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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 10:5

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These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into [any] city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

5. Go not into the way of the Gentiles ] For the expression “way of the Gentiles” cp. ch. Mat 4:15, “the way of the sea.”

This prohibition is not laid on the Seventy (St Luk 10:1-16), they are expressly commissioned to carry tidings of the gospel to cities and places which our Lord Himself proposed to visit.

any city of the Samaritans ] The Samaritans were foreigners descended from the alien population introduced by the Assyrian king (probably Sargon), 2Ki 17:24, to supply the place of the exiled Israelites. In Luk 17:18, our Lord calls a Samaritan “this stranger,” i. e. this man of alien or foreign race. The bitterest hostility existed between Jew and Samaritan, which has not died out to this day. The origin of this international ill-feeling is related Ezr 4:2-3. Their religion was a corrupt form of Judaism. For being plagued with lions, the Samaritans summoned a priest to instruct them in the religion of the Jews. Soon, however, they lapsed from a pure worship, and in consequence of their hatred to the Jews, purposely introduced certain innovations. Their rival temple on Mount Gerizim was destroyed by John Hyrcanus about 129 b. c. See Nutt’s “ Sketch of the Samaritans,” p. 19.

About twenty years previous to our Lord’s ministry the Samaritans had intensified the national antipathy by a gross act of profanation. During the celebration of the Passover they stole into the Temple Courts when the doors were opened after midnight and strewed the sacred enclosure with dead men’s bones (Jos. Ant. XVIII. 2, 2). Even after the siege of Jerusalem, when the relations between Jews and Samaritans were a little less hostile, the latter were still designated by the Jews as the “Proselytes of the lions,” from the circumstance mentioned above.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5 42. Christ’s Charge to the Apostles

This discourse falls naturally into two divisions; of which the first ( Mat 10:5-15) has reference to the immediate present, the second relates rather to the church of the future. The subdivisions of the first part are: (1) Their mission field, 5, 6. (2) Their words and works, 7, 8. (3) Their equipment, 9, 10. (4) Their approach to cities and houses, 11 15.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Into the way of the Gentiles – That is, among the Gentiles, or nowhere but among the Jews. The full time for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles was not come. It was proper that it should be first preached to the Jews, the ancient covenant people of God, and the people among whom the Messiah was born. Afterward he gave them a charge to go into all the world, Mat 28:19.

And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not – The Samaritans occupied the country formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh. This region was situated between Jerusalem and Galilee; so that in passing from the one to the other, it was a direct course to pass through Samaria. The capital of the country was Samaria, formerly a large and splendid city. It was situated about 15 miles to the northwest of the city of Shechem or Sychar (see the notes at Joh 4:5), and about 40 miles to the north of Jerusalem. For a description of this city, see the notes at Isa 28:1. Sychar or Shechem was also a city within the limits of Samaria.

This people was formerly composed of a few of the ten tribes and a mixture of foreigners. When the ten tribes were carried away into captivity to Babylon, the King of Assyria sent people from Cutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim to inhabit their country, 2Ki 17:24; Ezr 4:2-11. These people at first worshipped the idols of their own nations; but, being troubled with lions, which had increased greatly while the country remained uninhabited, they supposed it was because they had not honored the God of the country. A Jewish priest was therefore sent to them from Babylon to instruct them in the Jewish religion. They were instructed partially from the books of Moses, but still retained many of their old rites and idolatrous customs, and embraced a religion made up of Judaism and idolatry, 2Ki 17:26-28.

The grounds of difference between the two nations were the following:

1. The Jews, after their return from Babylon, set about rebuilding their temple. The Samaritans offered to aid them. The Jews, however, perceiving that it was not from a love of true religion, but that they might obtain a part of the favors granted to the Jews by Cyrus, rejected their offer. The consequence was, that a stare of long and bitter animosity arose between them and the Jews.

2. While Nehemiah was engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem, the Samaritans used every art to thwart him in his undertaking, Neh 6:1-14.

3. The Samaritans at length obtained leave of the Persian monarch to build a temple for themselves. This was erected on Mount Gerizim, and they strenuously contended that that was the place designated by Moses as the place where the nation should worship. Sanballat, the leader of the Samaritans, constituted his son-in-law, Manasses, high priest. The religion of the Samaritans thus became perpetuated, and an irreconcilable hatred arose between them and the Jews. See the notes at Joh 4:20.

4. Afterward Samaria became a place of resort for all the outlaws of Judea. They received willingly all the Jewish criminals and refugees from justice. The violators of the Jewish laws, and those who had been excommunicated, betook themselves for safety to Samaria, and greatly increased their numbers and the hatred which subsisted between the two nations.

5. The Samaritans received only the five books of Moses, and rejected the writings of the prophets and all the Jewish traditions. From these causes arose an irreconcilable difference between them, so that the Jews regarded them as the worst of the human race Joh 8:48, and had no dealings with them, Joh 4:9.

Our Saviour, however, preached the gospel to them afterward John 4:6-26, and the apostles imitated his example, Act 8:25. The gospel was, however, first preached to the Jews.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 10:5

These twelve Jesus sent forth.

Unrecorded workers and heroes

Half of these twelve are never heard of again as doing any work for Christ. That fact may suggest some considerations worth pondering.

I. This peculiar and unexpected silence suggests the true worker in the churchs progress. Let us not over-estimate men. What confidence it ought to give us as we think of the tasks and fortunes of the Church!

II. Suggests what the real work of those delegated workers was.

III. How often faithful work is unrecorded and forgotten.

IV. Forgotten work is remembered, and unrecorded names are recorded above. (Dr. A. Maclaren.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded] To be properly qualified for a minister of Christ, a man must be,

1. filled with the spirit of holiness;

2. called to this particular work;

3. instructed in its nature, c. and,

4. commissioned to go forth, and testify the Gospel of the grace of God.

These are four different gifts which a man must receive from God by Christ Jesus. To these let him add all the human qualifications he can possibly attain; as in his arduous work he will require every gift and every grace.

Go not into the way of the Gentiles] Our Lord only intended that the first offers of salvation should be made to the Jewish people; and that the heathen should not be noticed in this first mission, that no stumbling-block might be cast in the way of the Jews.

Into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not] The Samaritans had afterwards the Gospel preached to them by Christ himself, Joh 4:4, c., for the reason assigned above. Such as God seems at first to pass by are often those for whom he has designed his greatest benefits, (witness the Samaritans, and the Gentiles in general,) but he has his own proper time to discover and reveal them.

The history of the Samaritans is sufficiently known from the Old Testament. Properly speaking, the inhabitants of the city of Samaria should be termed Samaritans but this epithet belongs chiefly to the people sent into that part of the promised land by Salmanezer, king of Assyria, in the year of the world 3283, when he carried the Israelites that dwelt there captives beyond the Euphrates, and sent a mixed people, principally Cuthites, to dwell in their place. These were altogether heathens at first; but they afterwards incorporated the worship of the true God with that of their idols. See the whole account, 2Kg 17:5, c. From this time they feared Jehovah, and served other gods till after the Babylonish captivity. From Alexander the Great, Sanballat, their governor, obtained permission to build a temple upon Mount Gerizim, which the Jews conceiving to be in opposition to their temple at Jerusalem, hated them with a perfect hatred, and would have no fellowship with them. The Samaritans acknowledge the Divine authority of the law of Moses, and carefully preserve it in their own characters, which are probably the genuine ancient Hebrew the character which is now called Hebrew being that of the Chaldeans. The Samaritan Pentateuch is printed in the London Polyglott, and is an undeniable record. A poor remnant of this people is found still at Naplouse, the ancient Shechem; but they exist in a state of very great poverty and distress, and probably will soon become extinct.

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

Here Christ limiteth their ministry to the Jews. The apostle tells us, Rom 15:8, Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to conform the promises made unto the fathers; and the apostle tells the Jews, Act 13:46, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. Therefore in this his first mission, he restrains his apostles from going to the Gentiles, to whom they had afterwards a commission to go, Mat 28:19, and did go, but not before the Jews had judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, Act 13:46, by rejecting and blaspheming the gospel, and persecuting the ministers of it. They are also commanded not to go

into any city of the Samaritans. The Samaritans were partly Jews apostatized, and partly heathens, descended from those whom the king of Syria sent thither, when the ten tribes were carried into captivity, 2Ki 17:6, and from some Jews left in the land. You shall read of their religion there, 2Ki 17:31-41. They were perfectly hated by the Jews, and as perfect haters of them, as may be gathered from Luk 9:52,53; Jo 4:9. Our Lord, partly in regard they also were no better than Gentiles, and so hated as they were of the Jews, would not suffer these his first ministers to go and preach amongst them. Not that they were forbidden (if some particular persons, whether Gentiles or Samaritans, came to them) to preach to them, but only not to make it their work to go into their country or cities; the time was not yet come for this great light to shine upon the Gentiles.

But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. By Israel he here meaneth the two tribes that clave to the house of David, for the ten tribes ever since their captivity (2Ki 17:6) had lost their share in that name. He calls them lost sheep in the sense that Jeremiah speaks, Jer 1:6, My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray. So that lost sheep here signifies wandering sheep, for want of proper guides. The Jews at this time had miserable teachers, so as they wandered as lost sheep. And this comporteth with what we had in the last verses of the former chapter. There was a great harvest and but few labourers; he is therefore providing them labourers, shepherds that should gather those scattered sheep into one fold.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. These twelve Jesus sent forth,and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, andinto any city of the Samaritans enter ye notThe Samaritanswere Gentiles by blood; but being the descendants of those whom theking of Assyria had transported from the East to supply the place ofthe ten tribes carried captive, they had adopted the religion of theJews, though with admixtures of their own: and, as the nearestneighbors of the Jews, they occupied a place intermediate betweenthem and the Gentiles. Accordingly, when this prohibition was to betaken off, on the effusion of the Spirit at Pentecost, the apostleswere told that they should be Christ’s witnesses first “inJerusalem, and in all Judea,” then “in Samaria,” andlastly, “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Ac1:8).

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

These twelve Jesus sent forth,…. And no other but them, under the character of apostles. These had been with him a considerable time, to whom he had been gradually communicating spiritual knowledge; and by the benefit of private conference with him, and the observation they had made upon his doctrine and conduct, were greatly qualified for public usefulness: wherefore he gives them a commission, furnishes them with power and authority; and sends them forth from him by pairs, that they might be assisting to one another, and bear a joint testimony to the Gospel they preached; but before he sent them forth from his presence, he gave them some directions where they should go, and to whom they should minister, and where not:

and he commanded them, as their Lord and Master; he gave them strict orders, which he expected them to comply with, and closely enjoined them, as they must answer it to him again,

saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles; meaning, not the customs’ and manners of the Heathens, they were to avoid; but that they were not to steer their course, or take their journey towards them: they were not, as yet, to go among them, and preach the Gospel to them; the calling of the Gentiles was not a matter, as yet, so clearly revealed and known, nor was the time of their calling come: besides it was the will of God, that the Gospel should be first preached to the Jews, to take off all excuse from them, and that their obstinacy and perverseness in rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, might manifestly appear; and since Christ himself was the minister of the circumcision, he would have his apostles, for the present, whilst he was on earth, act agreeably to the character he bore, that there might be an entire harmony in their conduct.

And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: the word “any” is supplied, and that very rightly; for, not the city of Samaria, the metropolis of that country, as the Arabic version reads it, is only meant, but any, and every city of the Samaritans: not that it was strictly unlawful and criminal to go thither; for he himself went into one of their cities, and so did his apostles, Joh 4:4 Lu 9:52 and after his death preached the Gospel there; but he judged it not proper and expedient at this time, and as yet, to do it; that is, not before their preaching it to the Jews; for there was a very great hatred subsisting between the Jews, and the Samaritans, insomuch that they had no conversation with each other in things civil or religious. The Samaritans, though they boasted of their descent from Jacob, were a mongrel sort of people, partly Jews, and partly Gentiles, a mixture of both; and therefore are distinguished from both and though they had, and held the law, and five books of Moses, yet corrupted them in many places, to serve their purpose, and countenance their religion, particularly their worshipping at Mount Gerizim; on which account they were looked upon by the Jews as apostates, idolaters, and even as Heathens f, and are therefore here joined with them; and to shun giving offence to the Jews, seems to be the reason of this prohibition; see Gill “Joh 4:20”.

f T. Hieros. Shekelim, fol. 46. 2. Bartenora in Misn. Taharot, c. 5. sect. 8.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Instructions to the Apostles.

5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, 10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. 11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. 12 And when ye come into a house, salute it. 13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. 15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.

We have here the instructions that Christ gave to his disciples, when he gave them their commission. Whether this charge was given them in a continued discourse, or the several articles of it hinted to them at several times, is not material; in this he commanded them. Jacob’s blessing his sons, is called his commanding them, and with these commands Christ commanded a blessing. Observe,

I. The people to whom he sent them. These ambassadors are directed what places to go to.

1. Not to the Gentiles nor the Samaritans. They must not go into the way of the Gentiles, nor into any road out of the land of Israel, whatever temptations they might have. The Gentiles must not have the gospel brought them, till the Jews have first refused it. As to the Samaritans, who were the posterity of the mongrel people that the king of Assyria planted about Samaria, their country lay between Judea and Galilee, so that they could not avoid going into the way of the Samaritans, but they must not enter into any of their cities. Christ had declined manifesting himself to the Gentiles or Samaritans, and therefore the apostles must not preach to them. If the gospel be hid from any place, Christ thereby hides himself from that place. This restraint was upon them only in their first mission, afterwards they were appointed to go into all the world, and teach all nations.

2. But to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. To them Christ appropriated his own ministry (ch. xv. 24), for he was a minister of the circumcision (Rom. xv. 8): and, therefore, to them the apostles, who were but his attendants and agents, must be confined. The first offer of salvation must be made to the Jews, Acts iii. 26. Note, Christ had a particular and very tender concern for the house of Israel; they were beloved for the fathers’ sakes, Rom. xi. 28. He looked with compassion upon them as lost sheep, whom he, as a shepherd, was to gather out of the by-paths of sin and error, into which they were gone astray, and in which, if not brought back, they would wander endlessly; see Jer. ii. 6. The Gentiles also had been as lost sheep, 1 Pet. ii. 25. Christ gives this description of those to whom they were sent, to quicken them to diligence in their work, they were sent to the house of Israel (of which number they themselves lately were), whom they could not but pity, and be desirous to help.

II. The preaching work which he appointed them. He did not send them forth without an errand; no, As ye go, preach, v. 7. They were to be itinerant preachers: wherever they come they must proclaim the beginning of the gospel, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Not that they must say nothing else, but this must be their text; on this subject they must enlarge: let people know, that the kingdom of the Messiah, who is the Lord from heaven, is now to be set up according to the scriptures; from whence it follows, that men must repent of their sins and forsake them, that they might be admitted to the privileges of that kingdom. It is said (Mark vi. 12), they went out, and preached that men should repent; which was the proper use and application of this doctrine, concerning the approach of the kingdom of heaven. They must, therefore, expect to hear more of this long-looked-for Messiah shortly, and must be ready to receive his doctrine, to believe in him, and to submit to his yoke. The preaching of this was like the morning light, to give notice of the approach of the rising sun. How unlike was this to the preaching of Jonah, which proclaimed ruin at hand! Jonah iii. 4. This proclaims salvation at hand, nigh them that fear God; mercy and truth meet together (Psa 85:9; Psa 85:10), that is, the kingdom of heaven at hand: not so much the personal presence of the king; that must not be doated upon; but a spiritual kingdom which is to be set up, when his bodily presence is removed, in the hearts of men.

Now this was the same that John the Baptist and Christ had preached before. Note, People need to have good truths pressed again and again upon them, and if they be preached and heard with new affections, they are as if they were fresh to us. Christ, in the gospel, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, Heb. xiii. 8. Afterwards, indeed, when the Spirit was poured out, and the Christian church was formed, this kingdom of heaven came, which was now spoken of as at hand; but the kingdom of heaven must still be the subject of our preaching: now it is come, we must tell people it is come to them, and must lay before them the precepts and privileges of it; and there is a kingdom of glory yet to come, which we must speak of as at hand, and quicken people to diligence from the consideration of that.

III. The power he gave them to work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrine, v. 8. When he sent them to preach the same doctrine that he had preached, he empowered them to confirm it, by the same divine seals, which could never be set to a lie. This is not necessary now the kingdom of God is come; to call for miracles now is to lay again the foundation when the building is reared. The point being settled, and the doctrine of Christ sufficiently attested, by the miracles which Christ and his apostles wrought, it is tempting God to ask for more signs. They are directed here,

1. To use their power in doing good: not “Go and remove mountains,” or “fetch fire from heaven,” but, Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers. They are sent abroad as public blessings, to intimate to the world, that love and goodness were the spirit and genius of that gospel which they came to preach, and of that kingdom which they were employed to set up. By this it would appear, that they were the servants of that God who is good and does good, and whose mercy is over all his works; and that the intention of the doctrine they preached, was to heal sick souls, and to raise those that were dead in sin; and therefore, perhaps, that of raising the dead is mentioned; for though we read not of their raising any to life before the resurrection of Christ, yet they were instrumental to raise many to spiritual life.

2. In doing good freely; Freely ye heave received, freely give. Those that had power to heal all diseases, had an opportunity to enrich themselves; who would not purchase such easy certain cures at any rate? Therefore they are cautioned not to make a gain of the power they had to work miracles: they must cure gratis, further to exemplify the nature and complexion of the gospel kingdom, which is made up, not only of grace, but of free grace. Gratia gratis data (Rom. iii. 24), freely by his grace, Buy medicines without money, and without price, Isa. lv. 1. And the reason is, because freely you have received. Their power to heal the sick cost them nothing, and, therefore, they must not make any secular advantage to themselves of it. Simon Magus would not have offered money for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, if he had not hoped to get money by them; Acts viii. 18. Note, The consideration of Christ’s freeness in doing good to us, should make us free in doing good to others.

IV. The provision that must be made for them in this expedition; it is a thing to be considered in sending an ambassador, who must bear the charge of the embassy. As to that,

1. They must make no provision for it themselves, Mat 10:9; Mat 10:10. Provide neither gold nor silver. As, on the one hand, they shall not raise estates by their work, so, on the other hand, they shall not spend what little they have of their own upon it. This was confined to the present mission, and Christ would teach them, (1.) To act under the conduct of human prudence. They were now to make but a short excursion, and were soon to return to their Master, and to their head-quarters again, and, therefore, why should they burthen themselves with that which they would have no occasion for? (2.) To act in dependence upon Divine Providence. They must be taught to live, without taking thought for life, ch. vi. 25, c. Note, They who go upon Christ’s errand, have, of all people, most reason to trust him for food convenient. Doubtless he will not be wanting to those that are working for him. Those whom he employs, as they are taken under special protection, so they are entitled to special provisions. Christ’s hired servants shall have bread enough and to spare while we abide faithful to God and our duty, and are in care to do our work well, we may cast all our other care upon God; Jehovah-jireh, let the Lord provide for us and ours as he thinks fit.

2. They might expect that those to whom they were sent would provide for them what was necessary, v. 10. The workman is worthy of his meat. They must not expect to be fed by miracles, as Elijah was: but they might depend upon God to incline the hearts of those they went among, to be kind to them, and provide for them. Though they who serve at the altar may not expect to grow rich by the altar, yet they may expect to live, and to live comfortably upon it, 1Co 9:13; 1Co 9:14. It is fit they should have their maintenance from their work. Ministers are, and must be, workmen, labourers, and they that are so are worthy of their meat, so as not to be forced to any other labour for the earning of it. Christ would have his disciples, as not to distrust their God, so not to distrust their countrymen, so far as to doubt of a comfortable subsistence among them. If you preach to them, and endeavour to do good among them, surely they will give you meat and drink enough for your necessities: and if they do, never desire dainties; God will pay you your wages hereafter, and it will be running on in the mean time.

V. The proceedings they were to observe in dealing with any place, v. 11-15. They went abroad they knew not whither, uninvited, unexpected, knowing none, and known of none; the land of their nativity was to them a strange land; what rule must they go by? what course must they take? Christ would not send them out without full instructions, and here they are.

