Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 10:34

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

34. not to send peace, but a sword ] The contrast is rather between union and division than between peace and war. The “sifting” of Christ causes division or perplexity, and conflict of opinion, both in the thoughts of the individual and between man and man. The same idea is illustrated by the husbandman’s fan, the refiner’s fire, and the shepherd’s separation of his flocks. History shews that religion has been the great separating influence in the world.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Think not that I am come … – This is taken from Mic 7:6. Christ did not here mean to say that the object of his coming was to produce discord and contention, for he was the Prince of Peace, Isa 9:6; Isa 11:6; Luk 2:14; but he means to say that such would be one of the effects of his coming. One part of a family that was opposed to Him would set themselves against those who believed in him. The wickedness of men, and not the religion of the gospel, is the cause of this hostility. It is unnecessary to say that no prophecy has been more strikingly fulfilled; and it will continue to be fulfilled until all unite in obeying his commandments. Then his religion will produce universal peace. Compare the notes at Mat 10:21.

But a sword – The sword is an instrument of death, and to send a sword is the same as to produce hostility and war.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 10:34

Think not that I am come to send peace.

I. Why it might naturally be supposed that Christ did come for the express purpose of sending peace on earth. Consider the way in which His kingdom was ushered into the world-Glory to God, &c. The tenor of much of His teaching, and the final result of the preaching of the gospel, would lead us to suppose it.

II. That notwithstanding our natural thinkings on the subject Christ came, not to send peace. But a sword Christs own life an illustration. Also, the entire history of the Church, and the life of every individual Christian. (R. Abercrombie, M. A.)

Christian conflict

These words represent the aggressive, combative side of Christianity.

1. Sin is a fixed, unyielding power.

2. There is an overpowering force which can and will conquer sin. It is Christianity.

3. What results from this conflict, heroically maintained?

1. Victory.

2. Moral beauty. (Bishop Hurst.)

Moral beauty derived from victory

What results from this conflict, heroically maintained? Victory. Moral beauty as well. More keenly, perhaps, than any other American writer, has Hawthorne seen into the human heart, and he somewhere remarks that the human face never is so beautiful as when the soul has passed through some great struggle; when it has triumphed in this unseen battlefield, and there is a divine irradiation of the countenance, such as Jacobs face must have had, when, after that night of wrestling with the angel, the morning light, breaking over the mountains of Gilead, revealed in his features the celestial halo that crowned them. All moral beauty is secondary. It comes from conflict and victory. Thus was the shepherd David fitted to become the monarch of the nation, and the persecuting Saul the preacher Paul. Linnaeus and Humboldt have found, on icebergs, in far-off forests and on Alpine peaks, flowers that had no fragrance; but to which, when care, skill, and patience had been lavished on them a secondary nature was given, so that to-day, under wintry skies, we have them in our conservatories, sweet, as well as fair. (Bishop Hurst.)

Christs Mission

I. The strangeness of the fact. This appears when you remember-

1. The object of Christs coming.

2. The law of Christs kingdom.

3. The character of the King.

II. Explanation of the fact.

1. By the position Christ assumed towards sin.

2. By the character of the gospel.

3. By the natural character of man.

III. Practical lessons.

1. The greatness of Jesus Christ. He has set the world on fire.

2. The slowness of the progress of the gospel in the world, and of sanctification in the believer, is accounted for. (C. Lankester, B. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 34. Think not that I am come to send peace, c.] The meaning of this difficult passage will be plain, when we consider the import of the word peace, and the expectation of the Jews. I have already had occasion to remark, (Mt 10:12,) that the word shalom, rendered by the Greeks , was used among the Hebrews to express all possible blessings, temporal and spiritual but especially the former. The expectation of the Jews was, that, when the Messiah should come, all temporal prosperity should be accumulated on the land of Judea; therefore , in this verse, should not be translated the earth, but this land. The import of our Lord’s teaching here is this, Do not imagine, as the Jews in general vainly do, that I am come to send forth, (,) by forcing out the Roman power, that temporal prosperity which they long for; I am not come for this purpose, but to send forth () the Roman sword, to cut off a disobedient and rebellious nation, the cup of whose iniquity is already full, and whose crimes cry aloud for speedy vengeance. See also Clarke on “Lu 12:49“. From the time they rejected the Messiah, they were a prey to the most cruel and destructive factions; they employed their time in butchering one another, till the Roman sword was unsheathed against them, and desolated the land.

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

Luke hath much the same with Mat 10:34, in Luk 12:51. As the Jews were much mistaken in their notion of the Messiah, as if he were to be a temporal prince, to restore the kingdom to Israel, and as the kingdom, so a peaceful kingdom; so many persons think still that where true religion comes, there must be forthwith peace and union. And indeed so it should be, and so it would be if the gospel were cordially and universally received. It is impossible that a system of laws should be compiled better fitted to human society, or conducible to peace, the great end of it, than the laws of the gospel are: but eventually it is not so, nor was such a civil peace the end of Christs coming. Accidentally, through the corruption of mens hearts, the consequent of Christs coming into the world, and of his gospel coming into and prevailing in any part of the world, is (as Luke phrases it) rather division, which is here called a sword. Through mens fondness of their idolatry, superstition, and lusts, and madness on them, their impatience of being outdone in religion and righteousness of conversation, the event of Christs coming was division, wars, variances, like the times prophesied of by Micah, Mic 7:6; God either stirring up wars to revenge the contempt of the gospel, (as it happened to the Jews), or men taking up arms to compel all others to their idolatries and superstitions. And that natural antipathy which men have to holiness, setting them at variance with those who, embracing the gospel, live a life as becometh the sgospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, worketh so far, that men will have no respect to their nearest relations.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

34. Think not that I am come to sendpeace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a swordstrife,discord, conflict; deadly opposition between eternally hostileprinciples, penetrating into and rending asunder the dearest ties.

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

Think not ye that I am come to send peace on earth,…. The Jews had a notion of great outward peace and prosperity in the days of the Messiah; which was grounded on several prophecies of the Old Testament, not rightly understood by them; and the disciples of Christ had imbibed the same notion: wherefore our Lord thought fit to let them know the contrary; and that they must not expect outward ease and quiet, and worldly tranquillity would attend their ministry; for though he came to be a peace maker between God and sinners, by the blood of his cross; and was both the author and donor of spiritual peace to his people; and the Gospel he brought with him, and sent them to preach, was the Gospel of peace; which, accompanied with his power, would produce peace in the consciences of men, and be the means of cultivating and maintaining peace among the saints; yet “peace on earth” in a temporal sense, whether in the world in general, or in Judea in particular, must not be expected as the consequence of his coming; so far from it, that he subjoins,

I came, not to send peace, but a sword. By the “sword” may be meant the Gospel, which is the means of dividing and separating the people of Christ from the men of the world, and from their principles and practices, and one relation from another; as also of divisions, discords, and persecutions arising from it: not that it was the intention and design of Christ, in coming into the world, to foment and encourage such things; but this, through the malice and wickedness of men, was eventually the effect and consequence of his coming; see Lu 12:51 where, instead of a “sword”, it is “division”; because the sword divides asunder, as does the sword of the Spirit, the word of God.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

I came not to send peace, but a sword ( , ). A bold and dramatic climax. The aorist infinitive means a sudden hurling of the sword where peace was expected. Christ does bring peace, not as the world gives, but it is not the force of compromise with evil, but of conquest over wrong, over Satan, the triumph of the cross. Meanwhile there will be inevitably division in families, in communities, in states. It is no namby-pamby sentimentalism that Christ preaches, no peace at any price. The Cross is Christ’s answer to the devil’s offer of compromise in world dominion. For Christ the kingdom of God is virile righteousness, not mere emotionalism.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

To send [] . Lit., to throw or cast. By this word the expectancy of the disciples is dramatically pictured, as if he represented them as eagerly looking up for peace as something to be flung down upon the earth from heaven. Dr. Morison gives the picture thus : “All are on tiptoe of expectation. What is it that is about to happen? Is it the reign of peace that is just about to be inaugurated and consummated? Is there henceforth to be only unity and amity? As they must and debate, lo! a sword is flung into the midst.”

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth,” (me nomisete hoti elthon balein eirenen epi ten gen) “Do not suppose that I came to bring peace upon the earth,” at that time, like that promised by an earthly ruler. No false peace is allowed by the gospel, Jer 6:14; Jas 3:17.

2) I came not to send peace,” (ouk elthon balein eirenen) “I came not to bring peace,” at this time among the governments of men. The peace He came to bring the first time was wrought for the souls of men on Calvary, Luk 2:14; Isa 9:6-7; Hag 2:9; Eph 2:17.

3) “But a sword.” (alla machairan) “But (in contrast) a sword,” a division, strife and conflict, that delineated between good and bad, right and wrong, sin and righteousness, expressed in my person, my testimony and my word, Joh 14:3; Joh 8:24; Heb 4:12. Act 4:12.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 10:38. Taketh not his cross.By the Roman custom criminals were compelled to bear the cross to the place of execution. The Galilans would know too well what was meant by taking the cross. Many hundreds had paid that forfeiture for rebellion that had not prospered, under Judas the Gaulonite and others (Carr).

