Him to men, as He was sent to reveal the Father.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 10:32-33

32″Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is heaven.”

Mat 10:32 “who confesses Me before men” This meant ” publicly acknowledge” (cf. Mar 8:38; Luk 12:8-9). Mat 10:32-33 are contrasting parallel statements. Christianity is a God-offered covenant that must be personally, publicly received, obeyed and maintained.

SPECIAL TOPIC: CONFESSION

“My Father in heaven” There are several different pronouns used with Father.

1. your – Mat 5:16; Mat 5:45; Mat 6:1; Mat 7:11

2. our – Mat 6:9

3. My – Mat 7:21; Mat 10:32-33; Mat 12:50

I think Mat 12:50 is crucial, one who does the Father’s will, as Jesus does, is part of the family. One who refuses is not part of the family. It must have been particularly irritating to the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day to hear Him, an unofficial rabbi and Galilean upstate, to use “Father” to refer to YHWH, the Holy One of Israel. Even more so to allow the outcast to be included in God’s family!

Mat 10:33 The antonym of “confess” (homologe, cf. Mat 10:32 [twice]) is “deny” (arneomai, cf. Mat 10:33 [twice]; Mat 26:70; Mat 26:72 [aparneomai in Mat 26:35; Mat 26:75]). See SPECIAL TOPIC: CONFESSION at Mat 10:32 above.

This is a shocking verse, as is 2Ti 2:12. It must be remembered that public acknowledgment in word (cf. Rom 10:9-13) and deed (cf. Mat 13:1-23; Mat 25:36-46) is crucial. The decisions made now relate to eternity (cf. Mat 25:46).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

confess Me. Greek confess in (en. App-104.) Me. Aramaic idiom.

I confess also = I also confess. Compare Mat 10:33.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

32. . ] A Hebraistic or rather perhaps Syriac mode of expression (De Wette) for, shall make me the object of His acknowledgment among and before men. The context shews plainly that it is a practical consistent confession which is meant, and also a practical and enduring denial. The Lord will not confess the confessing Judas, nor deny the denying Peter; the traitor who denied Him in act is denied: the Apostle who confessed Him even to death will be confessed. Cf. 2Ti 2:12. We may observe that both in the Sermon on the Mount (ch. Mat 7:21-23) and here, after mention of the Father, our Lord describes Himself as the Judge and Arbiter of eternal life and death.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 10:32. , in, on) i.e., when the question is raised concerning Me. This on Me, differs from , Me, and , him, in the next verse; cf. Luk 12:8-9.-, men) Our Lord is speaking especially of persecutors.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

confess me: Psa 119:46, Luk 12:8, Luk 12:9, Joh 9:22, Rom 10:9, Rom 10:10, 1Ti 6:12, 1Ti 6:13, 2Ti 1:8, 1Jo 4:15, Rev 2:13

him: Mat 25:34, 1Sa 2:30, Rev 3:5

Reciprocal: Ezr 5:11 – We are Dan 3:18 – be it Mat 7:21 – my Mat 26:74 – saying Mar 8:38 – ashamed Luk 9:26 – whosoever Luk 11:2 – which Joh 12:42 – they did not Act 24:14 – I confess Rom 14:11 – confess Phi 2:11 – every Heb 10:35 – great

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

0:32

The fear of persecution might cause some to deny Christ, so this verse is properly placed in the midst of that subject. Confess is from HOMOLOCEO, and I shall give Robinson’s definition of the word because it is more condensed: “To speak or say together, in common, i. e., the same things; hence to hold the same language, to assent, to accord, to agree with.” To confess one, then, means to admit being in agreement with him and endorsing his teaching. Of course Jesus will not need to agree with the teaching of his disciples except to acknowledge that the disciples had accepted the teaching given them by the Lord.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 10:32. Every one, without exception.

Therefore points to the previous argument for fearing and trusting God.