1. They are here directed how to conduct themselves toward those that were strangers to them; How to do,

(1.) In strange towns and cities: when you come to a town, enquire who in it is worthy. [1.] It is supposed that there were some such in every place, as were better disposed than others to receive the gospel, and the preachers of it; though it was a time of general corruption and apostasy. Note, In the worst of times and places, we may charitably hope that there are some who distinguish themselves, and are better than their neighbours; some who swim against the stream, and are as wheat among the chaff. There were saints in Nero’s household. Enquire who is worthy, who there are that have some fear of God before their eyes, and have made a good improvement of the light and knowledge they have. The best are far from meriting the favour of a gospel offer; but some would be more likely than others to give the apostles and their message a favourable entertainment, and would not trample these pearls under their feet. Note, Previous dispositions to that which is good, are both directions and encouragements to ministers, in dealing with people. There is most hope of the word being profitable to those who are already so well inclined, as that it is acceptable to them; and there is here and there one such. [2.] They must enquire out such; not enquire for the best inns; public houses were no proper places for them that neither took money with them (v. 9), nor expected to receive any (v. 8); but they must look out for accommodations in private houses, with those that would entertain them well, and expect no other recompence for it but a prophet’s reward, an apostle’s reward, their praying and preaching. Note, They that entertain the gospel, must neither grudge the expense of it, nor promise themselves to get by it in this world. They must enquire, not who is rich, but who is worthy; not who is the best gentleman, but who is the best man. Note, Christ’s disciples, wherever they come, should ask for the good people of the place, and be acquainted with them; when we took God for our God, we took his people for our people, and like will rejoice in its like. Paul in all his travels found out the brethren, if there were any, Acts xxviii. 14. It is implied, that if they did enquire who was worthy, they might discover them. They that were better than their neighbours would be taken notice of, and any one could tell them, there lives an honest, sober, good man; for this is a character which, like the ointment of the right hand, betrays itself and fills the house with its odours. Every body knew where the seer’s house was, 1 Sam. ix. 18. [3.] In the house of those they found worthy, they must continue; which intimates that they were to make so short a stay at each town, that they needed not change their lodging, but whatever house providence brought them to at first, there they must continue till they left that town. They are justly suspected, as having no good design, that are often changing their quarters. Note, It becomes the disciples of Christ to make the best of that which is, to abide by it, and not be for shifting upon every dislike or inconvenience.

(2.) In strange houses. When they had found the house of one they thought worthy, they must at their entrance salute it. “In those common civilities, be beforehand with people, in token of your humility. Think it not a disparagement, to invite yourselves into a house, nor stand upon the punctilio of being invited. Salute the family, [1.] To draw on further discourse, and so to introduce your message.” (From matters of common conversation, we may insensibly pass into that communication which is good to the use of edifying.) [2.] “To try whether you are welcome or not; you will take notice whether the salutation be received with shyness and coldness, or with a ready return. He that will not receive your salutation kindly, will not receive your message kindly; for he that is unskilful and unfaithful in a little, will also be in much, Luke xvi. 10. [3.] To insinuate yourselves into their good opinion. Salute the family, that they may see that though you are serious, you are not morose.” Note, Religion teaches us to be courteous and civil, and obliging to all with whom we have to do. Though the apostles went out backed with the authority of the Son of God himself, yet their instructions were, when they came into a house, not to command it, but to salute it; for love’s sake rather to beseech, is the evangelical way, Phm 1:8; Phm 1:9. Souls are first drawn to Christ with the cords of a man, and kept to him by the bands of love, Hos. xi. 4. When Peter made the first offer of the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile, Peter was first saluted; see Acts x. 25, for the Gentiles courted that which the Jews were courted to.

When they had saluted the family after a godly sort, they must by the return, judge concerning the family, and proceed accordingly. Note, The eye of God is upon us, to observe what entertainment we give to good people and good ministers; if the house be worthy, let your peace come and rest upon it; if not, let it return to you, v. 13. It seems then, that after they had enquired for the most worthy (v. 11), it was possible they might light upon those that were unworthy. Note, Though it is wisdom to hearken to, yet it is folly to rely upon, common report and opinion; we ought to use a judgment of discretion, and to see with our own eyes. The wisdom of the prudent is himself to understand his own way. Now this rule is intended,

First, For satisfaction to the apostles. The common salutation was, Peace be unto you; this, as they used it, was turned into gospel; it was the peace of God, the peace of the kingdom of heaven, that they wished. Now lest they should make a scruple of pronouncing this blessing upon all promiscuously, because many were utterly unworthy of it, this is to clear them of that scruple; Christ tells them that this gospel prayer (for so it was now become) should be put up for all, as the gospel proffer was made to all indefinitely, and that they should leave it to God who knows the heart, and every man’s true character, to determine the issue of it. If the house be worthy, it will reap the benefit of your blessing; if now, there is no harm done, you will not lose the benefit of it; it shall return to you, as David’s prayers for his ungrateful enemies did, Ps. xxxv. 13. Note, It becomes us to judge charitably of all, to pray heartily for all, and to conduct ourselves courteously to all, for that is our part, and then to leave it with God to determine what effect it shall have upon them, for that is his part.

Secondly, For direction to them. “If, upon your salutation, it appear that they are indeed worthy, let them have more of your company, and so let your peace come upon them; preach the gospel to them, peace by Jesus Christ; but if otherwise, if they carry it rudely to you, and shut their doors against you, let your peace, as much as in you lies, return to you. Retract what you have said, and turn your backs upon them; by slighting this, they have made themselves unworthy of the rest of your favours, and cut themselves short of them.” Note, Great blessings are often lost by a neglect seemingly small and inconsiderable, when men are in their probation and upon their behaviour. Thus Esau lost his birthright (Gen. xxv. 34), and Saul his kingdom, 1Sa 13:13; 1Sa 13:14.

2. They are here directed how to carry it towards those that were refusers of them. The case is put (v. 14) of those that would not receive them, nor hear their words. The apostles might think, that now they had such a doctrine to preach, and such a power to work miracles for the confirmation of it, no doubt but they should be universally entertained and made welcome: they are, therefore, told before, that there would be those that would slight them, and put contempt on them and their message. Note, The best and most powerful preachers of the gospel must expect to meet with some, that will not so much as give them the hearing, nor show them any token of respect. Many turn a deaf ear, even to the joyful sound, and will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charm they never so wisely. Observe, “They will not receive you, and they will not hear your words.” Note, Contempt of the gospel, and contempt of gospel ministers, commonly go together, and they will either of them be construed into a contempt of Christ, and will be reckoned for accordingly.

Now in this case we have here,

(1.) The directions given to the apostles what to do. They must depart out of that house or city. Note, The gospel will not tarry long with those that put it away from them. At their departure they must shake off the dust of their feet, [1.] In detestation of their wickedness; it was so abominable, that it did even pollute the ground they went upon, which must therefore be shaken off as a filthy thing. The apostles must have no fellowship nor communion with them; must not so much as carry away the dust of their city with them. The work of them that turn aside shall not cleave to me, Ps. ci. 3. The prophet was not to eat or drink in Bethel, 1 Kings xiii. 9. [2.] As a denunciation of wrath against them. It was to signify, that they were base and vile as dust, and that God would shake them off. The dust of the apostles’ feet, which they left behind them, would witness against them, and be brought in as evidence, that the gospel had been preached to them, Mar 6:11; Jas 5:3. See this practised, Act 13:51; Act 18:6. Note, They who despise God and his gospel shall be lightly esteemed.

(2.) The doom passed upon such wilful recusants, v. 15. It shall be more tolerable, in the day of judgment, for the land of Sodom, as wicked a place as it was. Note, [1.] There is a day of judgment coming, when all those that refused the gospel will certainly be called to account for it; however they now make a jest of it. They that would not hear the doctrine that would save them, shall be made to hear the sentence that will ruin them. Their judgment is respited till that day. [2.] There are different degrees of punishment in that day. All the pains of hell will be intolerable; but some will be more so than others. Some sinners sink deeper into hell than others, and are beaten with more stripes. [3.] The condemnation of those that reject the gospel, will in that day be severer and heavier than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom is said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7. But that vengeance will come with an aggravation upon those that despise the great salvation. Sodom and Gomorrah were exceedingly wicked (Gen. xiii. 13), and that which filled up the measure of their iniquity was, that they received not the angels that were sent to them, but abused them (Gen 19:4; Gen 19:5), and hearkened not to their words, v. 14. And yet it will be more tolerable for them than for those who receive not Christ’s ministers and hearken not to their words. God’s wrath against them will be more flaming, and their own reflections upon themselves more cutting. Son, remember I will sound most dreadfully in the ears of such as had a fair offer made them of eternal life, and chose death rather. The iniquity of Israel, when God sent them his servants the prophets, is represented as, upon that account, more heinous than the iniquity of Sodom (Eze 16:48; Eze 16:49), much more now he sent them his Son, the great Prophet.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

These twelve Jesus sent forth ( ). The word “sent forth” () is the same root as “apostles.” The same word reappears in 10:16.

Way of the Gentiles ( ). Objective genitive, way leading to the Gentiles. This prohibition against going among the Gentiles and the Samaritans was for this special tour. They were to give the Jews the first opportunity and not to prejudice the cause at this stage. Later Jesus will order them to go and disciple all the Gentiles (Mt 28:19).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Judas Iscariot [ ] . The article distinguishes him from others of the name of Judas (compare Joh 14:22). Iscariot is usually explained as a compound, meaning the man of Kerioth, with reference to his native town, which is given in Joshua (xv. 25) as one of the uttermost cities of Judah toward the coast of Edom southward.

In the four catalogues of the apostles (here; Mr 3:16; Luk 6:14; Act 1:13) Simon Peter always stands first. Here expressly; “first Simon.” Notice that Matthew names them in pairs, and compare Mr 6:7, “sent them forth two and two.” The arrangement of the different lists varies; but throughout, Peter is the leader of the first four, Philip of the second, and James, son of Alphaeus, of the third.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “These twelve Jesus sent forth,” (toutous tous dodeka. apeseilen ho lesous) “These (are) the twelve (that) Jesus sent forth, commissioned or mandated;” These twelve had been formerly chosen and instructed and were now sent forth to bear the spirit and teachings of their Master.

2) “And commanded them, saying,” (parageilas autois legon) “Giving them a charge, saying,” directed them as follows: Chosen men are directed to help needy men in the Master’s mission. A few are specially called, to call the many, the masses. Is one of every twelve of the ordained a deceiver or demon possessed?

3) “Go not Into the way of the Gentiles,” (eis hodon ethnon me apelthete) “You all go not into the way of the nations or Gentiles;” This restriction is recounted by Matthew only. One’s first priority for God is to know (negatively) where not to go, and second, positively, where to go.

4) “And Into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:” (kai eis polin Samariton me eiselthete) “And do not enter into a (any) city of the Samaritans;” For the time had not come to preach to the Gentiles or Samaritans, but restrictedly to the Jews, or Israel, only, Luk 10:1-11; 2 Kings 17-24; Joh 4:5; Joh 4:9; Joh 4:20.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

5. Into the tray of the Gentiles This makes still more evident what I have lately hinted, that the office, which was then bestowed on the apostles, had no other object than to awaken in the Jews the hope of an approaching salvation, and thus to render them more attentive to hear Christ. On this account, he now confines within the limits of Judea their voice, which he afterwards commands to sound everywhere to the farthest limits of the world. The reason is, that he had been sent by the Father to be

the minister of circumcision, to fulfill the promises, which had anciently been given to the fathers, (Rom 15:8.)

Now God had entered into a special covenant with the family of Abraham, and therefore Christ acted properly in confining the grace of God, at the outset, to the chosen people, till the time for publishing it were fully come. But after his resurrection, he spread over all nations the blessing which had been promised in the second place, because then the veil of the temple had been rent, (Mat 27:51,) and the middle wall of partition had been thrown down, (Eph 2:14.) If any one imagine that this prohibition is unkind, because Christ does not admit the Gentiles to the enjoyment of the gospel, let him contend with God, who, to the exclusion of the rest of the world, established with the seed of Abraham alone his covenant, on which the command of Christ is founded.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

Section 23

JESUS COMMISSIONS TWELVE APOSTLES TO EVANGELIZE GALILEE

II. JESUS INSTRUCTS AND CHARGES THE TWELVE HOW THEY ARE TO PROCEED

(Parallels; Mar. 6:8-11; Luk. 9:2-5)

TEXT: 10:515
A. THEIR WORDS AND WORKS

(Mat. 10:5-8; Luk. 9:2)

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans:

but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

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

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give.

B. THEIR EQUIPMENT AND CONDUCT

(Mat. 10:9-15; Mar. 6:8-11; Luk. 9:3-5)

Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses;

10.

no wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food.

11.

And into whatsoever city or village ye shall enter, search out who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go forth.

12.

And as ye enter into the house, salute it.

13.

And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.

14.

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, as ye go forth out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your feet.

15.

Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

What do you see are the differences between the first commission of the twelve and the so-called Great Commission? (Mat. 28:19-20)

Was all of Matthew 10 applicable to the first commission? Or was Matthew summarizing in this one place material from other commissions that properly applied to their own setting?

Is any of Matthew 10 intended for today? If so, what portion(s)? If not, why not?

Why do you suppose Matthew connects the names of the Apostles (Mat. 10:2-4) with the commission which follows, using the phrase These twelve Jesus sent forth . . .? Who were these twelve men socially, religiously, politically? What did they amount to? Who had ever heard of them?

If it be true that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, in his own house and among his own kin, why then did Jesus deliberately send these practically unknown Galilean Apostles to labor in their own country and among their own people? What could possibly be gained by this tactic? Could not Jesus foresee that the Galileans would possibly refuse and reject His Apostles as Nazareth rejected Him because they thought they knew too much to accept them?

Why would Jesus, the Savior of all mankind, send His Apostles only to evangelize Israel? Did Jesus not care for the Samaritans or Gentiles? But Jesus deliberately limited the Apostles ministry to Jews. How can you justify this apparently blatant nationalism in Jesus practice?

Why does Jesus call His own people lost sheep? What was there about the Jewish people that caused them to fit this apt description?

Why did Jesus empower His Apostles to work miracles? How could that help Him to further His own ministry? Would there not be confusion created by six pairs of men going out doing the same works as Jesus? Which man would the multitudes know to follow if so many worked miracles and preached?

What great, purely Christian doctrine is wrapped up in the simple instruction: Freely you received, freely give?

If the Apostles were going to be travelling all over Galilee evangelizing why were they not going to need to take a lot of equipment and clothing along for their journey?

In what way(s) would it be more tolerable for great sinful cities of the past, than for a city that refused the Apostles and their message?

What is so important about staying at the home of one respected family during the Apostles stay in a town?

What is so important about not charging for the miracles the Apostles worked or for the messages they preached? What is the psychological principle behind this advice? In other words, why is this always good judgment, and properly applicable to Christian workers today?

Is it wrong for a preacher to receive wages? How do you know? Did not Jesus say: Freely you have received, so freely give?

How do you harmonize these two apparently contradictory statements: Freely give and The laborer is worthy of his food? Is not Jesus expecting His disciples to work without expecting wages, while yet expecting to be supported by the very people to whom they minister? Support or wages, what is the difference?

Did Jesus ever revoke His command to the Apostles to pursue their evangelistic labors lightly equipped? Would it be wrong for a missionary or evangelist today to purchase the most useful modern equipment he could effectively put to use to make the Gospel heard?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

These twelve Apostles Jesus sent out to evangelize Galilee, with these instructions: Do not go off to Gentile country and stay out of Samaritan towns. Concentrate on the lost sheep of Israel. Preach as you travel, announcing the arrival of Gods Kingdom. Heal the sick people, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast the demons out. What you have received without paying for it, give without charging for it.
Do not take a lot of unnecessary extra equipment on your journey. For example, you will not need a lot of silver and gold, no, not even copper coins, in your purse. You are not to take even one suitcase and no lunch. Take only the sandals on your feet and the tunic on your back. Do not even take a change of clothes, nor two pair of sandals nor an extra staff,one staff is enough. Why? The working man earns his upkeepyou work hard preaching for me and folks will take care of you!
Now, regardless of what town or village you come to, look for someone who is respected there. Make your home with him until you go on to the next town. When you stop at his house, wish the household peace. If the household deserves it, then the peace in your salutation shall come upon it. But if that house does not deserve your shalom, then your blessing of peace will return to you and leave when you do.
Now should anyone or any town not receive you or listen to your words, here is what you are to do: if they refuse to hear you, then when you leave that house or town, give them a visible demonstration of your fulfilled responsibility for trying to save them, by shaking the dust of their house or streets off your feet. I can tell you this: it will go easier on judgment day for the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town!

SUMMARY

The aforementioned Twelve were sent by Jesus to preach only to Jews in Galilee the message of the arrival of Gods Kingdom. They were to give the miraculous evidence of their authority, without charging for it. They were to travel light, depending upon good people to help them. If they were rejected they were to keep going. To reject them is to incur Gods punishment.

NOTES

I. A PARTICULAR ZONE FOR A PARTICULAR PERIOD (10:5, 6)

Mat. 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth. These twelve, taken as a phrase following immediately upon the heels of a precise list of the names of the men as well as after two specific references to the number twelve, becomes especially emphatic or is nothing but a clumsy redundancy. Why does our author express himself this way?

Matthew may be marveling at the comparative insignificance of these men Jesus chose, in contrast to the overwhelming importance of the task to which Jesus called them. These twelve? Who are they? Had the power clique of Judea (Annas, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate and company) glanced at the list of the makers of a new empire that would bring all other kingdoms, rule and authority to their knees before the Nazarene, they would have sneered, Who are these? Not a one of them in Whos Who! How can this Jesus expect to amount to anything, when Hes placing all His hopes on rabble like that? Imagine: not a rabbi among the whole lot! With quiet inner joy that can come only from knowing the power and victory possible in the Masters service, Matthew responds, Yes, just imagine Jesus using THESE twelveof all people! But it was this group that Jesus choseno others. He knew what He was about. He made the decision to use these nobodies to change the world.

Or it may be that Matthew, in connection with the context which his ninth chapter provides, intends to remind us here that these are the very men with whom Jesus had shared His vision, whom He had involved in a prayer campaign for workers. Morgan (Matthew, 102) has it:

Pray ye, is the first command; go ye is the next. The men who have learned to look with the eyes of Jesus until they feel with the heart of Jesus and who, out of such vision and such feeling, begin to pray, are more than half ready for the work of bringing in the harvest,

These twelve Jesus sent forth two by two, says Mark, This strategy has proven itself time and again by its sound psychology:

Maclaren (PHC, 246) challenges us to learn the good of companionship in Christian service, which solaces and checks excessive individuality and makes men brave. One and one is more than two, for each man is more than himself by the companionship.

The Jewish mentality toward the witness borne by anyone had trained people to expect the testimony of two men to be more weighty than that of one, even though the one were speaking the truth. (Cf. Jesus way of arguing in Joh. 8:16-18). So two Apostles, working together, could give more powerful convincing witness to the deeds and message of the Christ.

McGarvey (Fourfold Gospel, 363) adds, Different men reach different minds, and where one fails another may succeed.

And charged them, saying (paraggelas). This is a formal order, and especially imperative in light of the peculiar nature of the order given: Jesus had to be particularly clear in laying out the work for His men, since some of the things He would have to say contradicted the mens own view of themselves and of the work they must perform.

Go not into any way of the Gentiles and enter not into any city of the Samaritans. Barclay (Matthew, I, 372) points out the evidential value of this sentence: This saying is so unlike the mind of Jesus that no one could have invented it. He must have said it, and there must be some explanation. Its provocative character becomes immediately apparent when we think of Jesus as the universal Christ, for if there is a portion of the race for whom Jesus is not Lord, then He is not worthy of our ultimate consideration. For all of His great accomplishments, if His message is not for every man, then we may yet suspect that His Word is not final and we have yet someone else higher up with whom we shall have to do. Surprisingly, Jesus deliberately limits His men to Israelitish country.

But this is not latent nationalism or inadvertent parochialism in the program of Jesus. It is just common sense under the circumstances. How so?

The Gentiles had not been given 2500 years of thorough preparation under the Law and prophets as had the Jews. Therefore, they would not have been quite as ready to appreciate this final revelation God was giving through Jesus the Messiah, as would the Jews.