Mat. 10:39. He that findeth his life.The word is the same as that translated soul (i.e. that by which man lives in the lower or the higher sense of life) in Mat. 10:28. The point of the maxim lies in the contrast between the two senses. To gain the lower now is to lose the higher hereafter, and conversely, to lose the lower for the sake of Christ (i.e. to die a martyrs death in confessing Him) is to gain the higher.Plumptre.

Mat. 10:41. In the name of a prophet righteous man.I.e. for the sake of that which the name connotesthe prophets work as a messenger of God, the righteousness of which the living righteous man is the concrete example (ibid).

Mat. 10:42. One of these little ones.The reference may be to the disciples. But there appears to be a gradation, in the lowest step of which are these little ones. Possibly some children standing near were then addressed, or, perhaps, some converts less instructed than the Apostles had gathered round. The little ones then would mean the young disciples, who are babes in Christ. The lowest in the scaleApostles, prophets, the saints, the young disciples.Carr.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 10:34-42

Final counsels.The Saviours object in these final counsels seems to be that of enforcing decision. He would have His Apostles go forth on this their primary mission with their minds fully made up. With this object He brings before them, in closing, some fuller information. First, respecting the nature of the case, and, secondly, respecting the nature of the issue.

I. The nature of the case.It was one requiring decision. It was so on account of the vital nature of that which had to be taught. The message they had to carry to men in His name, or as it were to cast down (Mat. 10:34, R. V.) in their sight, was not one which would leave the feelings of men as they had previously been. It would not lie there, like a dead thing, having no effect on their thoughts. Rather, it would excite those thoughts in no common degree, and arouse men wholly out of any such unthinking peace as they may have previously known. Also, the feelings which would be aroused by it would not be all on one side. Rather, again, they would be on exactly opposite sides from the very nature of the case. They would be on more than oppositethey would be on conflicting sidesand on such as bring about strife. Not peace, in a word, but a sword (Mat. 10:34). That would be the first result of promulgating His word. Moreover, this will be so even in those cases where we should otherwise have looked for it least. No natural tie, no tie of affinity (Mat. 10:35) can resist the separating force of this sword. Nor will even home itselfthe very place of peacebe always undisturbed by its power (Mat. 10:36). That is the essence of the story to be told. It is such as will divide those who hear it amongst themselves, wherever they are. Also, it will do so in a manner which does not admit of either compromise or half measures. One of two things only can be done with the truth it declares. That truth, in effect, is nothing less than the truth about Christ. What think ye of Christ? that is the question which it presents to mens minds. The answer, therefore, to such a question can be of only two sorts. It must put Christ first, or it puts Him nowhere, according to His view of the case. This is true, moreover, no matter to whom else the first place may be given. He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me (Mat. 10:37)is not considered by Me to be loving Me as he ought. No one, in short, is considered by Me as doing so who is not willing for My sake to bear any cross of this kind (Mat. 10:38). That is how I expect men to be on My side. Such a proclamation, as it were, at once sifts men into two opposite camps. In the one camp are all those who deal in any way falsely with such a requirement. In the other camp are only those who accept it in full. I expect My Apostles to lead the way to this last.

II. The nature of the issue.This is not such as may be supposed. This is not so doubtful as may sometimes appear. On the contrary, looking on things as a whole, and taking life, as it comes to us, as a thing in which good and evil are greatly mingled together, this fulness of decision on Christs side is far the best side in this war. So much so, indeed, that in no other way, can life really be to us what it should. All other seeming gains amount to deadliest loss in the end. All apparent losses in this way are but the price paid for finding all in the end. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it (Mat. 10:39). Let nothing, therefore, be allowed to shake you as to the truth of that paradox. That alone should satisfy you as to the wisdom of being heartily on My side. At the same time, that statement, with all its preciousness, does not stand by itself. It is not only true, as it were, that, on a general balance, things will come out as I say, and that the good to be hoped for will be found in the end to more than compensate for the evil to be borne; it is true also, meanwhile, and in every particular, when things are judged as they should be, that it will be best to do as I say. For there is a blessing, in fact, about your very mission which is found in practice to make a blessing of every action that is in accordance therewith. A blessing on yourselves and those who receive you (Mat. 10:41), a blessing on the least as well as on the greatest (Mat. 10:41-42); a blessing, in short, on everything that, in any way is a ministration of blessing in turn. Even a cup of cold water given to one of whom nothing more can be said than that he is one of the little ones but one of the true ones in the kingdom of God, is far more than it seems. It is something done with a worthy object in view. It is something done unto Christ (Mat. 25:40), and, therefore, not without note (Heb. 6:10). It is something which it is Godlike and Christlike to do; something, therefore, which in itself and in its very essence, it is a signal blessing to do. Happy is the man so devoted to Christ that His life is a life of such deeds. Every step in his life is in itself a justification of his choice.

In speaking thus to His chosen Apostles Christ is also speaking to us. This is true whether we consider:

1. The points of resemblance between us and them.In their measure all true disciples are in a similar position with these. They have the same Master above them, the same deposit entrusted to them, the same duty in regard to it, the same choice and the same difficulties before them, the same assurances to support them. As did these first, therefore, so must we in our turn. All the arguments then drawn from the nature of the case may be drawn from it still. There is but one choice, and one way of choosing, in the great strife betwixt Christ and the world. All for Him who does all for usis still the badge of His church.

2. The points of difference.When the Apostles thus went forth to their work with their lives in their hands, they went forth to a forlorn hope in the eyes of the world. We, in our day, and in this respect, are not called to the same. We have the benefit of both their example and experience, and that of generations like them till now. All the greater, therefore, would be our disgrace if we were to hang back. Every disciple is not expected to lead like these first; but no disciple can expect to be called a disciple if he does not follow when led.

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 10:34-36. Christianity producing social divisions.

I. Christs doctrines create divisions amongst men even where there is the closest physical relationship.Christianity is simply the occasion of their development.

II. The feelings which these divisions create are generally, on the part of the rejecter, most malignant.Matthew Henry justly says, The most violent feuds have ever been those that have arisen from difference in religion. No enmity like that of the persecutors; no resolution like that of the persecuted.

III. As the result of all this, the promoters of Christianity are to expect opposition, and even persecution.D. Thomas, D.D.

Mat. 10:34. Not peace but a sword.The influence of Jesus was not of a peaceful order. It was a reforming, a dividing, a disturbing, a dissolving, a 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.

I. But now, before we admit the validity of this objection, let us just 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. And the man who settles down upon his lees and thinks that religion has done its work with him, because, forsooth, he is at peace, is very far from knowing the true intent either of religion or of life.

II. But lest I should seem to overstate the truth, or perhaps to indulge in wanton paradox, let me discriminate between two kinds of peace, or, rather, let me define more closely the nature of that peace which alone is worthy of the name. What is peace? Is it mere quiescence? Is it a perfectly inactive existence? Do you call a stone which lies upon the path or the mere puddle by the roadside peaceful? We feel at once that the term is ludicrously inapplicable to such cases, and that there is something lying hidden in it which may, perhaps, after all, reconcile this hard saying of our Lords with a just conception of religious peace.

1. The true idea of peace involves the idea of life. There is no peace where there is no life. In order to be peaceful there must be a possibility of the opposite.
2. Let me illustrate this in some of the main divisions of our nature.
(1) The quickening of thought. Is peace (i.e. quiescence) the best thing for a mans intellectual life? Certainly not. 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.

(2) We may illustrate the truth by an appeal to the emotions. Is the happier man he who has no sympathy or he who has much? Is it better to be hardhearted or tender-hearted?
(3) As it is in our intellectual life, and as it is in our emotional life so is it in our moral life. Let your memory go back to some one moral decision of your life, some one occasion when you sacrificed advantage to principle. The pain of renunciation may have been sharp; it may have been, in very truth, a sword to which you bared your breast. But would you have it unmade now? Would you recall the act even if you could? Was not the glow of moral success worth all the self-denial? The truest peace is compatible with life, and peace of this order is the gift of religion. There are two ways in which you may set to work in order to produce harmony in the individual or social lifeyou may work from without inwards or from within outwards. The politician works from without inwardshe has to deal with the outward conditions of life. This, of course, is very good and necessary, but the object and method of the politician are quite distinct from those of religion. Religion, too, seeks to produce peacenot necessarily, however, in the visible sphere of human life. Religion, in dealing with our disordered life, regards the causes rather than the symptoms of disease, and in dealing with the causes may sometimes even aggravate the symptoms, bringing strange trouble and conflict where it enters.H. Rix, B.A.

Elements of Christs unpopularity.We are to consider what were some of the causes of the hostility which was aroused against Jesus Christ:

I. Christ set Himself against the established order.He was, in the true sense of the term, a revolutionary preacher. The established order was one of hierarchy in church and aristocracy in state. There were few rich, and many poor. There were few learned, and many ignorant. He set Himself to reverse this condition. He set Himself to make the many rich, to make the many wise. And the few who were at the top of society did not like itthey never have liked it, and it is doubtful whether they ever will like it to the end of time. It is true His teaching was not inconoclastic. It is true that He clothed it in forms as little likely to excite prejudice as possibleat least, in His earlier ministry. He announced principles out of which were to grow revolutionary results. Christ was a reformer. He was a leveller; not a leveller down, but He was a leveller. Christ led the great democratic movement that has gone through history from the time of the birth of Christ up to this day, levelling all institutions and organisms that have stood in the way of the uprise of humanity. Mannot the Jew-man, not the learned man, not the rich, not the blooded, not the aristocraticbut man is to be transformed, educated, ransomed, enfranchised, enriched, until the whole human race shall stand bound together in one great brotherhood. And the established order of things armed itself against Him.