Confess me, lit, confess in me. A peculiar mode of expression, meaning: shall make me the object of his acknowledgment among and before men. The idea of being in Christ, in vital union with Him, is also implied. Confession is the first act of faith; but confessing Christ must not be confounded with confessing a particular creed about Christ framed by men.

Him will I also confess. I emphatic; Christ is the Supreme Judge, even in the presence of His heavenly Father, where He is the Advocate of His people (1Jn 2:1). The time is not indicated, but it will be publicly done.

Mat 10:33 solemnly repeats the same thought, applying it to those who deny Him before men. Alford: The Lord will not confess the confessing Judas, nor deny the denying Peter; the traitor who denied Him in acts is denied. The Apostle who confessed Him even to death will be confessed. We confess Christ by every genuine and earnest testimony for Him; we deny Him by every unchristian deed.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. That not to confess Christ, in his account, is to deny him: and to deny him, is to be ashamed of him.

2. That whosoever shall deny, disown, or be ashamed of Christ, either in his person in his gospel, or in his members, for any fear of favour of man, shall with shame be disowned, and eternally rejected by him at the dreadful judgment of the great day.

Christ may be denied three ways;

doctrinally, by an erroneous and heretical judgment; verbally, by oral expressions; vitally, by a wicked and unholy life.

But woe to that soul that denies Christ any of these ways!

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 10:32-33. Whosoever, &c. As a further encouragement to you to cast off all unnecessary cares and fears, to trust in God, and arm yourselves with courage to encounter, and resolution to endure whatever persecutions, injuries, or other trials he in his providence may permit to befall you, be assured, whatever you may now suffer for your fidelity to me, it will, on the whole, be most amply rewarded. For whosoever shall confess me That is, publicly acknowledge me for the promised Messiah, receiving my whole doctrine for the rule of his faith and practice, obeying all my precepts, relying on my promises, revering my threatenings, and imitating my example: him will I confess before my Father Him will I own as my true disciple in the presence of my Father at the day of final judgment, and will claim for him the rewards which my Father has promised to such. But whosoever shall deny me Whosoever shall be ashamed or afraid to acknowledge his relation to me, or shall not confess me before men, in the sense now mentioned, him will I also deny, &c. As having any relation to me, in that awful day. There is an unspeakable majesty in this article of our Lords discourse. Although he was now in the lowest state of humanity, he declares that his confessing us before God is the greatest happiness, and his denying us the greatest misery that can possibly befall us.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

10:32 {7} Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

(7) The necessity and reward of openly confessing Christ.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Disciples of Jesus must acknowledge Him publicly. One cannot fulfill the basic requirements of a disciple privately (cf. Mat 5:13-16). Again, the terms "believer" and "disciple" are not synonymous. In the context, confessing Jesus means acknowledging Him faithfully in spite of persecution to do otherwise. Jesus will acknowledge faithful disciples as such to His Father. He will not give this reward to unfaithful disciples who cave in to pressure to deny Him. Obviously Jesus believed it is possible for believers to be unfaithful. Notice that the blessing of Jesus’ commendation will go to anyone (i.e., any disciple) who confesses Him publicly. Jesus probably looked at the whole course of the disciple’s life as He made this statement. One act of unfaithfulness does not disqualify a disciple from Jesus’ commendation (e.g., Peter). An example of Jesus confessing a faithful disciple before others is His testimony concerning John the Baptist’s greatness (Mat 11:11; Luk 7:28).

The view that this passage teaches that a believer may lose his or her salvation if he or she fails to confess or denies Jesus cannot be correct. Elsewhere Jesus taught that believers will never lose their salvation (cf. Joh 10:28-29). This is the consistent revelation of the rest of the New Testament (e.g., Joh 10:28-29; Rom 8:31-39; et al.). Jesus was speaking here of rewards, not salvation. [Note: See also Robert N. Wilkin, "Is Confessing Christ a Condition of Salvation?" The Grace Evangelical Society News 9:4 (July-August 1994):2-3.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Disfruta de miles de canciones cristianas en exclusiva sólo en Bibles