Were the Samaritans any better prepared? They retained their denominational form of Judaism, badly mixed with pagan ideas. (See encyclopedic articles on the Samaritans; also Butlers comment on Joh. 4:7-9 in the College Press series, p. 141.)

When one considers the strong Jewish prejudice against all that was non-Jewish, this expedient of limiting the Apostles ministry to the Jews at this time is just common sense, even though the Lord will later, under different circumstances, broaden even this commission. The time is not yet come when the Apostles own thinking is broad enough to comprehend a universal Gospel for the entire human race. And if the Apostles themselves had this difficulty, how much more scandalized would Jesus more distant followers be, were they to witness the shocking (to them) spectacle of a wholesale opening of the Kingdom of God to just anybodyeven Gentiles and Samaritans! (Study Act. 11:1-3) Jesus must yet disarm their prejudices as much as possible, while He makes this final appeal to the Galileans by means of this limited mission of the Twelve. So the prohibition itself arises out of Jesus general master plan for establishing His Kingdom on earth. He aims ultimately to conquer the world, but to do this, He intends to secure a strong base of operations first. This He does among those most likely to be ready. Later He can countermand this order, turning the Apostles loose on the whole world. (Mat. 28:19; Act. 1:8; Act. 8:25)

This latter fact becomes a clue that helps determine how long this particular, limited commission was to last and how much of it was intended for that period. Morgan (Matthew, 103) reminds us that with His crucifixion, the order initiated ended, and save in fundamental principles, the commission of those verses has no application to us.

Mat. 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This command, stated just this way, links the Apostles mission inseparably with the very motives that moved their Lord, and probably became their own driving force, to share Gods mercy with His lost people. (See on Mat. 9:36) Jesus deliberately uses that figure out of His own vision of lost Israel to call the attention of His men to the most fundamental character of the work they were to do. He could have said more simply: Evangelize only the Jews, But He is not merely indicating the proper field in which to begin, He is setting before their minds an unforgettable metaphor that provides them at the same time both direction and motivation. Should anyone object to this severe limitation of the Apostles outreach, let it be remembered that this limitation bounded Jesus too. (See on Mat. 15:24) Lenskis observation (Matthew, 391) has point here:

What Jesus had done on one occasion in Samaria (Joh. 4:3-42) and on certain occasions for individual gentiles (as in Mat. 8:5, etc.) and what he had hitherto said about salvation for all men (Mat. 5:13-14; Mat. 8:11) was prophetic, was not intended for the present but for the great days of the future.

To appreciate this severe limitation of the scope of the Apostles work, we must recognize in what context Jesus sets these limits; otherwise, we will but find what seems to be a charge contradictory to the otherwise unsullied universality we have come to associate with Jesus. Why limit the Apostles ministry to Israel?

The time element is extremely important to notice. This commission comes long before the salvation for the whole world had been made a reality through the cross, burial and resurrection of the Lord. It will be noticed later (see on Mat. 10:7) that the message of the Apostles was not the final form of the universal Gospel intended for the whole world, when the fundamental facts of this Gospel had been enacted upon the stage of history in Jerusalem. This commission, coming as it does almost in the middle of Jesus own earthly work (see on Mat. 10:1), certainly not later, is to be judged in light of the progressive revelation of the Kingdom that He is making. It is imperative that we remember that it is Matthew himself who informs us both of this limited commission here and of the universal commission later (Mat. 28:19). It may be safely presumed that he could differentiate between them, seeing no contradiction between them.

The sociological element: Israel was most prepared of any one group to receive the good news these men had to tell. Here in this nation would be the most ready, most immediate reception. This is, of course, relative, since many Gentile hearts, hungering for truth, security and liberation, would have been just as receptive as those among the Jews, as later experiences of the Apostles seem to indicate. (See, for example, Acts 10; Act. 11:19-26; Act. 13:4-12; Act. 13:16-50; Act. 17:4; Act. 17:11-12, etc.) But there seems to be a divine order that stands behind and governs (Jesus approach to the world: these perishing Jews were especially precious to God for the sake of the fathers (Rom. 11:28), and though they have no prior claim to anything, God has a prior claim upon them! (Cf. Rom. 1:16; Rom. 2:9-10; Rom. 3:1-3; Rom. 9:4-5) So they ought to be sought first. Also, as suggested above, due to the apparent Jewish feeling of their prior rights to all that God offers, Jesus might stand to lose all hope of convincing those among the Jews who could otherwise have been won, were He to begin at this point a general Gentile ministry in conjunction with His evangelization among the Jews. Sociologically, He must not rock the boat just yet.

The maturity of the Apostles is an important matter. Their own preparation was still limited to the point that labor among their own people upon familiar ground was essential to permit their succeeding at all. Barclay (Matthew, I, 373) is right in saying: A message has little chance of success if the messenger is ill-equipped to deliver it. This does not mean that their power or authority was lacking, since Jesus was providing this directly Himself. It means, rather, that their personal character needed time and experience to mature. This is considerate forethought on the part of the Lord: He gives them tasks they can handle, but tasks which will qualify them for larger ones later. Listen to Bruces description (Training, 98):

Their hearts were too narrow, their prejudices too strong: there was too much of the Jew, too little of the Christian, in their character. For the catholic work of the apostleship they needed a new divine illumination and a copious baptism with the benignant spirit of love. Suppose these raw evangelists had gone into a Samaritan village, what would have happened? In all probability they would have been drawn into disputes on the religious difference between Samaritans and Jews, in which, of course, they would have lost their temper; so that, instead of seeking the salvation of the people among whom they had come, they would rather be in a mood to call down fire from heaven to consume them, as they actually proposed to do at a subsequent period. (Luk. 9:54)

This point cannot be overemphasized, since human beings are incurably worshippers of heroes, children never tiring of playing follow the leader. The Apostles were to provide new heroes, new leadership to their own people, now tired of leaders who had not the slightest notion where they were going, who instead of giving real spiritual refreshment, wandered around seeking answers to their own dark doubts. But the new leadership of the Apostles must reflect as nearly as possible the mind of Christ. They must sound no uncertain notes, give no false impressions. Because of prejudice and ignorance and moral failure in their hearers, rejection may be judged inevitable in many cases, but insofar as the Apostles themselves were concerned, the rejection must not arise out of some inadequate or false conception of their own. The message of God for any age carries with it its own stumbling block and its own foolishness (Cf. 1Co. 1:18-25), and there are difficulties enough without some weakness in the bearer of the message, which give greater occasion to reject it.

The limited amount of time Jesus may have wanted to expend upon this educational experiment with the Apostles is another factor. The Apostles must have practice working by themselves without Jesus being present if they are to learn to work well alone. But they must not spend too much time by going too far afield, else they would not be able to return in time for correction, encouragement and instruction. Jesus Himself had a limited time-schedule too. So Jesus limited their objective for them. (Cf. note 1 on Mat. 10:23)

Someone, on the basis of the strong Jewish prejudices that were probably present in the Apostles themselves, might object, But would the Apostles even be tempted to go to Gentile or Samaritan cities at this point in their labors, at this crux in their own maturity? If they were rejected by many Jewish cities, as Jesus here pictures (Mat. 10:13-15), then they certainly might be so tempted. Also the happy memories of the unusually warm reception given Jesus by the Samaritans at Sychar might tempt some Apostle to consider such a ministry. (See Joh. 4:1-42)

This very admonition in itself is strong evidence that Jesus never had anything in His mind less than the ultimate goal of WORLD evangelism. This charge, by its very existence here, clarifies the point that Jesus could never have made an unconscious slip that furtively betrays a latent nationalism. For, if a world-wide mission had not already been on the mind of Jesus and the subject of some of His private lessons, or had Jesus constantly hammered on a strictly Jewish Messiahship, there could have been no need for this limitation. His men would never have dreamed of crossing the borders into Gentile or Samaritan country.

II. A PARTICULAR MESSAGE FOR A PARTICULAR PERIOD. (10:7)

Mat. 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. As you go, preach (poreumenoi krssete) differs from the Great Commission (Mat. 28:19 : poreuthntes mathtesate) at least in form, if not also in emphasis. The command here (Mat. 10:7) is expressed in the vivid, moving present tense: Preach as you go or Preach on the way; whereas the Great Commission, by using an aorist participle attached to an aorist tense imperative verb, actually commands the Apostles to begin to go and make disciples. In this latter case (as also in Mar. 16:15, poreuthntes eis tn ksmon . . . krxate), the emphasis seems to be upon both the command to go as well as the command to preach or make disciples (See Burton, Moods, 173, 174)

Though here (Mat. 10:7), as in the Great Commission, the same rule applies to the participles, relating them to the function of the principle verb in each case, yet Jesus emphasis is not so much on the going, as on the preaching while they are going. This is seen immediately when it is remembered that He had already clearly commanded them to go: Go not (Mat. 10:5, m aplthte) and Go (Mat. 10:6, poreesthe). The resultant advance in thought throws the logical emphasis forward to the proclamation while they moved across Galilee.

Why bother with this? Would not the Apostles be tempted to think that they would begin their official evangelistic work only when they arrived at such and such a city? But Jesus opens their eyes to every person they encounter as they travel: their travelling companions, the people in whose homes they would enter along the way. Every one is to hear the good news, not merely those at the destination of the journey. Note also the omission of the prohibition to salute no man along the road. (Cf. Luk. 10:4)

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Notice the continuity in the revelation of the Messiah and His rule: this had been the message of John the Baptist (Mat. 3:2), and then of Jesus (See note on Mat. 4:17); now it is to be the principal theme broadcast by the Apostles. Why?

The Apostles very messages, thundered before an electrified nation, would identify them immediately in the popular mind with John and Jesus, In the very nature of the case, this was as it should be, for there really is a logical progression and connection in these three steps: the harbinger of the Messiah, the Messiah Himself, then the Messiahs ambassadors. It was imperative, however, that Israel feel this connection, lest it seem to those who saw the Apostles at work that somehow the ministry and following of Jesus had suddenly fragmented into chaotic little groups scattered over the country. Rather than witnessing the sight of six pairs of men all announcing a different gospel, Israel is confronted with Jesus Christ and the coming Kingdom of God now on seven different fronts!

Repentance and the rule of God is a message always in order. (Cf. Pauls preaching years later, Act. 20:25) The rejection of Gods good government was what made men sinners in the first place: only repentance and submission to Gods rule can make men whole again. (Cf. Mar. 6:12)

This was the very message that must be proclaimed as groundwork preparation before Jesus could declare the Kingdom.

As suggested by the title of this section, this was but a particular message for a particular period. This is not the type of message that could be preached after the consummation of the great events surrounding the passion, victory and coronation of the King, as well as the commencement of His royal rule on earth. Obviously, the Apostles could not announce facts that had not yet occurred, facts upon which the very Reign of Christ must necessarily be founded, There was much for Jesus yet to do: destroy the fundamental separation between Jew and Gentile, conquer death, offer Himself as the sufficient sacrifice for sin and bring victory to man through His own victory. Before Jesus could seal the universal pact of God with the world, He must eliminate the old covenant, having fulfilled it. But these grand facts were then all yet future.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Though this was the Apostles exciting announcement, they were not sufficiently prepared, nor was it Jesus purpose, to identify Him and His program as messianic. Their task was to prepare the way for Jesus, thus leaving Him free to develop this popular enthusiasm, thus aroused, as He saw best. It is impossible not to speculate whether the Apostles would have been asked by their audiences for the identity of the Christ-King. Since the Apostles would have had to refer this question to Jesus, and since, immediately following this evangelistic tour, we find the multitudes beginning to identify Jesus as the Christ, it is clear that the Twelve themselves did not clearly declare Jesus Messiahship. Otherwise, the multitudes would not have had to speculate for themselves, had the Twelve openly declared Him to be such. (Cf. Mat. 14:1-2; Mat. 14:13; Mar. 6:14-16; Luk. 9:7-9; Joh. 6:14-15) These disciples, then, were to limit themselves to heralding the near arrival of Gods kingdom. But this joyous announcement did not exhaust the good news (see Luk. 9:6, euaggelizmenoi), for the coming of Gods rule carried with it moral consequences for which Israel was not prepared. Israel must repent! (Mar. 6:12; see notes on Mat. 3:2, Vol. I, 94)

III. A PARTICULAR CREDENTIAL FOR A PARTICULAR PERIOD (10:8)

Mat. 10:8 Heal the sick: see on Mar. 6:12-13; Luk. 9:6 under point VI of this chapters outline. Raise the dead: though there is no record that the Apostles brought men back from the dead during this early ministry, they certainly did this later (Act. 9:36-42; Act. 20:9-10). Cleanse the lepers: is this particular type of healing mentioned to show the extent of Gods healing power operative in the Twelve, i.e. even to the point of curing such a defiling disease as leprosy? Cast out demons. Besides the obvious power over Satan that this represents, does Matthew include this command to display the full range of the glorious power intrusted to the Twelve? If so, why this particular emphasis on demons? (Cf. Mat. 10:1; Mar. 6:7; Mar. 6:13; Luk. 9:1) Is it that Jesus would have them realize that the struggle in which they were engaged was a personal battle with Satan himself? (Cf. Mat. 10:24-29) If so, every victory over demons signalled the establishment of Christs sovereignty over that much more of the devils former occupation. When the Seventy returned from their particularly successful mission, they rejoiced especially that they were able to exorcize demons. Jesus comment on this was a declaration of the fall of Satan, (Luk. 10:17-20)

Freely ye received, freely give, Morgan (Matthew, 104) is quite right to point out that it is because men have lost the sense of the proportion of our Masters orderly speech that, today, some imagine that all this is still our work. This is not our work. We have no commission to heal the sick miraculously . . . This commission of those Apostles and early disciples (cf. Luk. 10:9) was the proof of their identity with Jesus program and their miracles became the evidence of the consequent divine authority. The need for such supernatural credentials disappeared once the kingdom of Jesus had been proclaimed throughout the entire earth. (Cf. Col. 1:6; Col. 1:23; 1Th. 1:8) They disappeared, because in the nature of the case they were no longer needed to authenticate the message as from God, since this fact had been well established.

While it may be true that the need for SUPERNATURAL healings, as special credentials authenticating the divinity of the message, has passed, yet even today mercifulness, expressed in practical ways and in proper subordination to the message proclaimed, becomes a powerful credential in the thinking of the unbelieving world. The same generous spirit behind the Apostles healings can motivate Christians today to share what they have to provide certain necessities of life (hospitals, schools, primary necessities, etc.), a gesture which convinces the doubters and wrings from the scoffers the confession that these Christians really care about a man! But the modern Christian must not confuse this generosity with evangelism. This help is only one among many credentials that lends credibility to the message (Cf. Joh. 17:21; Joh. 17:23), since it shows the consistency between the Christians message and their practice. It shows that God is really producing through the Gospel the very persons that the Gospel is supposed to produce. There may be many opportunities to evangelize a people otherwise unreachable, whose hearts are thus opened to receive the Gospel. But the work of the doctor, teacher or school (or hospital) administrator is not missionary evangelism and should not be called such. How many doctors, teachers, administrators on mission fields have gotten bogged down in the sheer mechanics of their professional work and find that they have no more opportunity to proclaim the very message that challenged them to take up their work in the first place. They might have gained insight from Jesus own refusal to let His ministry be primarily a miraculous medical practice. He felt frustrated when people wanted to use Him for their own private purposes and stedfastly refused to get overly concerned about His message. A person can be a missionary anywhere in the world today regardless of his profession by which he earns his living, but he is a missionary because he is first of all a Christian in that place, not because he is a teacher or healer. A person has to decide his usefulness as a missionary by how well he is able to express the Gospel incarnate in his own life in that place, given the limitations imposed upon him by the situation itself.

Freely ye received, freely give. This sentence contains the most profound statement of the whole character of Christianity, as well as the practical expression of it in the Apostles personal lives and ministry. Gods gracious mercy has not given anything to anyone, including the Twelve, on the basis of their having deserved it. Characteristically, the very Christianity thus given by God, has the power in it to cause men, who share Jesus mentality, to be just this generous. These men had already seen this unlimited, generous spirit in Jesus Himself. (Mat. 4:23-24; Mat. 9:35). Whereas the Lord Himself constantly, unselfishly and disinterestedly expended all the power of heaven to meet the needs of suffering humanity, although He could have charged dearly for His goods and services, yet He shared as He did out of that pure motivation of unmixed concern for those people He loved and who needed His help. His own pattern of giving out of His own merciful passion to share, only for the sake of those He served, expecting no pay in return, now becomes the standard by which His people model and judge their own giving.

Jesus is saying to His men: I have charged you no tuition for all the lessons in the Kingdom of God, I have charged you nothing for the power to work stupendous miracles in my name, there is no fee for admission into the band of Apostles. In terms of monetary value, all this has cost you nothing, since I chose to give it to you without charge. Now, since you are but responsible administrators of this stewardship, you are not to act as if you were the owners of it with full power to dispense it at any price you choose to command. These free gifts are merely given you on their way to others! It would be so easy to make the miracles a lucrative source of income and be able to justify it on the basis of its value, while at the same time suggesting that the money would be used for the support of Jesus ministry. But so to have employed them would have reduced the miracles to mere articles of trade and robbed them of their power as evidence of the presence and activity of God in the world of men.

The very ambiguity of the phrase Freely you have received, unclear in the sense that the Giver is not clearly identified, reinforces the earlier comment (Mat. 10:1) that Jesus and God are somehow to be closely identified, since obviously it was Jesus who gave them this power, while anyone with the moral sense to see would know that this power was Gods.

How do we harmonize this demand, that the Apostles help people without charging for their services, with the comforting remark that the laborer is worthy of his food (Mat. 10:10), or worthy of his wage (Luk. 10:7)? The Apostles and other laborers must freely bestow their great gifts without charge of any kind. They will have already seen to their food and lodging, however, by having sought out the godly people of a community whose hospitality saw to those needs. As will be seen on Mat. 10:10, the worthiness intended is in no way based upon the Apostles distribution of miracles, but a recognition of the value of the work they are doing. It is not a purchase, on the part of the householder, of some special miraculous gift, nor is it an exchange of some miraculous gift, on the part of an Apostle, for hospitality. (See on Mat. 10:10)

IV. A PARTICULAR METHOD FOR A PARTICULAR PERIOD (10:915)

In this section Jesus is dealing with the fundamental question on the mind of any reasonable, far-sighted man: how were these workers of His to be supported during their labors? To the modern westerner, and perhaps to the Apostles themselves, unused as they were to the modus operandi here outlined, Jesus words cannot but strike a tone of madness. As we read through the instructions, we are made immediately aware that Jesus is literally stripping His men of every visible means of support. We would have expected that Jesus give His men every possible advantage in order to carry out their mission but here He deliberately orders them to dispense with all those accoutrements men usually think necessary for a journey of the nature they are about to undertake! While the Twelve themselves would have admitted that these instructions were proper for the rabbis, yet, psychologically, they might well have had some difficulty seeing themselves accepting the customary courtesies and generous hospitality usually accorded those venerated men. After all, in their own view, the Apostles may still see themselves as converted publicans, fishermen and what-not. They may feel they are entering a world where they do not belong, where they do not know their place. Yet, this consideration does not hinder Jesus for a moment from placing His men to this initial test under real-life conditions.

The specific commands of the Lord in this section become to the Twelve but the practical application of Jesus proscription of anxiety for material needs, seen in the Sermon on the Mount. He practically strips them of their self-reliance; so that they HAVE to go out in the confidence that God would always see to it that faithful men in each locality would receive them and provide for their needs during their labors there. Later, Jesus tests them on this very point: Did you lack anything, when I sent you out without anything? Their terse but eloquent reply was, Nothing. (Luk. 22:35 f) Bruce (Training, 108) summarizes this section so neatly:

His instructions proceeded on the principle of division of labor, assigning to the servants of the kingdom military duty and to God the commissariat department.