II. This established order was entrenched behind, and allied with, a superstitious conception of religion, with a reverence for material things.The temple was the centre of all worship, and men could hardly conceive that religion could live if the temple were destroyed. Christ told them that the temple would be destroyed. Christ told them that obedience was better than an elaborate system of sacrifices that had come down to them from their fathers. And all the conventional religious reverence of Palestine gathered up to arm itself against a Man who really seemed to the religious teachers of that day to be teaching irreligion, if not atheism, to be sweeping the land of its religious institutions.

III. Along with this entrenched established order, supported by this religion of reverence for forms and ceremonies went a traditional theology.It was laid down as a rule and law in theological schools, that each man must repeat what the father before him had taught, and each pupil must learn and commit to rote what the instructor had taught to him. Religion consisted, not in believing truth, but in committing catechisms to memory. Christ came into the world, and fermented men; He incited men; He flung out aphorisms at them that set them thinking; He stirred them up with thought; He did just that which the church in that age, and which sectarianism in all ages, endeavours to prevent; He excited independent thought. If a heretic is what the dictionary tells us he isa man who gives forth his own opinions when they are in conflict with the received opinions of his agethere never was such a heretic as Jesus Christ.

IV. This established order, this superstitious reverence, this traditional theology was further entrenched and supported by a race prejudice.The Jews believed that they were the chosen people of God and all other people were of no account. Now Christ assailed this race prejudice.L. Abbott, D.D.

Mat. 10:37. The exclusiveness of Christs claims.How easily we may misunderstand Christ here! It is as if He underestimated family ties, responsibilities, and duties; and treated lightly the first commandment with promise. Yet we know well that, both by precept and example, He ever upheld parental rights. His point here is a twofold one:

I. His claim must be wholly absorbing, because it is Divine.The disciples only gradually apprehended that He wanted them altogether. They were to be, in an outward sense, given over entirely to His service. But that was only the illustration of their entire spiritual separation unto Him. We ask, Cannot we be Christs, and yet have a reserve for self; and yet have others in our love, taking their place with Christ.

II. Christ being first, we must keep Him in His place by putting everything else second.Life offers so many things to us all that may easily absorb our interest, and push Christ into the background. Loves, pleasures, pursuits. But here is the great Christian law for us.Weekly Pulpit.

Mat. 10:38. The necessity of self-denial.

I. The nature of self-denial.

1. Self-denial is opposed to our feelings, propensities, and our selfishness.Self-denial must be submitted to, in order to the well-being of societythe child to the parentthe scholar to the teacherthe servant to the masterthe subject to the sovereign; but the self-denial referred to is altogether of a spiritual character.

2. Mortification.Take up the cross. This language is highly figurative, and is borrowed from a custom of putting criminals to death by the Romans, and other nations. The criminal was compelled to bear his own cross to the place of execution. It was doing something extremely humiliating and painful.

3. Imitation of Christ.

II. The necessity of self-denial.There are two kinds of necessity, natural and moral; what is absolute in itself, and what is rendered so by circumstances. In order to become a disciple of Christ you must comply with His conditions. It is necessary:

1. To the maintaining of the spirit of religion.The religion of Jesus includes a belief of the doctrines He taughtbut it includes moreit includes the conquering of self.

2. To the practice of religion.The Christian is a racersoldierpilgrim. These designations all show the necessity of self-denial.

3 To the enjoyment of religion.Why are so many professors crying, My leanness, my leanness? Self is not deniedChrist is not followed fully.

4. To the final reward of religion.Jesus said, To him that overcometh will I grant to sit upon My throne, etc. Then, overcoming is necessary to the final reward.

III. The reasonableness of self-denial.

1. From the character of God.How reasonable that the will of such a Being should rule.

2. From our mutual dependence upon one another.

3. From the final destination of man.God is training the Christian for a station of infinite dignity.Anon.

Mat. 10:41. The prophets reward.Two questions suggest themselves to the thoughtful reader of these words:

1. What is a prophets, what is a righteous mans reward?
2. No matter what that reward is, is it quite fair and equitable that a man who merely receives a prophet or a righteous man; who, that is, gives shelter and hospitality to them because they are what they are, should get the same reward which those men themselves get? If a man may get a prophets reward by merely being hospitable to either of them, what is the good of being a prophet or a righteous man? We look in vain for any light on this difficulty from the context. The Master is speaking to His disciples here before sending them forth on what might be called a missionary enterprise, and He tells them what kind of treatment they are to expect. He identifies Himself here with them in the work they are to do and the treatment they shall receive. Nay, He identifies God with them, and regards every kindness shown to them in their service or ministry as a kindness paid to Him.

I. The Master does not here tell us what is the prophets reward, nor what is the reward of the righteous man.Yet here must lie the key that will open for us the mystery. The Master here does not tell usdid not tell His disciples. Why? Did they know already? Or did the Master tell them before this what it was? Or were they left to learn the nature and extent of it gradually by the teaching of experience, which, through the help of the Holy Spiritthe Spirit of light and gracewas to develop in them the power of spiritual apprehension and understandingwas to bring all things again to their remembrance, and help them to interpret His teaching aright? I think we must accept this latter as the correct assumption. Our Lord had taught the nature of the righteous mans and prophets reward before this, as after it, but I fear we cannot credit the disciples at this period with having fully grasped it. They partook too largely of the spirit of their race and of their times to rise so early as this to the loftier conception of Christs kingdom and of the rewards it conferred on those who were of it which we find in the Masters general teaching and in the pages of St. Paul and others in the New Testament.

II. The whole tenor of our Lords teaching was to bring out in regard to this matter that a mans true wealth lay in himself, not in his belongings, not in his surroundings.This was what our Lord was constantly teaching, and it was to seek after these treasures that He was ever exhorting the crowds that followed Him. This being so, we know very well what is the reward of the prophet, and what is the reward of the righteous man. It is not money. It is not place. It is not power. These things may come, or they may not; more likely by far that they do not. But if they come, they come as additions to their true reward, bringing with them other and grave responsibilities which further try the prophets gifts and the righteous mans character. The true reward of the prophet, the only one that really enriches him, is the growing power of seeing more deeply into the deep things of God, and the growing power of revealing these more and more clearly to men. The true reward of the righteous man is his becoming more righteous still, his finding the virtuous principles within him growing stronger, the vicious in their presence becoming weaker, his finding the path of duty before him growing clearer and clearer, and himself more able to walk in it without stumbling. The reward of the one is the growing strength of his character, that of the other the increasing fitness for his office.

III. This, then, being the reward of the prophet and of the righteous man, that they grow in power and goodness, in the capacity for work, and in the practice of virtue, it is not hard to see why the man who receives the prophet in the name of a prophet, and the righteous man in the name of a righteous man should receive their rewardthe same reward as they do. Observe that in the one case the man receives the prophet in the name of a prophet. He receives him because he knows him to be a prophet. This indicates that the man esteems the prophet for the sake of his office, that his sympathy is with him, and that he is interested in his work. He rejoices to hail this stranger, and gladly offers him hospitality, because he is of a kindred spirit to himself. And what follows? Their intercourse brings to the host the prophets reward. The host is enriched in his prophetic gifts by his guests conversation, and truly receives the prophets reward, shares with him and through him that enlargement of mind and that penetrating spiritual vision which are the richest fruits of his prophetic labours, as well as the power of clothing his thoughts in more accurate and impressive speech. The other case is similar to this. The righteous man is received in the name of a righteous man; that is, because he is a righteous man. The man who thus receives him has himself the cause of righteousness at heart, and his ready hospitality brings to his table, to his hearth, one whose words and example stimulate all his own virtuous aspirations; evoke and strengthen everything that is noble and good in him; bring him, in fact, the reward of the righteous man.

IV. There is no question in either case of the equality of the reward so far as amount is concerned. Such reward is proportioned to our capacity, very often to our length of service, always to our devotion to God and the right.It is a thing of growth, and the prophet cannot but stimulate the prophetic gifts in all hearts that come under his influence, nor the righteous man fail to strengthen, confirm, and ripen the character of those who are already in sympathy with him, and, because of that sympathy, receive him and give him hearty welcome.W. Ewen, B.D.

Mat. 10:42. Gods notice of little things.I. Gods intimate acquaintance with every member of His spiritual kingdom.One of these little ones. This reflection should:

1. Inspire a feeling of profound trust in God.

2. Inspire a feeling of profound reverence for God.His eye is upon me, etc.

II. God appreciates a gift according to the motive which actuates the giver.In the name of a disciple. See also Mar. 9:41; Heb. 6:10 It is of vital importance to understand this principle, because:

1. It casts light on the subject of good works.If the gift of a cup of cold water is to be rewarded, then all the world might be rewarded, because there is hardly a man but would give such a gift to a fellow-creature. Mark, however, the regard which is paid to the subject of motive. A distinction is inferentially drawn between mere animal kindness and Christian generosity.

2. It tends to prevent self-deception.Why was that gift giventhat deed doneor that word uttered? How prone we are to deceive ourselves on the subject of motive!

III. In the vast economy of the universe there is nothing lost.That cup of cold water is not lost. This thought applies:

1. To the sublime processes of physical creation.In the flight of boundless ages we are taught that not one particle of matter is lost!