Lest we overemphasize the uncertainties of the situation into which Jesus sent His men, let us remember here that Jesus orders His men on a short tour of just a few weeks (see on Mat. 10:1), after which He will definitely revoke these limitations mentioned in this section. (Luk. 22:35-38) These men were to labor among their own people, among orientals to whom hospitality was a sacred honor and obligation. Further, the Apostles themselves were to carry out a ministry of teaching and healing that would, in a sense, earn themselves the esteem and recognition of those who would open to them their homes. While some of the instructions in this section will definitely be changed later, due to the changed nature of the ministry which the Twelve and the early Christians will then have to perform, this does not mean that Jesus changed His method on the supposition that this earlier technique failed. The change of instructions simply means that Jesus accomplished His original plans for the early training missions of the Apostles among their own people, then changed His directives to match new situations. Under the universal commission (Mat. 28:19-20), they would be evangelizing in distant lands among widely varying mentalities regarding hospitality toward strangers and regarding providing the daily needs of religious leaders. Hence, because they could not then depend upon a relatively uniform Jewish hospitality in pagan lands, they needed a different method of operation. It would be a drastic mistake to apply these rules, given here for a limited operation, to any mission of the Apostles or other evangelists in pagan lands after Jesus ascension.

Mat. 10:9 Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses. The expression: get you no gold . . . must be taken in the sense: Do not procure . . . (ktssthe), since Mark and Lukes parallels at this point put the antithetical emphasis on what the men should (nor should not) take along. (Mar. 6:8, harsm; Luk. 9:3, harete) Also, this getting refers to their preparations for (their) journey (Mar. 6:8; Luk. 9:3; cf. Mat. 10:10) The getting, then, has no reference to the Apostles seeking these things mentioned, during their journey, as if they would expect to be paid for their ministry by receiving these items mentioned at the hand of those who benefit from their work Jesus is not talking about receiving anything DURING the journey, but preparation for the journey. Their getting refers to the provisions they would otherwise have gotten together before undertaking the trip. They were to go exactly as they were, with no extra supplies beyond what was needed for the absolutely immediate present. (Edersheim) Jesus is saying, Do not take those things travelers generally regard as indispensably essential. Go confident that your needs will be provided. Let all your concern be centered upon your work, not upon yourselves. This distinction between the getting as preparation for the trip, and the getting, suggested by some, as support received from those benefitting from the Apostles ministry, is not so important in itself, as an expression of the meaning of this single text. Rather, it is important as a key that unlocks the supposed mystery involved in verses that follow, especially the supposed contradiction between the Synoptists regarding what the Apostles were to take along during their journey. It is the failure to note this distinction that has kept reasonable men from seeing the possible harmony between the Gospel writers at this point.

No gold . . . silver . . . brass means money for groceries, lodging and other essential expenses. In your purses, or girdles (KJV) or belts (RSV) expresses the same function as modern money belts, since the sash or leather belt provided just this convenience of carrying valuables close to the body, besides holding the robe in place. (It should be no surprise that robbers strip a man, not only to have his fine robe, but to get at his money belt! Cf. Luk. 10:30)

Mat. 10:10 No wallet for your journey. Wallet (pra) may be simply a small suitcase, a knapsack or travelers bag . . . but perhaps this passage has in mind the more specialized meaning beggars bag. . . . Such a bag was part of a Cynic itinerant preachers equipment . . . Such a bag was also used by shepherds . . . (Arndt-Gingrich, 662) If it be the beggars wallet that is meant, this requirement means that the Apostles are to consider the help they receive from generous hosts as salary, not beggars alms. In a sense they will have actually earned (cf. Luk. 10:7) what is given, so they are to accept what is offered graciously, but with the clear understanding that by their spiritual ministry they will have earned it. If the suitcase idea is in the Lords mind, then He is saying, If you are not going to take along a lot of special provisions, food, clothing and other equipment, you are not going to need a bag to carry it in!

As we consider what the Twelve must (or must not) include, it would be helpful here to list the items side by side:

They were NOT TO PROCURE OR TAKE:

They were to TAKE ALONG:

Money

Bread (food)

Bag for the journey

A (new or extra) staff

The one staff they had

Two tunics (one extra)

The one tunic they wore

An extra pair of sandals

The sandals they had on.

This interpretative analysis seeks to harmonize some of the otherwise seemingly contradictory details where the Synoptists seem to disagree. Neither two coats: presumably they would take the one they had on, but were not to provide themselves with another one for a spare. However, coats, as such, is not the question here but tunics (chitnas), a garment worn next to the skin by both sexes, a shirt. (Arndt-Gingrich, 890) See Mat. 5:40 for a good example of this distinction from that cloak or robe which should properly be called a coat. Nor shoes, rather, specifically sandals (hypodmata): a leather sole that is fastened to the foot by means of straps. (Arndt-Gingrich, 852) These are not shoes in the modern understanding of the word. Since Mark (Mar. 6:9 records Jesus as requiring His men to wear sandals (sandlia), presumably He means that His men are to wear the pair they have on, in whatever condition they may be, but are not to procure another pair for the journey. Nor a staff: while it is simple to harmonize Matthew with Marks (Mat. 6:8) take nothing except a staff . . . by saying they were not to take time procuring another staff in addition to the one already in hand, it is more complicated to harmonize with Lukes forthright Take nothing . . . no staff. Three solutions are possible:

Lukes (Mat. 9:3) no staff has exactly the same force as Matthews (Mat. 10:10) nor staff, and means to convey no more than Do not take time to procure a staff.

Since the habit of some of the Apostles may not have been to use a walking stick in their long marches with the Master, they are here ordered not to make even that much special provision.

If it be asked whether a man would use two staffs in journeying, we have a third possible solution: Since you are not going to be carrying a lot of extra provisions or an extra bag, you will not need an extra staff over your shoulder on which to carry those things.

If it be objected that in every case where an apparent contradiction between the Synoptists arises, we have presumed an extra item as a spare, then let it be noticed that Jesus Himself points the way to this solution. All three Evangelists record the prohibition: Do not take two tunics, a fact which shows the spirit of the entire section: Take nothing extra, nothing beyond what you have with you right at this moment. Reinforced with this one illustration, consistently reported by all three Synoptists, the proposition is more than probable that we may deal similarly with the other items, which seem to us who read the lists, not to have been reported consistently. Finally, one of the axioms of the harmony of all truth is that if a satisfactory harmony can, be shown between two apparently contradictory facts, they may not be said to be contradictions, regardless of the degree of apparent contradiction.

For the laborer is worthy of his food. This is the reason the Lord adduces for giving the foregoing instructions. They will not need to make careful preparations along the lines suggested above, since another higher principle will be operative in this case. In Mat. 10:11-14 Jesus will make specific what is here stated in principle.

Food states in one word all that is necessary to sustain the mens life and work. The disciples were to accept just what was offered, without demanding something more or something different: if it is food, he is not to be fastidious; if it is enough, he is not to be greedy. (Cf. Luk. 10:8)

The laborer is worthy: The Apostle who has really worked at the ministry to which I have sent him, will have really earned all he gets. It should not at all surprise us to hear Jesus use the word wage (mistho) in Luk. 10:7 in regard to another mission, but with reference to the evangelists support. How encouraging this declaration must have been to men who, though Apostles in name and partly so by training, were but timid beginners. You men are WORTHY of all the support you get. There can be no doubting this truth, since these fledgling Apostles while in the homes shared their true spiritual treasure. In fact, they gave much more than they ever received back in food and lodging! This very principle is the basis of Pauls argument that those who proclaim the Gospel should receive their livelihood from those who accept the Gospel. (1Co. 9:14; 1Ti. 5:17-18) This support for Gods workers, then, comes from those open-handed people who recognize the validity of the work the Christian workers are carrying forward. This, says Jesus surprisingly, is to be Gods provision for you men. He shall not provide miraculous bread (as, for example, the support of Elijah at Kerith and Zerephath), but common bread given by godly people.

Worthy: Jesus sets a high value on the men because of the special ministry they were to perform for Him. You are worthy of whatever help you receive. But in my view, those people who receive you will be judged worthy also. If they do not receive you, they are not worthy and will be condemned. Their true worth is determined by whether they receive you or not. (Cf. Mat. 10:11-15)

This is all good theory if it will work. The Apostles, immediately upon beginning their first mission, were going to find out whether or not it is practical to trust Jesus theories. They themselves were going to have to live literally by faith. Even though they had been seeking the Kingdom of God with a more or less single-mindedness and were more or less already unconcerned about food, clothing and shelter ever since they began to accompany Jesus in His travels, yet now the immediate security of Jesus person is going to be taken away temporarily. Until now Jesus had been with them, and the ultimate responsibility for such matters devolved generally upon Him. Now, however, they were to work without Him for a short period, literally living from day to day, with no forethought or preparation for these normal, human necessities of life. Is it not merciful of Jesus to toughen His men to the realities of faith and to the habit of depending upon God in this practical way? His approach to their weakness and need for this practical experience in trusting God is psychologically sound in its gradualness, in its definiteness, and in the element of real risk these men recognized. This was no mere drill, no false alert: it is the real thing, but on a level where the men themselves could respond at the level of their own growth.

Mat. 10:11 And into whatsoever city or village ye shall enter, search out who in it is worthy. This is the tactic the Apostles are to use in order to secure themselves food and lodging before they ever mention a word about the mission on which they have been sent. There is to be no necessary connection between their being ambassadors of Jesus of Nazareth and the hospitality they required, as if the former were a condition of the latter, at least when the Apostles were making these preliminary inquiries for hospitality. Of course, as they become the guests of people, these will learn of their mission. Should these then thrust them out of their houses, out of antipathy to Jesus, then their mission becomes a condition of their hospitality (or rejection).

What kind of inquiry is here required? Is it probable that the Apostles went around asking who were the best, most godly people in town, most noted for their hospitality? Why not? If the elders of the city, sitting in the city gate, cannot tell you immediately several names of such people, out of oriental courtesy one of the elders themselves may take you into his home. (Cf. Gen. 19:1-3) So the indirect question who in town is worthy (?) is answered by the estimate of the townspeople themselves: This family (or that) is worthy. Would the Apostles have gone door-to-door seeking lodging without first talking to the city fathers? Would the city fathers be likely to suggest the best homes of their city to strangers, without first making some inquiry into the business that brings these strangers into town? The answers to these questions depend upon whatever mentality or attitude toward travelers the Jews in general of that period may have had.

Why is this inquiry important? Three reasons suggest themselves:

Because the messengers and their message would be marked for good or ill by the known character of those who received them cordially into their home. Though they were to proclaim a Gospel for all, publicans and sinners included, yet the high holiness and importance of the message must not be able to be spoken against merely because of an imprudent choice of hosts whose character or notoriety scandalizes potential hearers. The Apostles themselves would all too soon be marked as unworthy men, due to their association with Jesus of Nazareth and their fundamental and necessary opposition to the traditions of the fathers. In this work they would need every advantage they could gain. In the eyes of the people their association with the truly righteous people in a city would tend to sanction their mission as from God. (While it is true that that generousness of spirit that manifests itself in hospitality toward strangers is no always present ingredient in the practical godliness of people deemed orthodox, worthy or pious, yet true godliness tends to produce in the godly this characteristic generosity.)

Another obvious importance of this injunction is to reduce, in the disciples themselves, any sensitivity about accepting the hospitality of others. As humble disciples of the lowly Nazarene, they might have been inclined unwittingly to downgrade their own program by not going directly to the best people. After all, they might have argued, what right have we to be wined and dined as if we were the highest rabbis in the land? But so to have reasoned would have been to have missed the supreme importance of their own mission. They would be no mere rabbis, but the royal ambassadors of the King of the Universe!

Further, and probably a factor much more important than either the public image of the Apostles or their own personal hesitancy, is the advantage of a nucleus of believers from which to work. Assuming that the truly worthy of a city were also godly Jews, looking for the Kingdom of God in deeply spiritual terms, these people would be the most, receptive to the Apostles message and could form within Judaism cell groups of believers in Jesus. After Pentecost these could be turned into congregations of the Church. (Study the working from fixed centers in each town in the later mission of the Apostles: The Church in their house of Rom. 16:5; Rom. 16:11; Rom. 16:14-15; Rom. 16:23; 1Co. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phm. 1:2.)

Into whatsoever city or village ye shall enter, search out who in it is worthy. Feel the infectious confidence of the Master, also pointed out by Bruce (Training, 110):

He took for granted, that there would always be found at every place at least one good man with a warm heart, who would welcome the messengers of the kingdom to his house and table for the pure love of God and of the truth. Surely no unreasonable assumption! It were a wretched hamlet, not to say town, that had not a single worthy person in it. Even wicked Sodom had a Lot within its walls who could entertain angels unawares.

And this confidence could not help but infect the Apostles with the certainty that the mission on which He sends them is no fools errand, but a campaign carefully planned down to the last detail.

There abide till ye go forth. (Cf. Luk. 10:7, Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house.) The fundamental emphasis here is stability and contentment, excellent virtues that recommend those who possess them:

Stability, because no momentum would be lost by an endless round of feasting. Thomas (Land and Book, cited by PHC, 249) testifies that

oriental hospitality involves a practical system, including a round of visits, involving much ostentation and hypocrisy. It is time-consuming, mind-distracting, leads to levity and in just about every way, counteracts the success of a spiritual mission. The very nature of the Apostles work demanded serious concentration.

Even if the modest circumstances of the hosts did not permit so lavish an entertainment in view of the Apostles intention to remain in a town longer than would be accorded other travellers passing through, still it was not their mission to be entertained, but to proclaim the Kingdom. This single-mindedness, obvious in the attitude of the Apostles, testified to the townspeople that these men valued their time, had important business to attend to and needed to be free to work. It is very difficult to carry on work when one must constantly keep an eye on the luncheon calendar or on the dinner memos. It is not impossible, if people properly understand your work, but especially difficult if they do not or else refuse to collaborate.

Contentment, because if they wandered around like mendicant monks or appeared to be dissatisfied with the hospitality of the people, or as idle men fond of change, people would hardly take them seriously or give their message a second thought. Though not sins per se, being connoisseurs of fine foods and rare wines was not for the Apostles.

Jesus advice is a question of emphasis and common sense. Neither banquets nor wide-ranging hospitality are wrong; they just get in the way of serious, sustained work. A different bed every night, ranging from extra hard to lumpy and a new cook every day who is trying to out-do her predecessor in providing the finest feast the visitors ever saw, is enough to kill any Apostle!

Mat. 10:12 And as ye enter into the house, i.e., the house chosen in the manner described above, salute it. (Cf. Luk. 10:5, Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house!) Salute . . . peace are practically equivalent terms, since the Jewish Shalom is not only a greeting, but a prayer that the peace of God bless those thus greeted. (Cf. Joh. 20:19; Joh. 20:26. The antithesis is 2Jn. 1:10. See also the introductions with which the Apostles begin their letters as well as many of the concluding salutations, e.g. 2Th. 3:16; 1Pe. 5:14; 3 Jn. 15) Jesus urges His followers to be friendly, courteous and respectful toward those who might serve as hosts for the Gospel proclamation in a village. There is no bullying here, no insisting upon special rights to hospitality as Jesus messengers, no demanding clergy discounts. He requires them to show the customary regard, following the common rules of social behavior. (Cf. 1Pe. 2:12-24; 1Pe. 3:8-11) They are to cultivate a spirit of good will. Good public relations are necessary, but this must be gained without compromise of principle. Even though we cannot, and must not, leave people comfortable in the deadly state of unrepentant sin, yet our generous friendliness and obvious good will that treats them as people with whom we hope to live in harmony, can be the means of opening their mind to the gospel we preach.

Mat. 10:13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. The Apostles were intending to bring the Kingdom of God itself to that home, with all its benefits and blessings! People could hardly guess what really stood there at the door in the person of the Lords Apostles, but if they opened their homes to receive them, all these marvelous favors would be theirs. If they fail to hear the voice of God in these humble Galilean preachers, they forfeit their key to Gods treasury. Nevertheless that which the Apostles so earnestly desired to give them, would come back to the givers themselves. So the Twelve are not to be at all discouraged by even this set-back, knowing that they may even rejoice in rejection for Jesus sake. (Cf. Mat. 5:10-12) Gods peace will hold them stable in such storms. This, of course, can never diminish the tragedy of every refusal to accept the Apostles message.

If the house be worthy . . . not worthy. It may not immediately appear whether a house is really worthy, in the sense that it accepts the Apostles for sake of the Person and message of Jesus that they bring. Some time may elapse before it becomes clear whether the house is really worthy in the highest sense of the word. So the Apostles are not to stand outside the door and wait for the householder to decide whether to permit them, as messengers of Jesus of Nazareth, to enter. If it be not worthy cannot be construed to mean that the Apostles made a mistake about the worthiness of the house, since their inquiries in town led the townspeople to agree that this household was worthy, in the general sense of generous, hospitable. But, although a generous, open-hearted family is usually open to new truth, it is not always so. Upon learning the nature of the Apostles purpose, the householder, driven by prejudices, prudence or other motives, may reject and eject the Apostles because of their mission and views.

Here Jesus practical instructions accord perfectly with His theory. He has taught the disciples that evangelistic efforts will not produce the same results in every area, hamlet or human heart. (Cf. Mat. 13:18-23) Now as He sends His men forth to begin their own sowing of the seed, He warns them not to expect equal success everywhere: some cities and homes would receive them; some would not.

In relation to the general question of application of this section to the general pattern of history Jesus seems to be describing (see on the introduction of chapter 10), let it be noted here that even in those cases where a house or city that rejects the Apostles, there is no suggestion of a clearly defined persecution. Morgan (Matthew, 103) is probably right in saying:

He was rejected, but they were treated with respect, even by the crowds. The crowds argued with them, tried to understand what relation they bore to Jesus, asked them what Christ meant by certain things; but did not persecute them.

While it is probably true that the Twelve were not unaware of the rejection of Jesus by the large majority of the ruling class and by many of the common peopleand especially so as the Apostles themselves became more and more aware of the spiritual nature of His claims and intentionseven so, this rejection still did not bring direct persecution to the Apostles until after Jesus ascension. This latter act left the Apostles, the obvious successors to the crucified Nazarene, exposed to the wrath of the Masters enemies. Only then did they feel the full force of real persecution.

Mat. 10:14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, as you go forth out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your feet. His very foresight and instructions are geared to defeat discouragement by simple rejection or disappointment by difficulties. For Jesus, it is not enough that they simply leave town. Rather, He outlines specific directions what to do in the event some refuse to be won, do not receive them and obviously close the doors to all further conversation. The Twelve are to act in a specific way which takes away the initiative from their would-be detractors. Even if their words could not be said so as to be heard, because people were hurling insults too loud to permit the Apostles a last word, or because people shut their ears (Cf. Act. 7:57), the Apostles last message was to be a pantomime. Another very clear symbolic act that conveys the same meaning is a real or pantomimed washing of ones hands of the whole matter. Remember Pilate. Paul shook his garments. (Act. 18:6) In this silent witness, the Apostles were relieving themselves of the responsibility for the judgment of that house or city. (Cf. Eze. 3:16-21; Eze. 33:7-9) It is significant that Jesus gave them something very specific to remember to do in such a moment, since the Twelve might otherwise be tempted to call fire from heaven to incinerate the opposition!

The dust meant here is literally the street dust on the Apostles sandals, easily picked up on ones feet while walking along the often unpaved streets of the towns. (Remember here the practical usefulness and kind courtesy involved in washing someones feet, or at least in providing water so that he himself can do it. Luk. 7:44; Joh. 13:4-16) But dust had become a Jewish symbol for the moral responsibility for something described in the phrase the dust of . (See Edersheim, Life, I, 644) Brushing the dust off their shoes, then, becomes the vivid warning to the citizens of a city that rejected the Apostles, that they hereby discharge themselves of any further responsibility for the fate of that house or city. Its meaning is clear: the Apostles were preaching their last sermon in this symbolic act: Your blood be on your own heads; we are blameless and leave you to your doom. While you reject us and our message, the fact remains that you ARE responsible for what we have tried to tell you. The kingdom of God HAS actually come near you, but you rejected it. (Cf. Luk. 10:11) Now that we have fulfilled our mission to your city, we hereby remove every trace of our responsibility for your salvation.

It has been noticed by some commentators that the dust of Gentile territories was considered by the Jews to be defiling, in which case the Apostles are seen as treating those cities which reject them in the same fashion as if they were Gentile cities. These see the Apostles as brushing the dust of defiling unbelief from their feet, or something of the sort. Granted that certain Jews viewed the dust of Gentile lands as defiling, would Jesus accede to this Pharisaic concept even to provide His ambassadors a vivid warning to use in the event of their rejection? Perhaps, since He might use popular language or ideas that convey a clear meaning, even though both He and the Apostles were clearly antagonistic to the fundamental notion involved in the language. (Even the language purists of the Christian faith today speak of Pope Paul VI, even though they deeply reject all the unfounded pretensions upon which his position and title is based, for example. They use this title and name, simply because not many people would know who or what is meant if they started talking about Giovanni Battista Montini, the popes real name.) One should be careful about pushing this argument too far, since Jesus clearly teaches elsewhere, what really defiles a man. So we know that He knows that mere dust, whatever its origin, is not defiling. But when, for example, Jesus cites the OT books as being authored by those ancients whose names they have traditionally borne, and He cites them without correction or comment, this is revelation, not mere accession to popular language or merely traditional notions.
Should anyone object to the morality of leaving a city or home to its own moral doom, with no more apparent doggedness and merciful patience in seeking to win its inhabitants to fundamental acceptance of the Kingdom of God than is expressed here in this text, it is sufficient here to respond that this instruction must be interpreted in the context of this first training mission of the Twelve. Barclay (Matthew, I, 380) has it:

This is an instruction that . . . comes from the situation in which it was given. It was simply due to the time factor; time was short; as many as possible must hear the proclamation of the Kingdom; at that time there was not time to argue with the disputatious and to seek to win the stubborn; that would come later.

If we have understood correctly the time-outline of Jesus message here given, Pentecost follows, not precedes, this first rapid mission of the Twelve. So there was time for patient labor later, but not on this trip. Further, since we find a similar expression in the practice of the Apostles at a later period (Act. 13:51; Act. 18:6), it is important that we recognize the fundamental distinction between the function of the Apostles who must blaze new, unknown truth from city to city throughout the world, and that of those pastors and teachers who remain in a town to minister patiently, mercifully seeking to convince the unconvinced however long that process takes.

While Luk. 10:10-11 is not strictly parallel to this text, it nevertheless gives the best, full commentary on what the Apostles attitude and actions must be. Bruce (Training, 111) draws this mature judgment about that text:

Solemn words, not to be uttered, as they are too apt to be, especially by young and inexperienced disciples, in pride, impatience, or anger, but (they are to be uttered) humbly,, calmly, deliberately, as a part of Gods message to men. When uttered in any other spirit, it is a sign that the preacher has been as much to blame as the hearer for the rejection of his message. Few have any right to utter such words at all; for it requires rare preaching indeed to make the fault of unbelieving hearers so great that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for them. But such preaching has been . . . by the apostles.

Even this last word of the Apostles to a city or home is an act of mercy, for it leaves the uncompromising message of faithful Apostles firmly fixed in the mind of any standing among the unbelievers, who might yet be won later. Even this firm, stern warning is to be given in the spirit of: Bless and curse not. (1Pe. 3:9; Rom. 12:14)

Mat. 10:15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. Jesus reaches back into patriarchal history (Gen. 19:1-28) for the event that most vividly pictures Gods swift, terrible punishing power and comes up with the cremation alive of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose obdurate wickedness was so notorious and so demanding divine justice that the greater marvel is not their spectacular punishment, but the patience and mercy of God to let them live as long as He did! This destruction is used by Jesus as a point of comparison between the lot of these cities and the destiny of those cities who rejected the Apostles message. This comparison is the more vivid for the Jews who were accustomed to thinking of these cities as particularly wicked, deserving punishment. (Cf. Mat. 11:24; Rom. 9:29; 2Pe. 2:6; Jud. 1:7; Deu. 29:23; Isa. 1:9-10; Isa. 13:19; Jer. 23:14; Jer. 49:18, etc.)

Perhaps it would be more advantageous to deal with the evidential value of this text in a separate article. (See the special study: Jesus Witness to Old Testament Inspiration by John Ransom in this Volume.) However, one cannot help noticing the seriousness with which the Lord presents this illustrative point of comparison. He treats both the incident of the destruction of those ancient cities as well as the written source from which the incident is derived as if the whole narrative about them were serious, sober history and the document (Genesis) which contains it as entirely to be relied upon. It is not enough to say that Jesus merely cites a legendary (hence, somehow, fictitious) tale of a horrible destruction to give particular point to His declaration regarding those cities that reject His messengers. If it be thought that He merely appeals to a traditional story accepted by the Apostles as historically true, but objectively reducible to the level of undocumented ancient tradition,an appeal for which Jesus, as a speaker borrowing allusions without Himself authenticating their origin or validity, cannot be held responsiblethen, the following reasons may be offered for the conclusion that Jesus IS responsible for the true information about the origin and validity of the facts out of the Old Testament He is using and by His use He is revealing truth regarding those books about which it is, at best, now difficult to verify the authenticity:

In general, Jesus clearly reveals His divergence from commonly-held mistaken Jewish notions. It may be reasonably supposed that He would not fail to do so on the question of the authorship or authenticity of OT books or facts, where-insofar His own arguments depended upon those books or facts. But in none of His citations or allusions to OT books or events does He once make and editorial correction or necessary emendation of this problem that is so vital to our knowledge of OT facts and origins.

There is here, also, a moral question: can Jesus remain consistent with His own advertised ethic, when at the same time He is demanding of others absolute honesty and thoughtful helpfulness, He Himself fails to disabuse His misled followers of their dependence upon the OT books then available to them and their mistaken belief of the facts contained therein?

Further, can Jesus be the revealer of the mind of God, as He claims, when at the same time He is going around basing His pretensions upon books, accounts or passages that modern Biblical criticism would seek to reduce to legends, fables, traditions or, at best, later accretions of a kernel of (true) fact?

In order to deal with these questions properly, each should be taken separately as a theme to develop as argument for the conclusion offered. But these questions DO raise problems for those who would discount wholesale entire sections of OT Scripture as devoid of historical value, i.e. from which no certain knowledge of ancient facts may be derived. So, Jesus mention of the cremation of Sodom and Gomorrah has real point, since, unless Jesus tells us elsewhere that that miracle did not, in fact, take place (which, according to the available materials in the four Gospels, He does not do), Jesus Himself may be said to accept the reality of the painful punishment of those perverts.

But what is the exact point of (unequal) comparison here? Jesus is saying, If you think that the certainly merited, but unspeakably horrible, punishment meted out on Sodom and Gomorrah was terrible, let me assure you that I consider rejection of you Apostles and disbelief of my message to bear as such a far more evident proof of wickedness, that the doom of those unbelievers, who dare turn down your offers of divine mercy, will be even more so. It will actually go easier for those ancients when they face the final judgment, than for these moderns who will have turned their backs on Gods Kingdom!
But why should Jesus condemnation of those cities that do not receive the Apostles be so severe? How could it be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city?

Was it because those hamlets or homes that rejected the Twelve principally because they came as ambassadors of Jesus of Nazareth, would be guiltier than the great, wicked metropolises of antiquity who knew not the identity of the messengers of God who came among them? But did the inhabitants of Sodom ever learn the identity of the apparently normal men who were Lots guests? There is no connection made in the text, between their being stricken blind and the identity of the angels who so struck them. Nor is there any evidence of an angelic visit to Gomorrah, such as that to Sodom, inasmuch as Gods interest in these cities was the rescue of Lot for Abrahams sake, His judgment having already predetermined the devastation of these cities. So it does not appear that the identity of the messengers itself is the point of the comparison.

It would be more correct to say that the Sodomites and those of Gomorrah, however indescribably wicked they may have been, had had no opportunities to know Gods message, equal to the opportunities of those to whom Christs Apostles preached. (See notes on Mat. 11:20-24) Guilt is based upon opportunity to know the truth. While the Jews rejection of the Apostles, relatively speaking, is not such a bad sin, gross, flagrant and foul as that of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet it is so much more inexcusable and worthy of so much more excruciating severity, since the Jews would have had a more excellent chance to know the truth and act upon it. Lenski (Matthew, 397) shows why it should go harder for disbelievers than for Sodomites:

To lie in sin and thus to perish is bad;
To lie in sin and, in addition, to reject grace, and thus to perish, is worse.

Jesus is so hard on the disbelievers who shut their ears to the Apostles, since He knows that the Gospel they preach is the opportunity of a lifetime that once rejected might never return. The Gospel appeal might never again be felt.

Having once successfully resisted the appeal of the message, they may well rest content in having maintained their orthodoxy and their faithfulness to the traditions of their fathers by repudiating this upstart Nazarene and his band, hence be more confirmed than ever in their unbelief.

They might die before the Apostles or early Christian evangelists can bring the Word around to them again. (See on Mat. 10:23) Historically, this occurred in Palestine, since the Apostles could not finish evangelizing even that small country before the horrible death by persecution and martyrdom of the majority of the Apostles themselves and the smashing juggernaut of the Roman might which devastated the nation, hurled the Jews into a black eternity without another occasion to hear the message of grace.

By means of this grand and awesome declaration, Jesus accomplishes two purposes:

He clinches His argument about the reliability of support from God through His people. God, whose laborers they are, not only fully recognizes their need for support, but He is especially concerned whether they received it or not, while carrying out their ministry for Him. So concerned is He that He would notice even the dust on their feet and what it testified to Him about the Apostles reception in a given area! So, if God may be depended upon to vindicate His messengers word as His own, how much more sure is He to provide their every need in exactly the way He promises them to do so?

He gives evidence of His own deity and divine authority. Jesus has just declared that those wicked cities, overthrown by God, will actually have it (comparatively) easier than any city or house that refuses His own Apostles. He must be the Judge Himself to be able so confidently to announce the outcome of what is most surely known to God, the final judgment!

In the day of judgment. Though Jesus is already announcing some of the verdicts of that final day, He does so in a more or less private way to His disciples, whereas on that great day He will render these verdicts public before the whole universe. But the disturbing nature of these declarations could not escape these men, and we must not miss them either: judgment is certain. As certainly as Gods punishment rained down upon those wicked cities, so certainly will the impenitent cities (and, in our day, those schools of theology) that laugh the Apostles and their disciples out of town, face their ruin at last.

FACT QUESTIONS

What specific area were the Apostles to evangelize?

What specific ethnic groups were the Twelve to avoid at this time?

Explain the wisdom of Jesus in this choice, in relationship to the Apostles personal ability, maturity and preparation.

Show what motives prompted Jesus to commission these twelve men to work at this particular task.

On what other occasion is there a similar commission given to some disciples, thus enrolling them in Jesus ministry?

What message were the Apostles to preach? What did the message mean?

What was the purpose of the miracles in the ministry of the Twelve?

What were the Apostles to freely give? What was it that they had freely received?

Explain what is meant by the instructions to salute the house, your peace will come upon it, and your peace will return to you.

10.

What is the meaning of the oriental expression: Shake off the dust of your feet? Is Jesus to be taken literally or figuratively here? What would this expression have meant to the Apostles? Should we try to apply the same attitude involved in this expression today? Give a good 20th Century paraphrase for this expression, showing thereby your application. .

11.

List the items the Apostles were to take along during their journeys.

12.

List the items the Apostles were NOT to take along,

13.

Locate and give the history of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in such a way as to show the impact of the warning behind Jesus words that for that city which rejected the Apostles message it would go worse on judgment day than for those ancient cities.

14.

Do the restrictions Jesus placed upon this mission apply to every mission the Apostles are to perform? What evidence do you offer for your answer?

15.

Stare the declarations in this section that emphasize the divine authority of Jesus.

16.

Harmonize the apparently contradictory instructions regarding the disciples taking shoes or sandals and staves. Were the disciples to take no staff nor shoes or at least one pair or what?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(5) Go not into the way of the Gentiles.The emphatic limitation seems at first sight at variance with the language which had spoken of those who should come from east and west to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and with the fact that our Lord had already taken His disciples into a city of Samaria, and told them that there also there were fields white for the harvest (Joh. 4:35). We must remember, however, (1) that the limitation was confined to the mission on which they were now sent; (2) that it did but recognise a divine order, the priority of Israel in Gods dealing with mankind, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; and (3) that the disciples themselves were as yet unfitted to enter on a work which required wider thoughts and hopes than they had yet attained. It was necessary that they should learn to share their Masters pity for the lost sheep of the house of Israel before they could enter into His yearnings after the sheep that were not of this fold (Joh. 10:16).

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

57. CHARGE TO THE APOSTLES, Mat 10:5-42 .

The unity of this discourse demonstrates the oneness of its delivery, a point disputed by Olshausen and others. It consists properly of three parts. The first (Mat 10:5-15) directs their demeanour during this present trial mission. The second (Mat 10:16-23) predicts their trials and persecutions through their whole apostolate. The third (Mat 10:24-42) states the duty of suffering, the struggle to ensue, and the results, namely, the reward and penalty of the acceptance or rejection of their Gospel. The discourse, therefore, is complete and symmetrical. There is not a sentence or a word inappropriate to the occasion.

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

I. DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR PRESENT JOURNEY, Mat 10:5-15.

This first part of the discourse is also divisible into three parts: 1. Their journey and business, Mat 10:5 to Mat 8:2. Their provisions, Mat 10:9; Mat 10:3. Their reception, Mat 10:11-14.

5. Go This was the word Go. It embraced the commission of an apostle, and it embraces the mission of every preacher. Christ is his starting point, the world his field, souls his object; and he is not to stand, but to move; not to stay, but to GO.

Not into the way of the Gentiles Our Lord’s direction first tells them where not to go. The way or route through the nations and tribes lying out of Palestine, is prohibited. Any city of the Samaritans Our Lord forbids not going into the way of the Samaritans, but into any city of theirs. Samaria lay between Galilee and Judea. The way from one to the other therefore lay through Samaria. Into this way our Lord himself went, but not into any city of that section. The Gospel might be dropped by them, as by our Lord himself passingly and by the way, but not be directly carried into any centre of population.

Why did our Lord thus limit his apostles to Palestine and to Israel? For the same reason, we may reply, that he made Israel primitively his chosen people. The whole Old Testament dispensation was limited to Israel. Amid the apostacy of the nations, God deposited his truth, his ordinances, and his oracles for safe preservation with one people. Upon one land he concentrated the light of his truth. These deposits were there held in reserve for the fulness of the times, in order that, when the proper period should arrive, that light might be diffused, and ultimately fill the whole earth. As he who would fill a whole room with light first deposits the light in the lamp, so God, to illuminate the nations, first deposits his truth in his lamp, his chosen people. It was fitting, therefore, that this first mission should not be limitless and without concentration. The land of the Messiah should be the place for preaching the Messiah. Israel, unfaithful as he had been, was still the best prepared medium to receive and propagate the Messiah’s doctrine. The oracles, the prophecies, the types, the temple, the sacrifices, all of which pointed to the Messiah, were still in Israel. Jews were therefore the first receivers and first proclaimers of the Gospel. As Christ had chosen twelve tribes from the nations, so he chose twelve apostles from the tribes. It was the mission of the apostles to indoctrinate the tribes, that the tribes might indoctrinate the nations. But after the Lord’s resurrection an enlarged commission, embracing the world, was conferred upon them. They were to go into all nations, and preach the Gospel to every creature.

The peculiar history of the Samaritans is mostly learned from the Old Testament. After the revolt of the ten tribes Samaria became their capital, and from it the population generally received the name Samaritans. In the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, the main body of the better population were taken captive and transported by Shalmanezer to Assyria. 2 Kings 17. To fill their place, a population of Assyrians was colonized by the same king in northern Palestine. These idolaters were assailed by lions; and considering their depredations to be produced by the anger of Jehovah, the God of Israel, they sent for a priest of the tribe of Levi, who came by their wish and dwelt in Bethel, to teach them the religion of the true God. A mixed religion as well as a mixed people resulted. Idolatry and Judaism were combined in their doctrines; Assyrian and Israelite blood were blended in their race. When the Jews returned from their captivity to Judea, feuds arose between the Samaritans and Jews, which last to the present hour. In the reign of Darius Nothus, king of Persia, Manasses, son of the high priest of the Jews, married the daughter of Sanballat, the governor of Samaria; and being required by the Mosaic law to divorce her, he preferred to go over to the Samaritans. Under the patronage of his father in law he became Samaritan high priest, with a temple erected for him on Mount Gerizim. From that time Jew and Samaritan became hateful to each other.

In our Saviour’s time Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Joh 4:9. The worst thing a Jew supposed he could utter of Jesus was, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil. Joh 8:48. Our Saviour in the present verse recognizes the Jews as the covenant people in distinction from Samaritans; but on several occasions he manifested his purity from the Jewish malignity against them. He made a Samaritan the hero of one of his parables, in disparagement of a Jewish priest and Levite. Luk 10:33. The Samaritans, many of them, believed upon him. Joh 4:29. See also Luke 9.

Of the Samaritans but a few families now remain, namely, at Nablous, the ancient Shechem. They have a venerable copy of the law, strictly keep the Sabbath, observe the ancient festivals, and firmly expect the Messiah.

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

‘These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, “Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Jesus now sent out the twelve, and His instructions were that they were not to take roads that led into purely Gentile territory, nor enter cities of the Samaritans, but were to go to ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’. In the chiasmus these last are paralleled with Mat 9:36. These were to be the sole object of Jesus’ interest from now on until His intentions were changed by meeting a Canaanite woman who sought His assistance for her daughter (Mat 15:24, see context).

Note the typical thesis and antithesis as found in the Sermon on the Mount. ‘Do not go to the Gentiles and the Samaritans, but go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’. There was in fact no likelihood of the disciples going to either the Gentiles or the Samaritans (in Acts they were reluctant to go to them even after they had been specifically commanded to do so). That is only stated in order to bring out the positive emphasis on who they were to reach. Compare Mat 5:17, ‘not to destroy, but to fulfil’. Mat 6:19, ‘do not lay up treasure on earth — lay up treasure in Heaven’.

These words were not intended to indicate that no Gentile or Samaritan who came for healing or to hear their message must be helped. There were many Gentiles in and around Galilee, and where they came with the crowds to hear the teaching of the disciples they would be welcomed, as had always been the case in Jesus’ ministry. But reaching out to them specifically would be quite another thing . That was not at this stage to be the aim of the disciples who were rather to go to places where they would expect to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel. We must, however, be quite clear who ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ were. They were not the whole of Israel without exception. Jesus is quite clear on the fact that many Jews will refuse to listen to them and will turn them away. In their case the disciples must shake the dust off their feet and go elsewhere. They were not to go to them. They were not to cast their pearls before swine (Mat 7:6). But others would welcome them with open hearts, because of their sense of need, and their desire to know God. It was to them that they must go.

Indeed who the lost sheep of the house of Israel were has already been explained in Mat 9:36. They were the large crowds who were tending to follow Him because their hearts were unsatisfied and the Jewish leadership had failed them. There were many like them waiting in the towns and cities longing for a way of salvation. But there were also many Israelites in some of those towns and cities who were not ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Mat 10:14-15). It is true that theologically they were lost, and that they were Israelites, (although now to be rejected Israelites), but their hearts were closed towards Him. They were quite happy with their shepherds, and did not know that they were lost. They did not think of themselves as lost. And when His messengers arrived they would refuse to give them a hearing. Thus the disciples were told not to go to them but were rather to shake their dust off their feet, a sign that in God’s eyes they were not true members of Israel, they were not the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’. In contrast the lost sheep of the house of Israel were those whose hearts were open to receiving the disciples and hearing their message. Jesus could have said with Paul, ‘They are not all Israel who are Israel’ (Rom 9:6).

It is the condition of these ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ which has aroused His compassion (Mat 9:36), and He therefore considers that it is they who must be given the first opportunity to hear the Good News of the Kingly Rule of God. It is to be ‘to the Jew first’ (Rom 1:16), and especially those whose hearts God had opened. However, we must stress again that this is not just a way of speaking of all Israel. The identity of the lost sheep is defined in Mat 9:36, ‘He was moved with compassion for them (the crowds) because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd’, and this was while He was going ‘about all their towns and villages’. So ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ does not refer to all Israel, but to those within the towns and villages of Israel who were bewildered and astray, and without a shepherd. This is confirmed in Jer 50:6. ‘My people have been lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.’ We should note that here in Jeremiah the clear distinction is made between the false leaders of the people (the king, and the princes, and the prophets, and the priests, and the judges, and the teachers of Israel, and those who followed them – see Isa 3:14-15; Isa 10:1; Hos 4:5-6; Hos 5:1) and the ‘lost sheep’ who sense their emptiness of soul and are waiting and longing for God, and are separate from the others. The same distinction is found in Matthew.