2. To the moral effects of the gospel.My word shall not return unto Me void. It will be a savour of life unto life, etc.

3. To all efforts in the cause of moral regeneration.The humblest effort in the cause of Christ cannot be lost.

Let us treasure up the holy lessons of the subject:

1. To belong to Christ is the highest of all honours. 2 He who belongs to Christ will be a giver as well as a receiver.J. Parker, D.D.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(34) Think not that I am come to send peace.Truth appears again in the form of seeming paradox. Christ is our peace (Eph. 2:14), and came to be the one great Peacemaker; and yet the foreseen consequences of His work involved strife and division, and such a consequence, freely accepted for the sake of the greater good that lies beyond it, involves, in fact, a purpose. The words are the natural expression of such a thought; and yet we can hardly fail to connect them with those which, in the earliest dawn of His infancy, revealed to the mother of the Christ that a sword should pass through her own soul also (Luk. 2:35).

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

The Struggle, Mat 10:34-39.

The result of Christ’s coming and of their preaching will not be merely peace, but a sword, a struggle, a series of struggles, dividing communities, severing the nearest ties, and requiring a preference of the true and the right above the loved and the dear.

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

34. Think not that I am come to send peace From the meekness of my character and my Gospel you might imagine that I am to send peace, not only in spirit, but in result among mankind. But not so; my mission is to separate the righteous from the wicked. My goodness is to attract to itself all the good who have affinity with it. And this affinity of the good for the good, and of evil for the evil, will produce a division, a ferment, a strife, a sword. When the right goes forth into a world of wrong there must be war. Each principle will rally its own adherents and its own army under its own banner, and terrible will he the struggle until right or wrong, heaven or hell, attain the victory.

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

“Do not think that I came to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword.”

These remarkable words appear to set at nought what has He has previously taught, and yet deliberately so, for they describe the means by which the ends will be reached. Note first the statement ‘I came’. It is a claim to uniqueness. No one else but Someone Who was unique could claim that they had come for such a purpose, for He is not talking about a local situation but a worldwide situation.

That Jesus has come to bring peace was made clear in Mat 5:9, (although that was immediately followed by warnings of persecution – Mat 5:10-12 – so that what is said here was inherent within it). It was then confirmed in Mat 5:44-48. Thus He makes clear that the lack of peace will not arise as a result of the attitudes of His followers, but as a result of the reaction of others towards what they teach. Yet His point is that so reactionary are His words and teachings that that is what will inevitably happen. The world as a whole will not like them and will react against them. And that world includes their own families!

The whole of the Messianic hope for Israel was based on the expectation of a world of peace and harmony, although often preceded by a time of trouble. That peace was epitomised in the beautiful words of Isaiah 11. Not only would justice prevail among the poor and the meek (Isa 11:1-4; compare Mat 5:3; Mat 5:5), but even nature would be at harmony with itself (Isa 11:5-9). However even there that could only be achieved by first smiting the earth and slaying the wicked (Isa 11:4).

But the Jews thought that they had it all sorted. In the end the harmony and peace would be among them. It was the Gentiles who would be smitten and slain. So what Jesus is now saying conflicts with their ideas. For he is saying that the truth is that the very Jews themselves will be divided because of His words, and this will be because they themselves are unrighteous. And it is only out of the divisions which will arise as a result of that unrighteousness, and their resolution in God’s way, (by salvation and judgment), that in the end peace will come. So they must recognise that as a result of His coming it must be sword first, and then peace.

We should perhaps note here that Jesus is not saying that He has come with the deliberate purpose of bringing a sword. He has come in order to bring truth. But His point is that His truth is sword and thus by bringing truth among the unrighteous He will divide them, simply because the unrighteous will react against His truth by using the sword. That is regularly unrighteous man’s way of resolving a problem. So as a result the paradoxical thing will be that the very truth that was aimed at bringing peace, will initially have the very opposite effect because of man’s sinfulness and rebellion.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

What Will Result From His Coming, And What He Requires Of Those Who Would Follow Him (10:34-42).

As Jesus comes to the end of His instructions He wants His disciples to be aware of the waves that they are going to cause. He wants them to know that what He has come to bring will not result in peace but a sword. Rather than expecting perfect harmony to follow, they must expect a world divided in two as though with a sword-stroke (into those who walk in the broad way, and those who walk in the narrow, those who build on rock and those who build on sand). By their very success in their witness they will produce a world at war with itself. For in that world so bitter will be the feelings that arise, that the very ones who are dearest and closest to their converts will be the ones that they might well discover to be their enemies But if they are faithful in their response to His disciples, then they will not lose their reward.

He describes vividly on the basis of Mic 7:6 what the effects of their witness will be, even on family relationships. So great will be the divide between what their families hold on to and cling to, and what He has brought, that their families will act towards their believing relative with enmity. He will find himself at odds with them all, even those who should be closest to him. But that will be the test of his worthiness. For if he places them before Jesus then he is not worthy of Jesus. What he must therefore do is pick up his cross, turning his back on all that his relatives cling on to, yes and on his own old life as well, and follow Jesus. Otherwise he is not worthy of Him. For by losing his life in this way for His sake he will find it, while if he clings on to his old life, ‘finding his life’, he will inevitably lose it in the end.

These thoughts are expressed in an intermingled series of threes. Firstly there is a threefold description of those against whom the believer will be ‘set at variance’ (put in a position of disagreement with) as a result of their witness (Mat 10:35), then a threefold description of those who will not be worthy of Him because they are unwilling to turn their backs on their old lives (Mat 10:37-38), then a threefold description of those who by receiving the servants of God will receive their reward (Mat 10:40-41), followed by a threefold promise of such rewards (Mat 10:41-42).

Analysis.

a “Do not think that I came to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Mat 10:34).

b “For I came 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 man’s foes will be those of his own household” (Mat 10:35-36).

c “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of me” (Mat 10:37).

d “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mat 10:38-39).

c “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent me” (Mat 10:40).

b “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward” (Mat 10:41).

a “And whoever will give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you he will in no wise lose his reward” (Mat 10:42).

Note that in ‘a’ Jesus coming will set the world in turmoil and in the parallel those who in the midst of the turmoil give a cup of cold water to a child believer will not lose their reward. In ‘b’ we have a picture of belligerence among family members, and in the parallel we have a picture of ‘family’ harmony. In ‘c’ those who put others before Him are described, and in the parallel those who put Him first. And centrally in ‘d’ is the picture of what being a disciple means.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The result of such uncompromising demands:

v. 34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword.

v. 35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

v. 36. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

The same thought as in verse 21. Peace on earth was promised at the birth of Jesus, Luk 2:14. And peace on earth was earned by the Redeemer, Isa 53:5; Rom 5:1; 2Co 5:18-19. But here is where the Lord refers to the second, terrible effect of Gospel-preaching, in the case of those that persistently refuse to accept the redemption through the blood of Jesus, 2Co 2:16. Christ foresaw this hostile opposition to His message; He knew, also, that the spiritual conflict which would be brought on by carnal enmity would find its expression in actual physical persecution. His disciples should not then imagine, as they were likely to do, that there would now be a reign of earthly quietness and peace, with all the blessings which the word implies. Division, contention, war, sudden, fierce calamities would follow the introduction of the Gospel. There is no more bitter hatred and strife than that due to religious differences. It estranges the closest of friends, it disrupts families, it causes lasting enmity between members of the same household. These features will accompany the propagation of the new religion. To stand firm on the side of Christ demands the utmost fearlessness.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 10:34-36. Think not that I am come, &c. “Because the prophets have spoken glorious things of the peace and happiness which shall flourish under the Messiah, whom they have named, for that reason, the prince of peace; you may imagine that I am come to put the world into that happy state immediately: but this is far from being the case; for though the nature of my government be such as might produce abundant felicity, inasmuch as my religion breathes nothing but love, men will not lay aside their animosity, nor will they exercise a mutual friendship among themselves, as soon as the Gospel is preached to them. No; such is their weakness and wickedness, that they will make the Gospel itself an occasion of such bitter dissensions, that it will seem as if I came on purpose to sow the seeds of discord among the children of men. These bad consequences, however, are not to be considered as peculiar to Christianity; and therefore must not be imputed to it, but to the wickedness of men. The Deists indeed boldly affirm, that thediversity of opinions and worships, which prevailed among the heathens, never produced either bloodshed or disorder, nor disturbed the peace of mankind. But their assertion is false. It is true, we are not so well acquainted with the religious disputes of the heathens, as we are with our own: not because no such disputes were ever known, but because the historians of those times did not think them worthy of being transmitted to posterity. Some flagrant instances, however, are accidentally preserved, by which we may judge of the rest. Socrates, one of the best of the heathens, and the wisest and most learned of all the Greeks, was put to death bythe Athenians, for teaching the unity of God, and the spirituality of the worship due to him. Aristotle the philosopher was also impeached for his opinions, and obliged to fly from Athens, lest he should have incurred the fate of Socrates. Antiochus Epiphanes raised a most violent and bloody persecution against the Jews, in their own country, on account of religion, in which many thousands perished, for refusing to submit to the idolatrous worship which he had set up in the temple at Jerusalem. The emperor Claudius banished the Jews from Italy for their religion, pretending that they were seditious. The religious quarrels of the Egyptians, the fury with which they prosecuted them, and the disturbances that they occasioned, are well known. And, to name no more, was there ever any persecution raised by Christians, either against one another, or against infidels, more bloody, cruel, and extensive, than the ten persecutions carried on by the Roman emperors, at the instigation of the philosophers? It is to no purpose to reply, that these were persecutions of men, who set themselves to overturn the established religions of the countries where they lived: for while those men attacked them with the force of argument only, they ought to have been repelled by no other weapon; and if they could not be thus quelled, their adversaries, instead of persecuting them, ought to have yielded to truth. While the accounts of those persecutions stand on record, it must not be a little assurance which is able to bear the Deists out in affirming, that the ancient heathen religions never inspired their votaries with a spirit of persecution. Yet it will not reflect any dishonour on Christianity, though it should be allowed to have occasioned more disturbances than any other religion. On the contrary, it is rather a proof of its superior excellency; for if Christianity animates the persons who believe it with greater zeal for truth, it is because it approves itself better worth the contending for. Its evidence was clearer, and its tendencies better than those of any false religion, and therefore no wonder that men have espoused its interests more heartily. See Macknight, and Bishop Hoadley’s sermons on the text.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 10:34 . ] The telic style of expression is not only rhetorical, indicating that the result is unavoidable, but what Jesus expresses is a purpose , not the final design of His coming, but an intermediate purpose, in seeing clearly presented to His view the reciprocally hostile excitement as a necessary transition, which He therefore, in keeping with His destiny as Messiah, must be sent first of all to bring forth.