On this basis the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ are those who are not confident in themselves. They sense that they have been led astray by their teachers. But in their seeking, they do not know where to turn. That is why they are looking to the new Prophet. An example of one such is found in Psa 119:176 where the idea in context is of one who is seeking God’s salvation (Psa 119:174), and who cries, ‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep’, and he calls on God to ‘seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.’ The Psalmist is lost and bewildered but his heart is reaching out to God, and there is that within him which clings to God’s commandments. He is one of God’s lost sheep. It is of these lost sheep that Isaiah in Isa 53:6 also declares, of those who hear his report, ‘all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone into our own way’ (Isa 53:6), and there the solution is found in the Lord laying on the Shepherd Servant the iniquity of ‘us all’. These are the ‘many’ for whom He will offer Himself (Mat 20:28; Isa 53:11-12). It should be noted in this regard that this passage in Mat 10:5-6 is found very much in the heart of the ‘that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by (through) Isaiah the prophet ’ section, where all Matthew’s direct citations are from Isaiah. It is sandwiched between Mat 8:17 which cites Isa 53:4; and Mat 12:17 which cites Isa 42:1-4; and we can also compare Mat 3:3; Mat 4:15; Mat 13:14; Mat 15:7 and see Mat 20:28). Isaiah was thus at this stage very much in mind in Matthew’s penning of this section. This confirms that the connection of the phrase ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ with Isa 53:6 must be seen as very relevant, following, as it does in Matthew, a citation of Isa 53:4. Already therefore in mind is the Servant Who will give His life a ransom for many (Mat 20:28).

So this confirms that ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ who must first be sought are those in Israel who feel that they are shepherdless, whose hearts have not forgotten His commandments, and who are waiting to be found. They are the kind who flocked to John the Baptiser, and are now flocking to Jesus. They are not satisfied with the spiritual guidance that they are receiving. They are looking for something else. So this is not an indication that Jesus is restricting His ministry to ‘the Jews’ as such. It is an indication that He sees in these people, who are among the Jews and whose hearts are open, the nucleus of His new Israel which will arise out of the old, and is intending to concentrate on them for the time being. On the other hand this does not indicate a ‘spiritual Israel’, as though there could be two Israels. It is rather a replacement Israel (Mat 21:43), the establishment of the true Israel as spoken of by the prophets (Isa 6:13; Isa 44:1-5; Isa 48:10; Jer 31:31-34; Hos 1:9-10; Zec 13:8-9). Jesus is saying that the true Israel will now be formed of those who have responded to Jesus the Christ. For it is Jesus Who represents in Himself the true Israel. He is the One Who has come out of Egypt (Mat 2:15). He is the true Vine (Joh 15:1-6). Unbelievers in the old Israel will be ‘cut off’, they will be burned as useless branches (which is expressed here in Matthew by the shaking from the disciples’ feet of their dust), while Gentiles, like the centurion in chapter 8, (and later many others) will be able to be grafted in, a process which will go on until the whole of true Israel are saved. (See Romans 9-11, and our article on ‘Is the church Israel?’).

This was actually the idea also in the Old Testament. There it was those who were true to the covenant who were in the end the true Israel. Those who sinned in the wilderness were excluded from the land. Israel as a whole, apart from the few, would become ‘not my people’ (Hos 1:9). That was why Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant which would seize the hearts of men making them His people (Jer 31:31-36; Heb 8:8-13). And now that is happening and this new and true Israel will be founded on the Apostles (Mat 16:18; Eph 2:11-22).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Commissioning of the Twelve Apostles ( Mar 6:7-13 , Luk 9:1-6 ) Mat 10:5-15 gives us the story of Jesus commissioning His twelve apostles before sending them out. The Twelve are charged to preach the Gospel and heal the sick. They are to entrust the care of earthly provisions to divine providence and bless those who support their ministry.

Mat 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

Mat 10:5 Comments Jesus would not have sent forth the Twelve apostles in Mat 10:5 without first training and equipping them, an event that took place in the preceding narrative section of Matthew 8-9. Jesus trained them in the three aspects of ministering healing and deliverance while preaching the Gospel. First, Jesus taught the Twelve that it is God’s will to heal every child of God (Mat 8:1-17). Second, Jesus demonstrated the authority of His name and He sent them forth in His name (Mat 8:23 to Mat 9:8). Third, Jesus showed the Twelve the necessity of the aspect of faith in the heart of the believer to receive healing (Mat 9:18-34). Thus, Jesus equips His disciples for the work of the ministry by teaching them that healing is in the atonement, and that it is implemented through the authority of the name of Jesus Christ through faith in His name.

Mat 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mat 10:6 Comments In Mat 9:36 Jesus has just compared Israel to sheep having no shepherd, weak and scattered. In Mat 10:6 He now calls them “lost sheep.”

Mat 9:36, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”

Mat 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat 10:7 Comments In Mat 10:5-42 Jesus instructs His disciples to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom “as they go.” I can see them trying to come up with a sermon or the words to say before they went out into the villages and highways to preach to the people. They would have felt the need to prepare a message before leaving, but as God’s servants must learn that the Holy Spirit will always be faithful to inspire God’s servants and to anoint them in due season. This is why He had to tell them in this discourse not to worry about what to say, for God would give them the very words to say (Mat 10:19). Mark’s Gospel, which places more emphasis upon the proclamation of the Gospel, says it better in its parallel passage, “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” (Mar 13:11) Mark had certainly seen Peter the apostle preaching under the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

Mat 10:19, “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.”

When we compare the verse where Paul gives young Timothy a similar charge to preach the Gospel, we are able to better understand what Paul meant by “being instant in season, out of season.”

2Ti 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

Thus, Paul’s phrase of “be instant in season, out of season” means to be always ready to speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit because He will be their every time to anoint him. Paul was simply telling this young preach from years of personal experience that God would be faithful to speak through him on all occasions and with all types of messages. Young Timothy must learn to let the Holy Spirit lead him on what needed to be said for each occasion, whether it was with reprove, rebuke, or exhortation with all longsuffering and doctrine. For we see Jesus Christ in the Gospel speaking different ways to different people. Some He instructed and encouraged because of their good hearts. Others He rebuked because of the hardness of their hearts. While others He corrected because of their simple ignorance.

Mat 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Mat 10:8 Comments Note that Jesus had been performing miracles of healing and casting out devils in chapters 8-9. Therefore, the disciples had been taught how to do it by this time in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus did not tell His disciples to pray for the sick, but rather, to heal the sick. They were to take the name of Jesus and take authority over every sickness and disease they encountered, without doubting any situation was too hard for the authority of the name of Jesus (Luk 10:17). Jesus Himself has been training the Twelve by demonstrating His authority over every realm of creation. He now expects these disciples to go do the same.

Mat 10:7-8 Comments We are Called to Set the Captives Free – Jesus called His disciples to do more than preach. They were to set the captives free. It is the same for us today as God’s servants. Note Jeremiah 23. Also:

Eze 34:4, “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”

Mat 10:9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,

Mat 10:9 Comments The currency of this time consisted of coins made of gold, silver and copper.

Mat 10:13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.

Mat 10:13 Comments In a similar way that the early apostles were instructed by Jesus to let their peace come upon the home of their host (Mat 10:13), so did Paul the apostle opening every one of his thirteen New Testament epistles with a blessing of God’s peace and grace upon his readers.

Mat 10:14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

Mat 10:14 Comments Jesus left Nazareth and moved to Capernaum because His home town rejected Him.

Mat 10:15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Instructions as to the place to preach:
v. 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not;
v. 6. but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
These, twelve in all, known ever after by that designation, Jesus sent away with a definite charge as to the place and sphere of their work. They should stay away from the country of the heathens and from the cities of the Samaritans. With great solemnity, in rhythmic cadence, the emphasis is brought out. The first offer of salvation, by God’s intention, was to be made to the Jewish people. As they had been His chosen nation in the Old Testament, so He now confined His own work, through His disciples, chiefly to Israel, though He was not averse to the Gentiles’ having occasional crumbs, Mat 15:1-39; Joh 4:1-54. The chief regard of the disciples was to be for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, those that were going astray without their knowledge and intention, having been worried and flayed and deliberately misled by hirelings. Neglected they were and in great danger of final perdition, but probably to be won for salvation by careful and thorough Gospel-work, preaching, not healing, being the more important.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 10:5. Go not into the way, &c. It may seem strange that our Lord neither preached himself to the Gentiles in general, nor allowed his disciples to preach among them, during his own lifetime; especially when it is evident that he came into the world on purpose to destroy the polytheism of the heathens, their idol mediators, and their idolatrous worship, and to establish the knowledge of the true and triune God, and of the only Mediator between God and man, and of the right method of attaining his favour: but our wonder will cease, when the reason of his conduct is understood. As the Jews were the only people in the world who believed in the one true God, before his messengers attempted to preach him to the heathens, it was fit that they should prove their mission, to the conviction of the Jews; instruct them more fully in the fundamental doctrines of religion, and correct what errors had crept into their faith. Besides, Christianity was to be propagated through the world, not only by the force of its own intrinsic excellence, and by the miracles wherewith it was accomplished, but it was to make its way also by the evidence which it derived from the Jewish prophecies, and by the light thrown upon it, considered as the perfection of that grand scheme which was begun in the first ages, and carried on under various dispensations from time to time, till it obtained a more complete and lasting form under the Jewish economy. It was highly expedient, therefore, that a competent numberof Jews should be converted to Christianity, who might publish it to the rest of the world, with all the evidence which was proper to be offered: but if, on account of the former revelation made to the Jews, it was absolutely fit that the new revelation should be preached by them to the rest of the world, it was necessary that the Gospel, at the first, should be confined to them; because, had it been preached to the Gentiles, that circumstance alone would have made the Jews reject it universally. It is well known how high the prejudices of the Apostles themselves ran on this head, even after they had received the gifts of the Spirit; being excessively offended with Peter, one of their number, who, by a vision from heaven, had with difficulty been prevailed upon to preach to Cornelius the centurion. Nay, they were hardly brought to believe that God intended to bestow the Gospel on the Gentiles, when they saw them receive the greatest of its privileges themselves, even the gifts of the Spirit; and though after this they preached to the Gentiles, yet, wherever they came, their custom was to begin at the Jews, if there were any in the place, that all offence might be prevented; and, on the Jews rejecting the Gospel, they turned to the Gentiles. Act 13:46. Thus, as the Apostle tells us, Rom 15:8. Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promise made unto the fathers, namely, concerning the conversion of the Gentiles, and that the Gentiles might glorify God on account of his mercy; the mercy of the Gospel Dispensation, which they enjoyed by their conversion to Christianity. Had Jesus Christ been a minister of the uncircumcision, that is to say, had he preached the Gospel to all the Gentiles, the Jews would have rejected it; so that the proselytes, and such as held the faith of the proselytes, which many of the best sort of Gentiles seem to have done, would not have become Christ’s disciples with such ease and readiness. The reason was, the evidence of the Gospel being greatly weakened by the universal unbelief of the Jews, the converts among the Gentiles would have been few in comparison, and, by that means, the promises made to the fathers, that in Christ all nations should be blessed, would not have been confirmed, or at least not so fully accomplished as it is by the scheme which Providence has actually chosen. See Macknight. When our Saviour says, Enter not into any city of the Samaritans, he means, “Enter not with a design to preach.” It is true, in the beginning of his ministry, our Lord himself preached to the Samaritans with great success, Joh 4:41-42 and therefore, had he sent his apostles among them, numbers in all probability would have become members of the Christian dispensation; but the inveterate enmity which the Jews bore to the Samaritans, made the conversion of the latter to Christianity improper at this time, for the reasons mentioned above.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 10:5 ff. From this on to Mat 10:42 we have the instructions to the Twelve; comp. Mar 6:8 ff., and especially Luk 9:3 ff. As in the case of the Sermon on the Mount, so on this occasion also, Luke’s parallels are irregular in their connection (in ch. 9 connected with the mission of the Twelve, in ch. 10 with the mission of the Seventy). But this is only an additional reason (in answer to Sieffart, Holtzmann) why the preference as respects essential originality a preference, however, which in no way excludes the idea of the proleptical interweaving of a few later pieces should also in this instance be given to Matthew, inasmuch as the contents of the passage now before us are undoubtedly taken from his collection of our Lord’s sayings.
The mission itself , to which Luk 20:35 points back, and which for this very reason we should be the less inclined to regard as having taken place repeatedly (Weisse, Ewald), was intended as a preliminary experiment in the independent exercise of their calling. For how long? does not appear. Certainly not merely for one day (Wieseler), although not exactly for several months (Krafft). According to Mar 6:7 , they were sent out by twos , which, judging from Luk 10:1 , Mat 21:1 , is to be regarded as what originally took place. As to the result , Matthew gives nothing in the shape of an historical account.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Mat 10:5 . With the Gentiles ( , way leading to the Gentiles, Act 2:28 ; Act 16:17 ; Khner, II. 1, p. 286) Jesus associates the Samaritans , on account of the hostility which prevailed between the Jews and the Samaritans. The latter had become intermixed during the exile with Gentile colonists, whom Shalmaneser had sent into the country (2Ki 17:24 ), which caused the Jews who returned from the captivity to exclude them from any participation in their religious services. For this reason the Samaritans tried to prevent the rebuilding of the temple by bringing accusations against them before Cyrus. Upon this and upon disputed questions of a doctrinal and liturgical nature, the hatred referred to was founded. Sir 1:25 ff.; Lightfoot, p. 327 f. In accordance with the divine plan of salvation (Mat 15:24 ), Jesus endeavours, above all, to secure that the gospel shall be preached, in the first instance, to the Jews (Joh 4:22 ); so, with a view to the energies of the disciples being steadily directed to the foremost matter which would devolve upon them, He in the meantime debars them from entering the field of the Gentiles and Samaritans. This arrangement (if we except hints such as Mat 8:11 , Mat 21:43 , Mat 22:9 , Mat 24:14 ) He allows to subsist till after His resurrection; then, and not till then, does He give to the ministry of the apostles that lofty character of a ministry for all men (Mat 28:19 f.; Act 1:8 ), such as, from the first, He must have regarded His own to have been (Mat 5:13 ). The fact that Jesus Himself taught in travelling through Samaria (Joh 4 ), appears to be at variance with the injunction in our passage (Strauss); but this is one of those paradoxes in the Master’s proceedings about which the disciples were not to be enlightened till some time afterwards. And what He could do, the disciples were not yet equal to, so that, in the first place, they were called upon only to undertake the lighter task.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

2. The Mission, the Message, and the promised Support. Mat 10:5-10
5These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles,12 and into any [a] city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead,13 cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 9Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in 10your purses [girdles]14; Nor scrip [bag] for your journey, neither [nor] two coats, neither [nor] shoes,15 nor yet staves [a staff]Matthew 16 : for the workman is worthy of his meat.17
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The instruction to the Apostles is contained in Mat 10:5-42. The parallel passages are in the ninth, tenth, and twelfth chaps. of Luke. As Matthew was an eyewitness, we have sufficient guarantee for the accuracy of the instructions as reported by him.
Mat 10:5. The way of the Gentiles;i. e., to the Gentiles, or into Gentile territory. This with special reference to their own condition, and to the circumstance that they were to take the road toward Jerusalem, as appears from the following clause.
Into any city of the Samaritans.Samaria lay on their way from Galilee to Juda. The Lord does not prohibit their passing through Samaria, but only their settling for evangelistic purposes, for which the time had not yet arrived. This passage, with its injunction, not to the Gentiles, nor to the Samaritans, but to the Jews, contrasts with the command after His resurrection: Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Juda, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. The Lord assigns to the Samaritans a position intermediate between the Jews and the Gentiles, which is fully borne out by their history. They had greater claim on the gospel than the Gentiles, but less than the Jews. This seems to imply (what Hengstenberg denies) that they were a mixed race, whose religion consisted of a combination of Jewish and heathen elements. The Samaritans were the descendants of the heathen colonists (Gerlach: Phnicians and Syrians?) whom Shalmaneser sent into the country after the deportation of the Ten Tribes into Assyria (2Ki 17:24), and of the remnant of Israelites left behind, with whom they intermarried. When the Jews returned from the Babylonish captivity, they prevented the Samaritans from taking part in rebuilding the temple. Accordingly, the latter reared, under Sanballat and Manasseh (Neh 13:28), a sanctuary of their own, on Mount Gerizim, which was destroyed by Hyrcanus, 109 b. c. The place, however, was regarded sacred, and prayer was offered there. The Jews treated the Samaritans as heretics (not absolutely as heathens). Their enmity was, perhaps, partly accounted for by the conduct of the Samaritans, who neither consistently espoused the cause of Judaism nor that of heathenism. This led to bitter hatred and jealousy between these neighboring populations. In later times, the Samaritans continued strict Monotheists, cherished the hope of a coming Messiah, and adopted the Pentateuch as their authority in matters of faith. But even then heathen elements appeared among them. See Acts 8.
We must not overlook the difference between and . The conversation between the Lord and the woman of Samaria, and His appearance in one of their cities, fully prove that this was merely a provisional arrangement for the disciples. The Lord Himself generally acted on the principle of proceeding from the particular to the universal (Mat 15:24), since His kingdom had first to be founded and established in Israel. But withal, He ever prosecuted His great object of extending His kingdom to the utmost boundary of the earth. This temporary limitation to Israel was, however, the condition necessary for the attainment of this object: Mat 8:11, etc. In the case of His disciples, He strictly insisted on this methodical procedure; and the express prohibition in this instance shows how readily the opposite might have taken place, or, in other words, how deeply they were already imbued with the spirit of catholicity. Accordingly, it is absurd to urge that this prohibition is incompatible with John 4 (Strauss), or with Mat 28:19 (Gfrrer, Kstlin). Heubner: To have sent the disciples to the Gentiles and the Samaritans, would have been to close the way to the hearts of the Jews. A people had first to be gathered among them, for theirs were the calling and the promises. During Christs brief ministry on earth, there was neither time nor room for going beyond the boundaries of Canaan.
Mat 10:8. Raise the dead.The first instance in which the dead were raised by apostolic agency, occurs in the Book of Acts (Mat 9:36); but the Seventy reported on their return, that the evil spirits were subject to them, Luk 10:17. Gerlach.
Freely ye have received.This refers both to their teaching, and to the miraculous help which they were to bring.
Mat 10:9. In your purses, or rather girdles.The girdle of the upper garment served at the same time as purse. In the East, the rich wear pockets in their dresses.Neither gold, nor silver, nor brass (copper, small coins; Vulg.: pecunia). A descending climax, showing that even the least profit from their office was prohibited; but implying neither a vow of poverty nor of mendicancy, in the popish sense. They were to introduce the great principle, that the messengers of the gospel had claim on daily support and free hospitality.
Mat 10:10. The prohibition to provide themselves with two under garments, and to bestow care on travelling shoes and travelling staves, may have been a symbolical mode of enjoining that they were rather to stay in one place, than to hurry from one to another,in general, that they were to be lightly attired, and free of care. Perhaps the word means travelling shoes in the strict sense, as distinguished from . The refers to the Roman calceus. According to Mark, they were not to put on two under garments. This is merely a stronger expression. But it may be regarded as intended by way of explanation, that in that Gospel the messengers of Christ are directed to take a staff, and to be shod with sandals. This staff of which Mark speaks, is not to be understood as in opposition to several staves (hence, perhaps, the reading , in several Codd.), but to a larger outfit for the journey. Hence the two accounts substantially agree. They were not to concern themselves about the staff, far less to make a profit of it by their office.
For the workman is worthy of his meat [living].This serves as key to the preceding passage. Their maintenance and their office were not to be severed. They were to trust to their office for their maintenance, and their maintenance was to be exclusively for their office (1Co 9:14; Gal 6:6). Olshausen rightly calls attention to the difference of times expressed in Luk 22:35. Among those who were prepared to receive the gospel, they required no provision for the future; not so among enemies, although in that case also anxious care was to be banished ( Mat 10:19). The laborer is , worthy, indicating his personal value, of which he should be conscious with dignity, i. e., with humility and confidence.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The instructions which the Lord gave to His ambassadors, were, in the first place, intended for their first mission. But the terms are so pregnant, the directions so deep in their bearing, and so general in their application, that they may be taken as the type of all the commissions given by Christ to His servants. This remark applies, first, to the aim of their mission, viz., to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; i. e., in the first place, always to those who are most willing and prepared to receive the truth, as well as to the most needy. Next, as to the negative direction about their way, we gather that we are not to reverse the Divine order and arrangement in preaching the gospel,a rule which Paul invariably followed, Act 16:6; Act 16:9. Then, as to their commission. They are, (a) to preach: to announce that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (b) To confirm their word,1. by quickening,healing the sick, and even raising the dead; 2. by purifying,cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. The servants of Christ must always aim after these two effects in their activity.Lastly, as to their reward. Freely they receive, freely they give. And yet there is no need for care, since the laborer is worthy of support. The preaching of the gospel must never be degraded into an ordinary worldly employment; nor, on the other hand, should the evangelist be afraid or ashamed to accept of sufficient support from those to whom he preaches, and that according to their own mode of living. We are unfit for building up the kingdom of heaven, or of self-sacrificing love, if we approach the work in a spirit of covetousness or of anxious care, distrusting the supplies of the Church. That this freedom from care does not exclude necessary provision, as indicated by our circumstances and by those of the persons around us, nor the careful preservation of such provision, appears from the history of the miraculous feeding of the multitude. In both these instances there was a small provision, and a larger one was preserved. Gerlach mentions the cloak of Paul as a case in point, 2Ti 4:13. But this last circumstance also shows how free from all outward care the Apostles had been.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Christ sending forth His messengers: 1. The messengers; 2. the aim; 3. the way; 4. the message; 5. the price (freely, in the love of Christ); 6. the provision and the support.The mission of the twelve Apostles, in its continuance to the end of the world.Fulfilment of the prediction, How beautiful upon the mountains! etc., Isa 52:7.How Divine wisdom orders the way of Divine love: 1. As need increases, help enlarges; 2. through limitation to universality; 3. from those who are most susceptible, to those who are less susceptible; 4. through the quickening of the people of God, to that of the world.True and false separatism, as distinguished from true and false universalism, in the spread of the faith.Missionary zeal must accommodate itself to right order, and move in the right direction.How does the Lord indicate the manner in which to carry on His work? 1. By His word; 2. by the history of His kingdom; 3. by His spirit.The eternal obligation to carry the gospel to the Jews, as derived from the injunction to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.Symbolical meaning of the injunction: 1. To go to the lost; 2. to the lost sheep; 3. to those on whom the hope of the Church rests.The message of salvation: 1. An announcement of the kingdom of heaven by the word; 2. an exhibition of the word of God by deeds.How the ambassadors of the Church must prove their Divine mission: 1. By healing the sick, not by torturing the whole; 2. by raising the dead, not by killing the living; 3. by cleansing the lepers (heretics), not by representing as heretics those who are pure; 4. by casting out devils, not by setting them free.Freely ye have received, freely give: the fundamental principle for the spread of the kingdom of God.Freedom from care of the messengers of Jesus.The pilgrims lightly attired, carrying in their hearts the treasures of heaven: 1. Outwardly, unburdened; 2. inwardly, laden with the greatest riches.The laborer is worthy of his hire; or, those who publish the gospel should live by the gospel.
Starke:The kingdom of Christ is not earthly, nor of this world, but consists of heavenly and spiritual treasures.The office of the ministry is not a trade.Quesnel:What it is to have neither gold nor silver in our scrips, but to have them in our hearts.A true minister of the gospel is not hindered by anything in his mission, but is ever ready to go.Duty of the Church to maintain its ministers.
Gerlach:Disinterestedness one of the great characteristics of the servants of Christ.The grace of God is free, even though it be communicated by the instrumentality of man.
Heubner:Go not whither inclination carries, but whither God sends you.The greed of Gehazi punished.Ministers must not seek their own ease or advancement.
Footnotes:
[12] Mat 10:5.[ . Ewald: Hin zu Heiden ziehet nicht; Lange: Gehet nicht abwrts auf die Strause der Heiden; Campbell, Norton: Go not away to Gentiles; Conant: Go not away to Gentiles (omitting the article); the N. T. of the Am. Bible Union: Go not into the way to the Gentiles; = Heidenweg, i. e., way to the heathen.P. S.]
[13] Mat 10:8.The words: are wanting in Codd. E., F., K., L., M., etc., in many transl., and fathers, and hence omitted by Scholz and Tisc endorf. But they are supported by the important Codd. B., C., D. [and Cod. Sinait.], and old versions, and the omission may be easily explained from the fact that no raising of the dead occurred on this first mission. Griesbach and Lachmann [also Alford in the fourth edition] give the words after . [This is the proper order of the oldest MSS. including the Cod. Sinait, and hence Lange correctly translates: Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, etc. So also Dr. Conant, and the N. T. of the Am. Bible Union.P. S.]
[14] Mat 10:9.[ ; Lange: Grtel (-taschen).]
[15] Mat 10:10.[More literally: sandals, . But Lange retains the more popular: Schuhe.]
[16] Mat 10:10.[Dr. Conant: The Received Text, after Stephens 3d ed. of 1550, has correctly in the sing., as in our vernacular version from Wiclifs to the Bishops Bible. King James revisers, following the false reading of the Complutensian and of Stephens first and second editions, give the plural: staves; perhaps to avoid an imaginary discrepancy with Mar 5:8. Dr Lange adopts the singular.P. S.]
[17] Mat 10:10.[Lange: Unterhalt, sustenance; Conant: living. The Greek includes all that is necessary for support or sustenance of life.P. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 1341
THE LIMITED COMMISSION OF THE APOSTLES
Mat 10:5-7. These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them. saying. Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go. preach. saying. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
AFTER our blessed Lord had chosen his twelve servants. whom he called apostles. he gave them a commission to go forth and proclaim his advent. just as his forerunner. John the Baptist. had already done. But. considering the unbounded benevolence of our blessed Lord and that he was really come in order to save the whole world. we are rather surprised at the charge he gave them. especially as contrasted with the commission which he gave them after he was risen from the dead and which is now given to all who preach in his name. We propose to consider,
I.
The restriction imposed on them
They were commanded to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven was at hand
[By the kingdom of heaven was meant the kingdom which the Messiah was appointed to establish. The expression. the kingdom of heaven. was generally so understood at that time; and the people to whom the Apostles were sent. were in no danger of misapprehending the tidings which they heard. The whole nation of the Jews were then expecting their Messiah: and. though they formed very erroneous notions respecting the nature of his kingdom. they were persuaded that he was to be a King and to reign over them and to put all his enemies under his feet. The same proclamation and in the very same terms. had been made by John the Baptist [Note: Mat 3:2.] and by our Lord himself [Note: Mat 4:17.]: so that the office of the Apostles was not to bring new tidings to the peoples ears, but only to call their attention to the truth which had already been extensively circulated throughout the land.]
But in the execution of their commission, they were restricted to the house of Israel
[They were not to go into the way of the Gentiles, or to enter into any city of the Samaritans but to give an exclusive attention to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Jews, though professing to belong to God, were really lost sheep, having gone astray from him, and wandered far from his fold.
But whence arose this restriction, and this extraordinary partiality towards the Jewish people? It arose, I apprehend, partly from the relation in which they stood to God, and partly from the very tidings themselves which were at that time to be proclaimed.
The Jews were Gods peculiar people, with whom he had entered into covenant, and who had been consecrated to him by the sacred rite of circumcision. They were regarded by God as his first-born; who were therefore entitled to a priority in every thing which related to their Fathers inheritance. Besides, they had been taught to expect the Messiah to be born among them, descended, like them, from Abraham, and of the family of David, whose throne he was destined to inherit. To them, therefore, the tidings would be welcome: and when he should have been received by them who were best capable of judging of his pretensions to the Messiahship, he might with greater propriety and credibility be commended to the Gentiles as their Saviour also: whereas, if he should be in the first instance proclaimed as a Saviour to the Gentiles, a suspicion might naturally arise, in the minds of those to whom he was proclaimed, that he was unwarrantably obtruded upon them, and that his title to that august character would not stand the test of careful inquiry.
In addition to this, it had been foretold, that the law should go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem [Note: Isa 2:3.]; and, consequently, the Gospel must first be established there, in order that it might proceed from thence. Hence, even after our Lords resurrection, it was enjoined on the Apostles to preach the Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem [Note: Luk 24:47.]: and though the restriction before referred to was then withdrawn, a priority was still reserved to Gods ancient people; salvation being intended for the Jew first, and then for the Gentile [Note: Rom 1:16.].]
With thankfulness to God, we now proceed to notice,
II.
The liberty accorded to us
The tidings which we are commissioned to declare are more full and complete than those which the Apostles were then authorized to announce
[They could declare only that the kingdom of heaven was at hand: but we proclaim, that it is actually established; that the Lord Jesus Christ has vanquished all the powers of darkness, triumphing over them openly upon his cross [Note: Col 2:15.], and, in his ascension, leading captivity itself captive [Note: Eph 4:8.]. He is now enthroned at the right hand of God; and will, in due season, put all enemies under his feet. True it is, that though his kingdom is at present but very limited, it shall be extended over the face of the globe, and all the kingdoms of the world be comprehended under it [Note: Rom 11:15.]. This we, no less than the Apostles, are authorized to declare: and whilst our authority is the same,]
Our commission is far more extended than theirs
[Wherever there is a lost sheep, whether amongst Jews or Gentiles, there are we at liberty to invite the perishing creature to the good Shepherd, and to bring him home to the fold of God. The commission given to us is, to go into all the world, and to preach the Gospel to every creature: and wherever there is a rebel against God, we may call upon him to lay down his arms, and to submit to the gentle yoke of Jesus, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords. Nay more: we are authorized to assure every sinner under heaven, that if only he come to Jesus, he shall in no wise be cast out. Cast out, do I say? He shall, from being an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and a stranger from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, however far he may have been from God, he shall be brought nigh by the blood of Christ [Note: Eph 2:12-13.]: and, from being a stranger and a foreigner, he shall be a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God [Note: Eph 2:19.]. There is not a blessing enjoyed by any subject of the Redeemers kingdom, which shall not be freely imparted unto him: and not in this world only, but also in the world to come. Even subject of the Redeemers kingdom shall himself be made a king. He must tight indeed as a good soldier of Jesus Christ but victory shall surely be secured to him; and, having overcome his spiritual enemies, he shall be a partaker of his Saviours glory, and sit down with him upon his throne, even as he also overcame and is set down with his Father upon his throne. Such is the kingdom of God, as it was preached by St. Paul [Note: Act 20:25; Act 28:31.]; and to a participation of it I invite every soul that hears me this day.]
Now then learn,
1.
What evidence there is of our commission
[You may well inquire what authority we have to declare these things; and expect that we should be able to adduce some testimony from God himself, as a seal to our ministry. Behold then, in a spiritual sense, the very testimonies with which the Apostles themselves were honoured. Did they heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils [Note: ver. 8.]? Such are the effects wrought by our Gospel also, on the souls of men. Say, brethren, Are there none of you that were once sick, and leprous, yea, dead in trepasses and sins, and led captive by the devil at his will; and that have, through the ministry of the word, been delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of Gods dear Son [Note: Col 1:13.]? I trust that there are amongst you such seals to our ministry [Note: 1Co 9:2.], and such witnesses for God in this sinful world. But where are these effects ever produced by any other doctrine than, that which is here announced? Where are men turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, by any other doctrine than that which Paul preached, the doctrine of the Cross? If, then, this doctrine have wrought effectually amongst you, and be the only doctrine which is the power of God to the salvation of men, then have you an evidence that the kingdom of God is come unto you [Note: Mat 12:28.].]
2.
What benefit you will derive from receiving our testimony
[Form to yourselves an idea of all that the wisest and greatest monarch can bestow upon his most endeared favourites, and you will fall infinitely short of what the Lord Jesus will confer on you ]
3.
what necessity is laid upon you to submit to Christ
[If those who slighted the ministrations of the Apostles, who could only say that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, were in a state more intolerable than that of Sodom and Gomorrha [Note: ver. 15.], what think you must be the state of those who pour contempt upon it now that it is established? I pray God, my brethren, that this guilt may never attach to you; lest, in the last day, the Saviour himself issue respecting you that awful sentence, Bring hither those that were mine enemies, who would not that 1 should reign over them, and slay them before me.]

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

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: (6) But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (7) And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (8) Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. (9) Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, (10) Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. (11) And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. (12) And when ye come into an house, salute it. (13) And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. (14) And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. (15) Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.”
We have in these verses, the Apostles’ commission, where they were to preach, and what their preaching was to consist of; namely, of the near approach of Christ’s kingdom; that is, Christ’s Person and Christ’s Salvation. The kingdom of grace distinguished from the law, and the kingdom of glory to which that grace led. Joh 1:17 . And what a beautiful view is here afforded of those holy men going forth with their lives in their hands to preach Jesus. No gold, no silver, no money in their purse And the awful consequence to those who rejected their preaching is read to us most solemnly, in that, Sodom and Gomorrah will find more favor at the last day!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 43
Prayer

Almighty God, our life is a continual cry unto thee; thine ear is besieged with the prayers of men. We are for ever in want, our experience is a cry to be somewhat more than we already are. This is not discontent, this is the joy of being yet unsatisfied. Thou hast more grace to give, more light to shed, broader and grander revelations thou hast yet to disclose, and we feel the joyous pain of a hunger that is about to eat, and the welcome grateful fire of a thirst that may quench itself in the river of God. May we never be satisfied, may we never be dissatisfied, may we forever be unsatisfied, yearning for more, longing to be more, and to do more, and to see more. Thus may our soul’s life be a continual growth, an eternal expansion, a yearning after the infinite, receiving continual answers according to each day’s necessity.
We bless thee for a book that is like a store of living seed: let it be planted deeply in the heart’s ground, honest and well-prepared, and behold it will rise up in due time a golden harvest, too large for any storage room we have. May the word of Christ thus dwell in us richly, not in the seed only, not in the letter alone, but as a seed that is sown, as a letter that is understood and has grown in all its spiritual blossoming and fruitfulness, and may we thus, in a high and ever widening consciousness of thy presence, grow in grace. Leaving all narrowness and selfishness, all bigotry and exclusiveness, may we know that the end of the commandment is charity, and that we have nothing if we have not love that whatsoever we may have in our head if our hearts be not large enough to encompass the world, we are trees twice dead and plucked up by the roots. Teach us this great lesson; thy Church cannot learn it, thy Church is dead, thy Church has gone astray, we have lost our love, our charity is dead.
We pray thee to receive what we can give of humble praise for all thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses. Thou art always before us and right above us, far beyond our song as the light is far beyond the birds which sing in its lustre. Still we would be praising thee; feeble and halting as our song is we cannot keep it back; when we see thy mercy we must respond to it, when we feel the glow of thy love there must be an answer in our heart, and when speech fails us to set forth infinite fire in cold words, then do we take to singing and making melody in our hearts, the higher speech, the speech which thou dost understand.
We come before thee with every power bruised, with every promise neglected, with every commandment broken, feeble in our knees, and our hands hanging down in impotence, our heads bewildered, and our hearts divided. Behold us in this hospital sick, wounded, diseased, blind, crippled, with nothing to show but our poverty, with nothing to declare but our sin and our penitence; and whilst we mourn our sin, come to us and show us that thy grace has more than provided for us, that the almightiness of God is in excess of the feebleness of man; that where sin abounds grace doth much more abound; that the blackness of our life shall be utterly taken away by the blood which cleanseth from all sin.
Thou knowest what we need. We are getting older we would become better; the days are flying we would write some deeper thing upon them than we have yet inscribed; our opportunities of usefulness are dwindling, and we would arise and work like men who see the sun is going down. The Lord help us in all high purpose, in all noble resolution. The Lord purify us with flames of fire from heaven, and baptise us every day with the Holy Ghost.
Enlarge us, for we are small; kindle a great light in our intelligence, for we trim our lamp with our own fingers, and feed it with our own oil. O, that we might live in the sun, and stand in the very glory of God! Amen.
Mat 10:5-23 .

5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans (the Gentile inhabitants of the country between Judea and Galilee. The prohibition is taken off Act 13:46 ) enter ye not:
6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven, is at hand.
8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received freely give.
9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses.
10. Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
11. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
12. And when ye come into an house, salute it.
13. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
14. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
15. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
17. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
18. And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
23. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come.
The Uses of Inspired Power