] an instance of zeugma , in which the thought of a sword is the predominant one, after which the verb also spontaneously suggested itself for , and all the more naturally the more sudden and powerful was to be the excitement of men’s minds, which He, instead of a comfortable peace, was to bring about.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

11. Christ come to send into the old world, not peace, but a sword, because He sends, in His love, absolute peace and eternal life.

Sixth warning and comfort. Mat 10:34-39

34Think not that I am come to send [to throw, ] peace on [the old] earth: Icame not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I am come to set a man at variance against [with] his father, and the [a] daughter against [with] her mother, and the daughter-in-law 36[a bride, ] against [with] her mother in-law. And a mans foes shall be they of his own household. 37He 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. 38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39He that findeth [hath found or gained, ] his life [] shall lose it: and48 he that loseth [hath lost, , i. e., sacrificed for Christ] his life for my sake shall find .

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 10:34. I came not to send peace.How does this agree with the angelic hymn, Luk 2:14? Meyer: This is not merely a rhetorical expression, but Jesus really states an object, although not he final object, of His advent; since He clearly foresaw the hostile opposition as an unavoidable transition from the old to the new state of things, which, in the execution of His Messianic office, He must therefore have willed. So far well; but the expression itself must have rendered any misunderstanding impossible. Hence is so chosen, that it does not apply merely to . Wetstein erroneously regards it as equivalent to sowing. It evidently implies sudden action; probably also throwing, casting. It therefore accords with the expression , and implies something quite different from the angelic song, .49 Luke (Luk 12:51) uses the expression , and accordingly does not employ the word , which, however, occurs in 10:49: . By the term earth, we are to understand the ancient and established theocratic and political order of things, Joh 3:31; Rev 13:11. To it Christ could not bring peace, but the sword, i. e., a contest for life and death, in order to establish His kingdom of peace. The kingdom of God on earth can only be established by the destruction of the sinful principles of the old man, the old world, and the old earth.

Mat 10:35. For I am come.Not a mere repetition of Mat 10:21, but the reverse of the picture there given. The terms, , indicate a direct influence from the Lord; hence, the son, the daughter, and the daughter-in-law, are here the representatives of Christ. It has not inaptly been suggested, that these special terms have been selected, because the younger members and the female portion of households were commonly the first to embrace the gospel. There is also an evident reference here to Mic 7:6, although in a modified and free manner. Stier calls attention to the fact, that according to the predictions of Micah, war and the sorrows of the daughter of Zion were to usher in the kingdom of peace. The best and most precious peace on earth, as well as the ground of every other, is domestic peace and family concord. But so long as it rests on a false foundation, it must be broken up by the introduction of the peace of Christ. For kindred rabbinical sayings, see Meyer and Schttgen, p. 105.

Mat 10:37. [He that loveth, etc.Our Lord claims here a love stronger than the dearest natural attachments, such a love and devotion as is due only to a truly Divine being. This is one of those extraordinary claims which in Him, the God-Man, are perfectly easy, natural, and irresistible, while in others they would be extreme madness or intolerable presumption.P. S.]

Mat 10:38. He that does not take his cross, ,freely; referring to the Roman custom, by which the cruciarii were obliged to carry their cross (Mat 27:32). A prophetic reference to the death of Christ; no doubt purposely chosen, in order to prepare the disciples for that fearful prospect. That the Lord anticipated this consummation at an early period, appears from Joh 3:14. [His cross, as I shall carry My cross.]

Mat 10:39. He that hath found his life.De Wette: means here, in alternate clauses, the life of the body and eternal life, or the salvation of the soul. He that gains, or saves, his earthly life, preserving it by unfaithfulness, shall lose the life of his life. But he that loses it by faithfulness, shall find eternal life. At the same time we must remember that the Lord only speaks of one true kind of life. Hence, the finding or preserving of life in the first case, and the loss of it in the second, are only in appearance. Lastly, it seems to us quite incompatible to suppose, with Meyer, that this eternal life shall only be enjoyed at the second coming of Christ, or at the resurrection of the dead.50

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. These verses contain a cycle of ideas which had never before been uttered by mortal. All the former prophetic expectations concerning the kingdom of God are here presented to our view as supersensuous, future, and heavenly,quite in accordance with the deeper sense of the predictions of inspired seers, yet never before expressed in a manner so clear and decided. This, then, is the great barrier cast by the Lord in the way of all who would construct the kingdom of peace in this world from worldly elements,beginning with the Jews, whose folly is here exposed, and ending with the thoughtless builders of the last time. Stier.

2. The Lord makes an onslaught upon the corruptions of the world with the holy sword of His word, allowing the world to employ the sword of persecution against Himself and His people. Comp. Jer 8:11; Jer 6:14; Mic 3:5; Mic 3:11; Eze 13:10; Eze 13:16; 1Pe 4:4. This passage may also serve to throw light on the charge brought against Protestantism, as if it had served to divide nations, and led to civil wars. [The civil wars in France, the thirty years war in Germany, the civil war in England.]

3. The Lord makes on this occasion the first allusion to His death on the cross. A masterly preparation of His disciples. Crucifixion was the worst kind of punishment then known; hence the phrase, to take his cross, signifies the voluntary readiness to suffer the utmost in this world for Christ. Indirectly, Christ presented Himself already here as the first bearer of the cross (follow after Me).

4. The declaration of the Saviour, that he that will save his life shall lose it, etc., holds true both historically and spiritually. That species of egotism which ever seeks to preserve its life, and constantly aims after its own, shall find death; while faith, with its devotion and self-sacrifice, is crowned by life. Compare the mystic work: Theologia Germanica, of the middle ages, which follows out this idea.51

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Dangerous delusion, as if Christ had brought a delusive peace to the delusions of the old order of things. 1. Character of this delusion,a. historically: the ancient and more recent chiliastic views, as appearing in ecclesiastical and sectarian tendencies; b. dogmatically: it springs from an overestimate of the old order of things, from an underestimate of the Spirit of Christ, and from a false estimate of what is external, compared with what is internal. 2. Its pernicious effects. We lose Christ, the true Prince of Peace, to follow the standard of a false messiah. We lose true peace, and, with it, the prospect of that kingdom of peace which is yet to cover the whole world. Lastly, we surrender our hope in the great and glorious appearance of the Lord of peace.The world in its unregenerate state is just like the old garment, upon which it were folly to put the new cloth of Christs peace.The lost estate of the world appears most distinctly in the false peace which it cherishes.Christ sends a sword in order to send peace.The sword of Christ, and the sword of the world; or, suffering on the cross, and affixing to the cross.The family as the basis of every spiritual movement: 1. The basis of the kingdom of peace; 2. the battle-field of the spirit of peace; 3. the first manifestation of the kingdom of peace, or of the Church.Christs warfare infinitely preferable to the peace of the world. 1. The peace of the world ends with52 the eternal rebellion and warfare of hell; 2. the warfare of Christ ushers in the eternal kingdom of heavenly peace.The sword of the Lord is true peace: 1. It proceeds from His peace; 2. it is wielded in the service of His peace; 3. it leads to His peace.The claims of Christ are identical with those of God Himself (Exodus 20).The love of Christ in its relation to the love of the family. 1. Its value: (a) It is higher than family love; (b) it may even come into conflict with the latter, for, (c) Christ sticketh closer than a brother; (d) His love forms the basis of true family love; (e) it gives an eternal and spiritual character to the love of the family. 2. Its claims: He that loveth father or mother, etc., is not worthy of Christ; for, (a) he betrays the highest love; (b) he does not properly love even his own; (c) he is lost to true love which gives to man his real value.Enlarged view. The love of Christ far above all earthly love.The love of Christ may well claim from us the surrender of those we love, and of our own life also: 1. Explanation of this statement; 2. demonstration of it.Spurious affection for our own, is in reality only disguised self-love.Relation between the fifth and the first commandment: 1. The former is subordinate to the latter, because, 2. it springs from it, and 3. it is fulfilled in it.The first utterance of the Lord concerning His cross was when He summoned His disciples to share it with Him.He that findeth his life: 1. The historical motto of Christianity; 2. the motto of the inner life; 3. the motto of every relationship of life, of every possession, enjoyment, or claim.

Starke:The blame rests not with Christ, the Prince of Peace, Isa 9:6; nor with the gospel, Eph 6:15; but with the malice of man.Zeisius: Christ the Wonderful; Prince of Peace, yet disturber of peace.Satan and his children the real cause of all disturbances in the world.Quesnel: Our nearest friends oftentimes the greatest enemies of our salvation.Natural affection is proper in its own place, but it must not occupy the first rank.Ever let us assign to God the highest place, as the first commandment enjoins. Amandus est genitor, sed prponendus est creator (Augustine).Christo nihil prponere debemus, quoniam et ille nihil nobis prposuit (Cyprian).To deny what is earthly, forms a great part in the divine life.We cannot love Christ if we cherish the love of the world.Our closest relationships often lead aside from the highest good; hence they must be abnegated.Every Christian must bear the cross.To love oneself inordinately, is in reality to hate oneself.Loss for the sake of Christ is true gain.Death for the sake of Christ is true life.

Heubner:Christianity a declaration of war to the world, and yet a message of peace for the world.Surrender of natural ties.What does Christ offer in their stead? Heavenly, spiritual, and eternal connections.How much of natural affection has been sacrificed upon the altar of Christ [but in this case, sacrificing is not surrendering, but sanctifying and giving up to God]!Christ has displayed the greatest love toward us (1Jn 4:19).To shepherds: Do you love the flock of Christ more than your own house? Deu 33:9-10.False application of this declaration by monasticism.No cross, no crown.Without Christ, no true happiness.Nothing is lost that is surrendered for Christ.

12. Along with the cross of Christ, His servants bring, not misery, but the highest happiness into the world, They who receive them, receive Christ and God Himself, and their reward is from Him, is God Himself. Seventh warning and comfort. Mat 10:40-42

40He that receiveth you receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophets reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward. 42And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones53 a cup of cold water54 only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 10:40. He that receiveth you.Such is the general principle. The explanation of de Wetteyour cause is Mine, and the cause of Goddoes not exhaust its import. It implies, not merely that the disciples shall find welcome and succor, but also, that the cross which they bring with them shall be the well-spring of infinite blessing.This principle also embodies the two great features of salvationit is to receive Christ and to receive God. [Alford: has here the wider sense of not only receiving to house and board, but receiving in heart and life the message of which the Apostles were the bearers. See Joh 20:21.P. S.]

Mat 10:41. He that receiveth a prophet.The special application and inference from the principle.In the name. In rabbinical writings, . Meyer: With reference to that which the name implies. [Alford: , a Hebraism (): because he is, i. e., for the love of Christ, whose prophet he is. The sense is: He who by receiving a prophet because he is a prophet, or a holy man because he is a holy man, recognizes, enters into, these states as appointed by Me, shall receive the blessedness of these states, shall derive all the spiritual benefits which these states bring with them, and share their everlasting reward.Wordsworth: is more forcible than . It signifies an inward movement of love to, and, as it were, identification with the prophet, and consequently a reception of his message into the soul. He who receives a minister of Christ, because he is such, and with love and adhesion to Christ, the True Prophet (as distinguished from men, who are only His instruments), shall partake in the reward promised to those who turn many to righteousness (Dan 12:3). The prophet to be received may be an unworthy persona Judas. Our Lord, foreseeing this, says that the office is to be regarded, and not the person; and that you will not lose your reward if you receive a prophet, though he who is received is unworthy. Receive him in the name of a prophet, not for the sake of any secular pre-eminence or any worldly consideration, but because he is a prophet, and you will receive a prophets reward.P. S.]A prophets reward;De Wette: Such as a prophet receives, not such as he gives (Paulus).

A righteous man; i. e., one who embodies prophecy in his faith and life. Evidently alluding to the righteousness of faith in Christ.

Mat 10:42. Unto one of these little [lowly] ones.With reference to the disciples. Fritzsche suggests that they are so called, because the Rabbins designated their disciples as .55 Meyer sees in it an allusion to their future low and despised condition. In our view, the expression refers on the one hand to the contrast between the disciples and Christ their Master, and to that between their low position in the world and their high place in the kingdom of heaven.A cup of cold water; i. e., the smallest favor, the least act of Christian charity.His reward;i. e., the reward meet and due to him.

On the result, and the work achieved by the Apostles, comp. Mar 6:12-13; Luk 9:6.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The principle, He that receiveth you, etc., is closely connected with the fundamental principle of Christs own mission into the world, Joh 20:21. He was sent by the Father, and He in turn sends His Apostles. Accordingly, they who receive His Apostles, receive Him; and they who receive Him, receive God. This not merely implies: it shall be considered as if he had received, etc.; but, that Christ really comes to us in and by His servants. I in them, and Thou in Me, Joh 17:23. Gerlach.

2. This principle is in perfect accordance with the fundamental relations of spiritual life. By means of spiritual susceptibility, man comes to share and enjoy spiritual fellowship, and thus both blessing and blessedness; or, the reward of him who communicates spiritual blessings. Receptive spirits enter into spiritual fellowship and enjoy spiritual community with productive spirits; believers through the Apostles with Christ and God.
3. Even in the Sermon on the Mount, persecution for righteousness sake had been declared identical with persecution for Christs sake. Here also the term righteous evidently points to the righteousness of Christ, and that all the more distinctly, that even in a historical sense, Christ, as the Righteous One, formed the connecting link between the prophets and the Apostles.Lastly, this promise implies a corresponding warning of impending judgment in case of resistance.
4. Extent and conditions of the authority of the Apostles.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The witnesses of Christ must not be afraid of the detrimental consequences which the message of peace brings, so far as this world is concerned.A Christian may well invite others to share the cross, since he invites them to share the crown.Blessed misery which Christianity causes in the world.He that receiveth you, etc.; or, the apostolic authority: 1. What important conditions attach to it; 2. how these conditions constitute its greatness.How the greatness of Christs servants appears and disappears: 1. It appears in their being ambassadors of the Spirit of Christ and of God; 2. it disappears before the Spirit, the Saviour, and the Father, whom they bring to those who receive them.Susceptibility, or trustfulness, the bond of spiritual fellowship and spiritual, communication between heaven and earth.Those who are susceptible obtain the reward of Heavens messengers whom they receive, and that in ascending line: 1. The reward of a prophet; 2. the reward of a righteous man; 3. the fullest reward of a righteous man in the reward of all the Apostles.Faith in the Righteous One: the righteousness of faith.Even the smallest service of love may obtain the richest reward, if, in doing it to the Lords people, we devote it to the Lord Himself.If it is intended as evidence of our having received the Lord.

Starke:Luk 10:16; Joh 13:20.CramerHe that receives the servants of God, receives God Himself into his house.The more lowly in outward appearance the messenger who is received, the greater the faith which sees Christ in him, and looks only to the Lord. Mat 25:31.Osiander:It shall be well both in time and eternity with him who promotes the Christian ministry and schools, and who does good to believers.

[Quesnel on Mat 10:42 :Charity heightens the smallest actions. It is this which recommends good works.Under a just and merciful God, no sin is unpunished, no good action is unrewarded.Jesus Christ confirms this last promise with the solemn Verily, to stimulate us to acts of charity, and to destroy all doubt as to the reward.In the world, great services only receive great reward; in the kingdom of God, the smallest acts of kindness to the humblest persons may justly hope for a very great reward.P. S.]

Heubner:The spirit of faith and of love transforms every work, and surrounds even the meanest with a halo of glory.God leaves not the smallest deed of love unrewarded.

General survey of the whole chapter.Homily on the apostolic mission of the disciples of Jesus: a. Their mission, and their preparation for it by the Lord; b. the goal, and the order of their journey; c. their freedom from care, and their sustenance; d. their stay, and their further progress; e. their sufferings; f. their encouragements and consolations.Lectures on smaller portions: The Apostles and their mission ( Mat 10:1-10).The world in its bearing toward the Apostles ( Mat 10:11-22).Admonitions and consolations of the Lord, to stir us up to faithfulness in our work of bearing witness to the Christian faith ( Mat 10:23-42).

Footnotes:

[48] Mat 10:39.[Cod. Sinait. omits the clause: .. ; but it is sustained by all other authorities.P. S.]

[49][In the same chapter of Luke, where the Gloria in excelsis occurs, we are told, that Christ was set for the fall as well as the rising of many, Luke 2:34. His Gospel is a savor of death unto death to unbelievers, as it is a savor of life unto life to believers, 2Co 2:16.P. S.]

[50][So also Alford: The first is the life of this world, which we here all count so dear to us; the second, implied in , the real life of man in a blessed eternity. But the contrast is not between this present life and the life to come (comp. the past participles: and , who has found, who has lost, not: who findeth, who loseth); but between the outward, earthly, secular life, with all its pleasures, comforts, and the inward, spiritual eternal life, which commences already here in faith, [illegible]ct will be perfected in heaven.P. S.]

[51][An English translation by Miss C. Winkworth with Introductions by the late Chevalier Bunsen, and Charles Kingsley, republished at Andover.P. S.]

[52][Not: springs from, as the Edinb. trl. reverses the German: geth aus in den (not: von dem) ewigen Ausruhr und Krieg der Hlle.P. S.]

[53] Mat 10:42.[Cod. D., etc, read: for .P. S.]

[54] Mat 10:42.[Cod. D., Origen, and some later MSS. add , water, after , cold.P. S.]

[55][But such a Rabbinical phrase is doubtful. In the passage quoted by Wetstein means parvuli, i. e., children. See Meyer in loc., p. 241. Still the word might easily have assumed this meaning as distinguished from , great, a matter. Alford is disposed to take literally of some children who may have been present (Mat 18:2-6); but is evidently to be taken as pointing to the disciples present.P. S.]

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

34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Ver. 34. Think not that I came to send peace ] Peace is twofold, temporis et pectoris, of country and of conscience. This latter is Christ’s legacy, and the saints are sure of it. But the former they seldom find here; “In the world ye shall have trouble,” saith our Saviour. Should we look for fire to quench our thirst? saith a martyr: and as soon shall God’s true servants find peace and favour under Christ’s regiment. This world is to the saints as the sea called Pacific, than the which there is nothing more troublesome and tumultuous; or as the Straits of Magellan, where, which way soever a man bend his course, he shall be sure to have the wind against him.

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

34. ] In Luk 12:51-53 this announcement, as here, is closely connected with the mention of our Lord’s own sufferings ( Mat 10:38 ). As He won His way to victory through the contradiction of sinners and strife, so must those who come after Him. The immediate reference is to the divisions in families owing to conversions to Christianity. Mat 10:35 is quoted nearly literally from Mic 7:6 . When we read in Commentators, e.g. De Wette, that these divisions were not the purpose, but the inevitable results only, of the Lord’s coming, we must remember that with God, results are all purposed .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 10:34-39 . The whole foregoing discourse, by its announcements and consolations, implies that dread experiences are in store for the apostles of the faith. To the inexperienced the question might naturally suggest itself, why? Can the new religion not propagate itself quietly and peaceably? Jesus meets the question of the surprised disciple with a decided negative.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 10:34 . , do not imagine, as you are very likely to do ( cf. Mat 5:17 ). : the use of the infinitive to express aim is common in Matt., but Christ has here in view result rather than purpose, which are not carefully distinguished in Scripture. For Luke has , possibly with a feeling that the former word does not suit . It is used specially with reference to . The aorist points to a sudden single action. Christ came to bring peace on earth, but not in an immediate magical way; peace at last through war (Weiss, Matt. Evang.). : Luke substitutes . The connecting link may be that the sword divides in two (Heb 4:12 ). Grotius says that by the word there should be understood: “non bellum sed dissidium”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 10:34-36

34″Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”

Mat 10:34 “Do not think” According to the Analytical Greek New Testament by Barbara and Timothy Friberg, this verb is an aorist active subjunctive used as an aorist active imperative.

Jesus was probably speaking these words against the backdrop of the Jewish expectations concerning the Messiah, who was called the “Prince of Peace” (cf. Isa 9:6). The Jews expected the Messiah to usher in a military order and a nationalistic peace on the Jews’behalf (cf. Luk 12:49-53).

“peace” This term’s etymology was “to bring together that which was broken” (cf. Joh 14:24).

“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” Jesus did not come to bring war or strife, but the fact that He has come forces humans to make a radical decision between “followship” or rejection (cf. Joh 3:17; Luk 12:51-53).

Mat 10:35 “for I came to set a man against his father” See Mat 10:21. The parallel in Luk 14:26 has the Hebrew idiom, “hate father,” which was an idiom of comparison. We must recognize this as a Hebrew idiom instead of interpreting it literally (cf. Gen 29:31; Gen 29:33; Deuteronomy 15; Mal 1:2-3; Joh 12:25). This speaks of a radical priority commitment to Jesus which supercedes all earthly ties.

Mat 10:35-36 This is a quote from Mic 7:6. This passage was often quoted in eschatological settings (cf. Mar 13:12 and Luk 12:53).

Mat 10:36 “a man’s enemies will be the members of his household” A good example of this type of familial pressure can be seen in Peter’s response to Jesus’ claim to Messiahship (cf. Mat 16:22).

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

I am come = I came. Compare Mat 10:6, and Mat 15:24.

send = cast, as seed. Compare Mar 4:26.

earth. Greek. ge. See App-129.

sword. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for “war” or “fightings”.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

34.] In Luk 12:51-53 this announcement, as here, is closely connected with the mention of our Lords own sufferings (Mat 10:38). As He won His way to victory through the contradiction of sinners and strife, so must those who come after Him. The immediate reference is to the divisions in families owing to conversions to Christianity. Mat 10:35 is quoted nearly literally from Mic 7:6. When we read in Commentators, e.g. De Wette, that these divisions were not the purpose, but the inevitable results only, of the Lords coming, we must remember that with God, results are all purposed.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 10:34. , peace) sc. of the righteous with the wicked.-, a sword) i.e., violent division (called in Luk 12:51; Luk 22:36), proceeding from the discord of families, mentioned in Mat 10:35, to wars and murders.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Receiving Christs Representatives

Mat 10:34-42

In Jesus Christ we acquire a new affinity, stronger than that of family ties. When we enter into the family of God we belong to all His children. They are our brethren and sisters in the most intimate sense. See Mat 12:48-50. The new love that floods our nature does not make us less but more tender and sympathetic toward our own kith and kin; but if we are compelled to choose, then we must stand with the children of God, though it should rend us from the old happy family life in which we were nurtured.

As to the closing paragraph, may we not illustrate it thus? When the widow who sustained Elijah at Zarephath entered Paradise, she found herself standing amid the great prophets of Israel. When she asked the attendant angel whether there was not some mistake, he replied, Certainly not. In treating the prophet as you did, you proved yourself to be of the same spirit and temper as he; and it is but right that you should share in the prophets reward.

For Review Questions, see the e-Sword Book Comments.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

peace

Cf. Joh 14:27. Peace is spoken of in Scripture in three ways:

(1) “Peace with God” Rom 5:1 this is the work of Christ into which the individual enters by faith; Eph 2:14-17; Rom 5:1.

(2) “The peace of God” Php 4:7 inward peace, the state of soul of that believer who, having entered into peace with God through faith in Christ, has also committed to God through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving all his anxieties; Luk 7:50; Php 4:6.

(3) Peace “on earth” Luk 2:14; Psa 72:7; Psa 85:10; Isa 9:6; Isa 9:7; Isa 11:1-12 the universal prevalency of peace in the earth under the kingdom. Mat 10:34 was Christ’s warning that the truth which He was proclaiming would not bring in the kingdom age of peace, but conflict rather. Joh 14:27.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

that I: Jer 15:10, Luk 12:49-53, Joh 7:40-52, Act 13:45-50, Act 14:2, Act 14:4

Reciprocal: Gen 27:40 – thy sword Jdg 3:2 – might know Jer 9:4 – ye heed Jer 11:21 – that seek Zec 8:10 – for Zec 11:6 – deliver Mat 10:21 – the brother shall Luk 12:51 – General Joh 10:19 – General Act 23:7 – there Act 28:29 – great reasoning

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

0:34

The Pharisees could not deny the fact of the casting out of the devil, but tried to rob Jesus of due credit by attributing his power to Satan. This subject will be dealt with in Mat 12:22-32.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

[Think not that I am come to send peace, etc.] although these words may be understood truly of the difference between believers and unbelievers by reason of the gospel, which all interpreters observe; yet they do properly and primarily point out, as it were with the finger, those horrid slaughters and civil wars of the Jews among themselves, such as no other age ever saw, nor story heard.

“R. Eliezer saith, The days of the Messias are forty years, as it is said, ‘Forty years was I provoked by this generation.’ ” And again; “R. Judah saith, In that generation, when the Son of David shall come, the schools shall be harlots; Galilee shall be laid waste; Gablan shall be destroyed; and the inhabitants of the earth [the Gloss is ‘the Sanhedrim’] shall wander from city to city, and shall not obtain pity; the wisdom of the scribes shall stink; and they that fear to sin shall be despised; and the faces of that generation shall be like the faces of dogs; and truth shall fail, etc. Run over the history of these forty years, from the death of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem (as they are vulgarly computed), and you will wonder to observe the nation conspiring to its own destruction, and rejoicing in the slaughters and spoils of one another beyond all example, and even to a miracle. This phrensy certainly was sent upon them from heaven. And first, they are deservedly become mad who trod the wisdom of God, as much as they could, under their feet. And secondly, the blood of the prophets and of Christ, bringing the good tidings of peace, could not be expiated by a less vengeance. Tell me, O Jew, whence is that rage of your nation towards the destruction of one another, and those monsters of madness beyond all examples? Does the nation rave for nothing, unto their own ruin? Acknowledge the Divine vengeance in thy madness, more than that which befell thee from men. He that reckons up the difference, contentions, and broils of the nation, after the dissension betwixt the Pharisees and the Sadducees, will meet with no less between the scholars of Shammai and Hillel, which increased to that degree, that at last it came to slaughter and blood.

“The scholars of Shammai and Hillel came to the chamber of Chananiah Ben Ezekiah Ben Garon, to visit him: that was a woeful day, like the day wherein the golden calf was made. The scholars of Shammai stood below, and slew some of the scholars of Hillel. The tradition is, That six of them went up, and the rest stood there present with swords and spears.”

It passed into a common proverb, that “Elias the Tishbite himself could not decide the controversies between the scholars of Hillel and the scholars of Shammai.” They dream they were determined by a voice from heaven; but certainly the quarrels and bitternesses were not at all decided.

“Before the Bath Kol [in Jabneh] went forth, it was lawful equally to embrace either the decrees of the school of Hillel, or those of the school of Shammai. At last the Bath Kol came forth, and spake thus; ‘The words, both of the one party and the other, are the words of the living God; but the certain decision of the matter is according to the decrees of the school of Hillel.’ And from thenceforth, whosoever shall transgress the decrees of the school of Hillel is guilty of death.”

And thus the controversy was decided; but the hatreds and spites were not so ended. I observe, in the Jerusalem Gemarists, the word Shamothi; used for a scholar of Shammai; which I almost suspect, from the affinity of the word Shammatha; which signifies Anathema; to be a word framed by the scholars of Hillel, in hate, ignominy, and reproach of those of Shammai. And when I read more than once of R. Tarphon’s being in danger by robbers, because in some things he followed the custom and manner of the school of Shammai; I cannot but suspect snares were daily laid by one another, and hostile treacheries continually watching to do each other mischief.

“R. Tarphon saith, ‘As I was travelling on the way, I went aside to recite the phylacteries, according to the rite of the school of Shammai, and I was in danger of thieves.’ They said to him, and deservedly too, ‘Because thou hast transgressed the words of the school of Hillel.’ ” This is wanting in the Jerusalem Misna.

“R. Tarphon went down to eat figs of his own, according to the school of Shammai. The enemies saw him, and kicked against him: when he saw himself in danger, ‘By your life,’ saith he, ‘carry word unto the house of Tarphon, that graveclothes be made ready for him.’ ”

Thus, as if they were struck with a phrensy from heaven, the doctors of the nation rage one against another; and from their very schools and chairs flow not so much doctrines, as animosities, jarrings, slaughters, and butcheries. To these may be added those fearful outrages, spoils, murders, devastations of robbers, cut-throats, zealots, and amazing cruelties, beyond all example. And if these things do not savour of the divine wrath and vengeance, what ever did?

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

IN these verses the great Head of the Church winds up His first charge to those whom He sends forth to make known His Gospel. He declares three great truths, which form a fitting conclusion to the whole discourse.

In the first place, He bids us remember that His Gospel will not cause peace and agreement wherever it comes. “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” The object of His first coming on earth was not to set up a millennial kingdom in which all would be of one mind, but to bring in the Gospel, which would lead to strifes and divisions. We have no right to be surprised, if we see this continually fulfilled. We are not to think it strange, if the Gospel rends asunder families, and causes estrangement between the nearest relations. It is sure to do so in many cases, because of the deep corruption of man’s heart. So long as one man believes, and another remains unbelieving,-so long as one is resolved to keep his sins, and another desirous to give them up, the result of the preaching of the Gospel must needs be division. For this the Gospel is not to blame, but the heart of man.

There is deep truth in all this, which is constantly forgotten and overlooked. Many talk vaguely about unity, and harmony, and peace in the Church of Christ, as if they were things that we ought always to expect, and for the sake of which everything ought to be sacrificed. Such persons would do well to remember the words of our Lord. No doubt unity and peace are mighty blessings. We ought to seek them, pray for them, and give up everything in order to obtain them, excepting truth and a good conscience. But it is an idle dream to suppose that the churches of Christ will enjoy much of unity and peace before the millennium comes.

In the second place, our Lord tells us that true Christians must make up their minds to trouble in this world. Whether we are ministers or hearers, whether we teach or are taught, it makes little difference. We must carry “a cross.” We must be content to lose even life itself for Christ’s sake. We must submit to the loss of man’s favor, we must endure hardships, we must deny ourselves in many things, or we shall never reach heaven at last. So long as the world, the devil, and our own hearts, are what they are, these things must be so.

We shall find it most useful to remember this lesson ourselves, and to impress it upon others. Few things do so much harm in religion as exaggerated expectations. People look for a degree of worldly comfort in Christ’s service, which they have no right to expect, and not finding what they look for, are tempted to give up religion in disgust. Happy is he who thoroughly understands, that though Christianity holds out a crown in the end, it brings also a cross in the way.

In the last place, our Lord cheers us by saying that the least service done to those who work in His cause is observed and rewarded of God. He that gives a believer so little as “a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple shall in no wise lose his reward.”

There is something very beautiful in this promise. It teaches us that the eyes of the great Master are ever upon those who labor for him, and try to do good. They seem perhaps to work on unnoticed and unregarded. The proceedings of preachers, and missionaries, and teachers, and visitors of the poor, may appear very trifling and insignificant, compared to the movements of kings and parliaments, of armies and of statesmen. But they are not insignificant in the eyes of God. He takes notice who opposes His servants, and who helps them. He observes who is kind to them, as Lydia was to Paul,-and who throws difficulties in their way, as Diotrephes did to John. All their daily experience is recorded, as they labor on in His harvest. All is written down in the great book of His remembrance, and will be brought to light at the last day. The chief butler forgat Joseph, when he was restored to his place. But the Lord Jesus never forgets any of His people. He will say to many who little expect it, in the resurrection morning, “I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.” (Mat 25:35.)

Let us ask ourselves, as we close the chapter, in what light we regard Christ’s work and Christ’s cause in the world? Are we helpers of it, or hinderers? Do we in any wise aid the Lord’s “prophets,” and “righteous men”? Do we assist His “little ones”? Do we impede His laborers, or do we cheer them on?-These are serious questions. They do well and wisely who give the “cup of cold water,” whenever they have opportunity. They do better still who work actively in the Lord’s vineyard. May we all strive to leave the world a better world than it was when we were born! This is to have the mind of Christ. This is to find out the value of the lessons this wonderful chapter contains.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Mat 10:34. Think not, as you naturally might.

To send (lit, cast) peace on the earth. The immediate result (and purpose, too, since with God and Christ results are all purposes) was not peace, by external means.

I came not to send peace, but a sword. He was revealed that He might destroy the works of the devil (1Jn 3:8); the inevitable result of His coming into a world lying under the wicked one, is strife. There is probably an allusion to His own sufferings and death, more fully brought out in Mat 10:38. He gave up His own life to the sword He sent. Yet the sword which Christ sends brings true peace, while the false peace, which men expect (think not), brings in eternal warfare. The peace on earth of which the angels sang (Luk 2:14) is not earthly peace, but Gods peace among Gods chosen ones.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

We must distinguish here betwixt the intentional aim of Christ’s coming, and the accidental event of it. His intentional aim was to propagate and promote peace in the world; but through the corruption of man’s nature, the accidental event of his coming is war and division: not that these are the genuine and natural fruits of the gospel, but occasional and accidental only.

Note, That the preaching of the gospel, and setting up the kingdom of Christ in the world, though it be not the natural cause, yet it is the accidental occasion, of much of that war and tumult, of much of that distraction and confusion, which the world abounds with.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 10:34-36. Think not that I am come, &c. As if he had said, Because the prophets have spoken glorious things of the peace and happiness of the world under the reign of the Messiah, whom they have named, for that reason, the Prince of peace, you may imagine that I am come to put the world into that happy state forthwith; and that universal peace will be the immediate consequence of my coming. But this is far from being the case; for, though the nature of my government be such as might produce abundant felicity, inasmuch as my religion breathes nothing but love, men will not lay aside their animosity, nor will they exercise a mutual friendship among themselves as soon as the gospel is preached to them. No; such is their wickedness, that they will make the gospel itself an occasion of such bitter dissensions that it will look as if I had not come to send peace, but a sword among men. For, as I told you before, the nearest relations shall quarrel among themselves, and both public and private divisions will follow wheresoever my gospel comes with power. Yet, observe well, reader, this is not the design, though it be the event of his coming, through the opposition of devils and men to his truth and the blessed effects of it. And a mans foes The foes of a man that is converted to my religion, and loves and follows me, shall be they of his own household Persons of his own family, or such as are nearly related to him.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mat 10:34-36. Family Feuds (Luk 12:51-53), cf. Mat 10:21 supra.Family and social strife is a portent of the end in apocalyptic literature (cf. the mission of Elijah, Mal 4:5 f.). So the Rabbis interpreted Mic 7:6. History, both in the early Church and on the modern mission field, has abundantly illustrated the sad truth of the saying.

Mat 10:36 was Jesus own experience (Mar 3:21). Lk. rightly interprets sword (Mat 10:34) as division.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

10:34 {8} Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

(8) Civil dissentions follow the preaching of the gospel.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus meant that His immediate purpose would entail conflict even though Messiah would ultimately bring peace (Isaiah 11; Luk 2:14). People would divide over whether Jesus was the Messiah.

Mic 7:6 refers to rebellion that happened during King Ahaz’s reign. It pointed to a greater division in Jesus’ day. In both cases the root of the conflict involved righteousness and unrighteousness.

"Feud between members of a family is also mentioned in the Talmud as a sign of the coming of the Messianic age." [Note: Montefiore, The Synoptic . . ., 2:152.]

Jesus presented the consequences of His coming as though they were His purpose in coming. He came to bring this kind of conflict only in an indirect sense. By expressing Himself this way Jesus demonstrated His Christological and eschatological awareness. These conditions will prevail before Jesus’ second coming too.

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