We are now studying the charge which Jesus Christ gave to his twelve apostles or disciples, when he sent them upon their first missionary tour. In the charge we found three things Power, Service, and Consolation. “Jesus Christ called unto him his twelve disciples and gave them power.” To-day we have to look at the uses to which that power was to be put. Power is another name for duty; the measure of power is the measure of obligation. It was never God’s intention that you should take the power which he gave you and enfold it and lay it aside, to be merely kept in its first state which indeed is impossible, for power that is not used declines and dies. This we know in our intellectual education, in all the exercises of life the power which falls into desuetude soon becomes impotence. Whatever power we have, therefore, is meant to be used for the good of others. If we cannot work miracles, we have the power of eloquence, the power of money, the power of sympathy we are clothed not with less power than that with which the early disciples were invested it has another aspect, and in some sense it may be turned to other methods and uses, but essentially it is divine power, and it is meant to be expended for the good of the race. It is not a personal possession or a personal luxury only, it is meant for expenditure, for spreading over the largest possible surface, and for accomplishing the largest usefulness.
What is your power? You can speak a kind word, you can illuminate a dark mystery, you can soothingly touch some bitter distress of the heart, you can utter a hopeful word to the man who is in despair, you can sit down and listen sympathetically to the heart that has a long tale of wonder or of woe or of bitterness to tell. Find out what your particular personal power is, and understand that wherever power is given, duty is implied.
Jesus Christ always used his power beneficially. When all power was given to him in heaven and on earth, how did he employ it? I know of no words more sublime in their moral pathos than the words which he used when he declared that all power was given unto him. He mentioned nothing about destruction. He made no reference to retaliation, he did not say, “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth, therefore gather mine enemies together that I may consume them with sudden fire.” Pause and hear what he has to say, and tell me if ever logic was surprised into such sequences as in the case of his great speech. “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth go ye therefore.” You call the word therefore a logical word, you say it indicates a sequence, and unites what is coming with what is gone. Observe into what wondrous breadths this therefore expands itself. “Go ye therefore and teach.” That is the true use of power to educate, to teach, to communicate ideas, to build up a spiritual kingdom, to deliver men from darkness and error and narrowness, and to lift them up into a larger self-hood. Such is the purpose of Christianity, and whilst the Church holds her faith to that intent, whoever speaks against it but wastes his own breath.
Let us now hear what Jesus Christ says to his twelve disciples when he sends them forth. He says in verses nine and ten “Provide neither gold nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves.” That is the way to go missioning. That is the way to evangelize the world. He never amended that method, he never said a single word about outfits and guarantees and supports and home refuges in the case of foreign disappointments. It is the method that must be adopted today if Christian men are in earnest. Go to foreign lands with nothing nothing but yourself and God. Do you want to be a missionary to barbarous lands to savage people? Then go at once and tell no one about it “But I cannot pay my passage.” Then work it. Pull ropes, carry chains, keep fires work it, or you do not mean to go. “But I must have time to buy an outfit.” On what compulsion must you? You are not a missionary. If you had the fire of God burning in you and wanted to go to reclaim the moral wastes of the world, you would be off! You would not need to go and converse with your minister about it, and consult a number of elderly persons concerning it, and to go around certain circumlocutionary paths to come to it we would ask “Where is he?” And by-and-by the answer would come, that Christ had sent you forth, without scrip or purse, or shoes, or coats, or staves. The Church now goes respectably, well equipped the Church now goes to taste the ill-smelling dish of heathenism, and if its nostril be offended by the flavour, it comes home.
That kind of energy, if energy it may be termed, will never conquer the world. If Christ has called you very closely to himself, and has told you to go and be a missionary, then go. The Norwegians are following in this matter the counsel and will of Christ. They went into India and said to the people with whom they came in contact: “We have come to teach you Christianity.” “Who sent you?” “Nobody.” “What have you to live upon?” “Nothing.” “How do you mean to live?” “We mean to do you all the good we can, and we are sure you will not let us starve.” “But if we have nothing?” “Then we will have nothing along with you.” There was no answer to that argument. The Norwegians meant it, sat down and did it. Now, my young friend, you who are talking about going to be a missionary, why do you not start off on your beneficent journey at once? You may be killed if you touch mechanism; the machinery of the Church is now so complicated that if you do not take care some crank or wheel will catch you, and in you will go, and you will never come out again.
This is exactly how Christ himself came. “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant.” Just what I told you now to do take upon you the form of a sailor, work your passage out to the land you want to go to, and Christ will go along with you, and you shall not have gone much over the land till the Son of man be come. He comes in strange ways, in great broad lines, in swiftly expanding consciousness of his presence, by filling the mind with new brightness and the soul with new emotion, and lifting up the life to higher and diviner energies. It is not the case of sending men into Christian cities to speak to the Christian intelligence and the Christian luxury of the age. We are talking to the intelligence, and culture, and wealth, and social influence of the metropolis. That is not the case described in the text. We are men who profess to know the truth and to love it, and we have established amongst ourselves constituted and permanent ministries of the truth. We must, therefore, not apply to ourselves passages, directions, methods, and schemes which were suggested in reference to nations that knew not that Jesus Christ had come.
Jesus Christ, therefore, appears before us as a man who undertakes a great work, upon conditions which cannot be disappointed. He wants only meat, and there is something in human nature that will not let the earnest man starve. The workman is worthy of his meat. Go where you will, earnest man, you shall have bread enough and to spare. Not, perhaps, to day, but to-morrow you will have more than sufficient, and that you can keep for the day that is to follow, or give it away as you please. But you cannot show disinterestedness, the passion of enthusiasm, the divinity of absolute consecration, and be left to starve. There are always kind hearts, open houses, thoughtful minds, liberal hands; God has his elect everywhere out of hell. Our care must be about the truth; God will take care about the bread. If Jesus Christ had set up a missionary scheme with most intricate, and complex, and expensive mechanism it would have come to nothing, but its conditions are so simple, so heroic, so grand and so perfectly exemplified in his own person, that they apply to all times, lands, climes, and social conditions, and national and world-wide necessities.
In sending men forth to their duty, Jesus Christ shows them clearly what they will certainly have to bear. He does not promise them a downy pillow, he does not promise them genteel society, he does not offer to them any social bribe; he says, “You will be like sheep in the midst of wolves, they will fall upon you, break your bones, suck your blood; ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake. The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child, and children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” There is no mistaking the lot of the true Christian evangelist. He has a hard time of it. Goodness is always hateful to evil; the beasts that gather together in the nighttime hate the light you torment them if you turn a sudden blaze upon them, for they hasten and fly, and gnash their teeth, and display animosity and resentment. Goodness can never establish itself anywhere without a battle. Do not suppose that you can lull the enemy to sleep and put up your house, and when you have roofed it, and completed it, and furnished it, can then tell him that it is beyond his strength. The establishment of goodness is a daily battle. You cannot take upon you a new habit without having to fight for every inch of ground you make; you cannot exert yourself to throw off slothfulness or any self-indulgence without having to fight for the end.
What is true in discipline is true in the educational and moral conquest of the world. In proportion as you are free and easy in your methods of going into any company, and taking its similitude and speaking its language, will you have an easy time of it, but if you have a grand programme, a rousing and elevating purpose, you will go as sheep among wolves. Do not imagine that goodness is peaceful. Goodness is controversial. They who “make a desert and call it peace” may never intermeddle with anything that affects the integrity and nobleness of society, and then say that they are living quiet and peaceable lives. Quiet lives they may be, but not peaceful. Peaceful that is a resultant word, it combines many elements and many considerations, and reconciles into one sweet harmony forces which, taken separately, are among the most combatant energies of the universe. Goodness always sends a sword upon the earth, and kindles a fire, and divides families; sets the father against the child and the child against the father, and the brother against the brother, and kindles a great fire upon the earth. We have succeeded now in putting the fire out, and have come to the age of courteous civilities and tender regard for one another’s evil habits. The old goodness, heaven’s own angel, the Christ-goodness, fought every day, not with a blade of steel but with that keener blade of conviction, enthusiasm, sacrifice, that counted not its life dear unto itself that it might win the battle against evil, and darkness, and corruption.
One would have thought that in sending forth Goodness the angel would have been recognised at once and welcomed with broad and generous hospitality. This historical reception of goodness enables us to answer and destroy a fallacy which is common in modern reasoning. People say, “Show a beautiful example, a beautiful God, a beautiful gospel, and there will be an answer of devotion and homage in every human heart.” That has been proved to be false. The example is not enough; men are not saved by spectacles: we need something higher than a spectacular gospel. Men get used to beauty, and theirs is a familiarity which is followed by contempt. There are men amongst us who care nothing for the sunrise; there are men who could gabble in a sunset; there are persons who could chaffer and joke upon the great sea. Understand that surprising miracles of beauty are like surprising miracles of truth men may become so accustomed to them as to let them pass by without recognition or homage.
Goodness has always had a hard time of it. In proportion as the Church becomes luxurious will the Church become feeble. In proportion as the Church says to the world, “Let us compromise this business and say nothing unpleasant to one another, but sit down and enjoy ourselves as far as we can,” the Church has disestablished itself in the confidence and esteem of men, and has broken the trust and vow paid before God’s heaven. A little persecution and difficulty would do the Church good. We have heard of some preachers who would be mighty speakers if they could only be contradicted in the middle of their discourse, but left to themselves they are inclined to maunder, and halt, and become feeble, and monotonous, and pointless. If an antagonist could arise in the congregation and say. “That is not true,” such preachers would become different men, every energy a flame, and the whole voice a thunder sent down from heaven.
It is even so with the Church: we have it so much our own way now, the lines of demarcation are broken up, and the old points indicated by Christ of antagonism, and assault, and aggression are, if not utterly obliterated, so treated as to have lost their accent and their force. Only this morning I was reading the old story of Hannibal one winter in Capua brought about a ruin which the snows of the Alps, the suns of Italy, the treachery of the Gauls, and the prowess of the Romans failed to accomplish. So long as he was a soldier only, stern in discipline, rigorous in his habits, devoted with indivisible strength to his duty, he feared nothing the setting down of his foot was as a battle half won; but the blandishments and enfeeblements of luxurious Capua sucked the strength out of the giant and left him a common man. The Church has gone to Capua, the Church is wintering in luxurious places the grand old Church that wrote human names high up above all other human scrolls, martyrs, heroes, leaders she can now hardly write her name in common ink.
Jesus Christ told his disciples how to treat the cities and towns that rejected the message which they had to convey to them. “Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet.” They mistake Christ who suppose that he is soft, indifferent, easily imposed upon, and who can be treated contemptuously without feeling it. We read of the wrath of the Lamb, the fire of love, the indignation of grace God’s heart burning like an oven. Jesus Christ here founds his directions upon the grand and indestructible principle which lies at the very base, and forms the very strength, of all high educational purposes. What is that principle? It is that no man has the right to reject truth. He has the power to do it, but not the right. We have liberty to go to perdition, but not the right. You have no right to refuse a just idea, you have no right to shut yourself up in solitude and say, “I will not listen to the ministries of civilization that are going on around me.” It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in any day of judgment than for you if you adopt so unrighteous and ignoble a policy. No man has any right to refuse to read a book that will open his eyes and give him wider light than he has yet enjoyed. He may decline a privilege, he cannot thrust from him a right without incurring loss in himself and divine punishment from without. This is not arbitrary doctrine, this is no conception of any individual thinker; all the history of our education and civil progress testifies to the same thing.
What new responsibility this throws upon us! We have not the right to reject truth; we have the right to examine our ministers; we have the right to examine every spirit that comes to us and challenges our attention, we have a right to examine personal credentials and personal authorities, but where any truth is established no man has a right to reject it, and if any man reject a truth, even unwittingly or unintentionally, he shall suffer loss; he himself shall be saved, but very narrowly. If I keep out any part of the sun that can really do my life good, I suffer loss in proportion to the sunlight which I exclude.
Jesus Christ, then, defined the service which his disciples are to perform. In our last address he clothed them with power; today he indicates the field of service, he will next come to us with his sweet consolations and encouragements; he will lower his voice into another key, and speak sweetly to the heart. We saw that it is not enough for a man to have power to do his duty; sheer, dry, hard strength is not enough. The man will come home disappointed; he will not see the result of his labours, and he may cry bitterly for his failure, and it is in that hour of darkness that Jesus Christ will draw him nearer than ever to his hospitable heart, and speak to him in tones of ineffable sweetness the infinite consolations which sustained his own strength when he trod the winepress alone. One remark occurs to me which might have been made under our last discourse, but which might be made appropriately in any connection when speaking of Jesus Christ. In the last verse of the ninth chapter Jesus said, “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” In the first verse of the tenth chapter we read that Jesus Christ gave his disciples power, and that he sent them forth with his gracious commands. The Lord of the harvest is to be prayed to that he would send forth labourers; Jesus Christ himself sends forth labourers was he Lord of the harvest?
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

Ver. 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth ] Out of deep commiseration of those poor scattered sheep, that lay panting for life, and well nigh gasping their last ( ), Mat 9:30 . Saul, that ravening wolf of Benjamin, and his fellow Pharisees, not only breathed out threatenings, but worried Christ’s sheep, that bore golden fleeces,Act 9:1Act 9:1 . Now, because he could not go to them all himseff in person, he sends out the twelve. Thereby also to teach them and us that no minister is so “thoroughly furnished to all good works,” 2Ti 3:17 , but that he may need the advice and help of his fellow labourers. And this, I conceive, was at first the end of erecting colleges and cathedrals.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

5. ] If we compare this verse with ch. Mat 11:1 , there can be little doubt that this discourse of our Lord was delivered at one time , and that, the first sending of the Twelve . How often its solemn injunctions may have been repeated on similar occasions we cannot say: many of them reappear at the sending of the Seventy in Luk 10:2 ff.
Its primary reference is to the then Mission of the Apostles to prepare His way; but it includes, in the germ, instructions prophetically delivered for the ministers and missionaries of the Gospel to the end of time . It may be divided into THREE GREAT PORTIONS, in each of which different departments of the subject are treated, but which follow in natural sequence on one another. In the FIRST of these ( Mat 10:5-15 ), our Lord, taking up the position of the messengers whom He sends from the declaration with which the Baptist and He Himself began their ministry, , gives them commands, mostly literal and of present import, for their mission to the cities of Israel . This portion concludes with a denunciation of judgment against that unbelief which should reject their preaching. The SECOND ( Mat 10:16-23 ) refers to the general mission of the Apostles as developing itself, after the Lord should be taken from them, in preaching to Jews and Gentiles ( Mat 10:17-18 ), and subjecting them to persecutions ( Mat 10:21-22 ). This portion ends with the end of the apostolic period properly so called, Mat 10:23 referring primarily to the destruction of Jerusalem. In this portion there is a foreshadowing of what shall be the lot and duty of the teachers of the Gospel to the end, inasmuch as the ‘coming of the Son of Man’ is ever typical of His final coming to judgment. Still the direct reference is to the Apostles and their mission, and the other only by inference. The THIRD ( Mat 10:24-42 ), the longest and weightiest portion, is spoken directly (with occasional reference only to the Apostles and their mission ( Mat 10:40 )) of all disciples of the Lord , their position, their encouragements, their duties, and finally concludes with the last great reward ( Mat 10:42 ). In these first verses, 5, 6, we have the location; in 7, 8, the purpose; in 9, 10, the fitting out; and in 11 14, the manner of proceeding , of their mission: Mat 10:15 concluding with a prophetic denouncement, tending to impress them with a deep sense of the importance of the office entrusted to them.
] The Samaritans were the Gentile inhabitants of the country between Juda and Galilee, consisting of heathens whom Shalmaneser king of Assyria brought from Babylon and other places. Their religion was a mixture of the worship of the true God with idolatry ( 2Ki 17:24-41 ). The Jews had no dealings with them, Joh 4:9 . They appear to have been not so unready as the Jews to receive our Lord and His mission (Joh 4:39-42 ; Luk 9:51 ff., and notes); but this prohibition rested on judicial reasons. See Act 13:46 . In Act 1:8 the prohibition is expressly taken off: ‘Ye shall be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Juda, and in Samaria , and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’ And in Act 8:1 ; Act 8:5 ; Act 8:8 , we find the result; See ch. Mat 15:21-28 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 10:5-15 . Instructions to the missioners .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 10:5 . . : These, the Twelve , Jesus sent forth, under the injunctions following ( ). . . This prohibition occurs in Matthew only, but there is no reason to doubt its authenticity except indeed that it went without saying. The very prohibition implies a consciousness that one day the Gospel would go the way of the Gentiles, just as Mat 5:17 implies consciousness that fulfilling, in the speaker’s sense, would involve annulling. , the way towards (Meyer), the genitive being a genitive of motion (Fritzsche, Khner, 414, 4), or a way within or of, parallel to in next clause. . ., not even in Samaria should they carry on their mission. The prohibition is total. does not refer to the chief city (Erasmus, Annot., metropolis ) or to the towns as distinct from the rural parts through which at least they might pass (Grotius). It means any considerable centre of population. The towns and villages are thought of as the natural sphere of work (Mat 10:11 ). The reason of the double prohibition is not given, but doubtless it lay in the grounds of policy which led Christ to confine His own work to Israel, and also in the crude religious state of the disciples.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Go not = Go not abroad: i.e. from the land.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

5. ] If we compare this verse with ch. Mat 11:1, there can be little doubt that this discourse of our Lord was delivered at one time, and that, the first sending of the Twelve. How often its solemn injunctions may have been repeated on similar occasions we cannot say: many of them reappear at the sending of the Seventy in Luk 10:2 ff.
Its primary reference is to the then Mission of the Apostles to prepare His way; but it includes, in the germ, instructions prophetically delivered for the ministers and missionaries of the Gospel to the end of time. It may be divided into THREE GREAT PORTIONS, in each of which different departments of the subject are treated, but which follow in natural sequence on one another. In the FIRST of these (Mat 10:5-15), our Lord, taking up the position of the messengers whom He sends from the declaration with which the Baptist and He Himself began their ministry, , gives them commands, mostly literal and of present import, for their mission to the cities of Israel. This portion concludes with a denunciation of judgment against that unbelief which should reject their preaching. The SECOND (Mat 10:16-23) refers to the general mission of the Apostles as developing itself, after the Lord should be taken from them, in preaching to Jews and Gentiles (Mat 10:17-18), and subjecting them to persecutions (Mat 10:21-22). This portion ends with the end of the apostolic period properly so called, Mat 10:23 referring primarily to the destruction of Jerusalem. In this portion there is a foreshadowing of what shall be the lot and duty of the teachers of the Gospel to the end, inasmuch as the coming of the Son of Man is ever typical of His final coming to judgment. Still the direct reference is to the Apostles and their mission, and the other only by inference. The THIRD (Mat 10:24-42), the longest and weightiest portion, is spoken directly (with occasional reference only to the Apostles and their mission (Mat 10:40)) of all disciples of the Lord,-their position,-their encouragements,-their duties,-and finally concludes with the last great reward (Mat 10:42). In these first verses, 5, 6,-we have the location; in 7, 8, the purpose; in 9, 10, the fitting out; and in 11-14, the manner of proceeding,-of their mission: Mat 10:15 concluding with a prophetic denouncement, tending to impress them with a deep sense of the importance of the office entrusted to them.
] The Samaritans were the Gentile inhabitants of the country between Juda and Galilee, consisting of heathens whom Shalmaneser king of Assyria brought from Babylon and other places. Their religion was a mixture of the worship of the true God with idolatry (2Ki 17:24-41). The Jews had no dealings with them, Joh 4:9. They appear to have been not so unready as the Jews to receive our Lord and His mission (Joh 4:39-42; Luk 9:51 ff., and notes);-but this prohibition rested on judicial reasons. See Act 13:46. In Act 1:8 the prohibition is expressly taken off: Ye shall be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Juda, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And in Act 8:1; Act 8:5; Act 8:8, we find the result; See ch. Mat 15:21-28.
Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 10:5-6. –, way-city-house) The apostles were sometimes obliged to tread the roads of the Samaritans in their journeys;[454] but there was the less need for them to enter their cities, and stay there, because the Lord had preached to them in His journey (see John 4), and the apostles also were afterwards to come to them. The first of these injunctions regards this first legation; most of the rest apply equally to the whole office of the apostolate, to which the twelve are introduced on the present occasion; cf. Mat 10:18. Our Lord gave nearly the same commands to the seventy disciples; Luk 10:1-11.
[454] Inasmuch as Samaria was situated between Judea and Galilee.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Missionaries Sent out
Mat 10:5-15
For the present, the Twelve were to confine themselves to Jews, because the Lords ministry was the climax of the Jewish probation and it was desirable that every opportunity should be given to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to repent. God can never be unmindful of any covenant into which He has entered with the soul. If we believe not, He remaineth faithful.
May we not say that our Lord was the first medical missionary? He has taught us that the healing of disease is often the best way of approaching the soul. The kingdom of God deals not only with our eternal welfare, but with the conditions of human life. On Christs head are many crowns; social, family and civic life are departments of His beneficent reign. His servants must be without worldly entanglements and live in absolute dependence upon God to whom they have consecrated their lives. The peace of God goes forth and returns.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Gentiles
The kingdom was promised to the Jews. Gentiles could be blessed only through Christ crucified and risen. Cf. Joh 12:20-24.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

sent: Mat 22:3, Luk 9:2, Luk 10:1, Joh 20:21
Go: Mat 4:15, Joh 7:35, Act 10:45-48, Act 11:1-18, Act 22:21-23, Rom 15:8, Rom 15:9, 1Th 2:16
of the Samaritans: 2Ki 17:24-41, Luk 9:52-54, Joh 4:5, Joh 4:9, Joh 4:20, Joh 4:22-24, Act 1:8, Act 8:1, 5-25
Reciprocal: Jdg 6:37 – only Eze 3:4 – General Mat 7:22 – have we Mat 15:21 – Tyre Mat 15:24 – I am not Mar 7:27 – Let Mar 16:15 – Go Luk 24:47 – beginning Joh 4:4 – General Joh 12:22 – Andrew and Act 3:26 – first Act 8:5 – the city
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

10:5
This and the following verses through 5 constitute what is familiarly known as the first commission. It was limited as to the territory or people to whom they were to go. All people who were not full blooded Jews were regarded as Gentiles. Samaritans were distinguished from the Gentiles because they were a mixed race, part Jew and part Gentile, both in their blood and in their religion. This history of their origin is recorded in 2 Kings chapter 17, and explained in volume 2 of this Commentary.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
[Into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not.] Our Saviour would have the Jews’ privileges reserved to them, until they alienated and lost them by their own perverseness and sins. Nor does he grant the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles or Samaritans, before it was offered to the Jewish nation. The Samaritans vaunted themselves sons of the patriarch Jacob, Joh 4:12 (which, indeed, was not altogether distant from the truth); they embraced also the law of Moses; and being taught thence, expected the Messias as well as the Jews: nevertheless, Christ acknowledges them for his sheep no more than the heathen themselves.
I. Very many among them were sprung, indeed, of the seed of Jacob, though now become renegades and apostates from the Jewish faith and nation, and hating them more than if they were heathens, and more than they would do heathens. Which also, among other things, may perhaps be observed in their very language. For read the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch; and, if I mistake not, you will observe that the Samaritans, when, by reason of the nearness of the places, and the alliance of the nations, they could not but make use of the language of the Jews, yet used such a variation and change of the dialect, as if they scorned to speak the same words that they did, and make the same language not the same.
II. In like manner they received the Mosaic law, but, for the most part, in so different a writing of the words, that they seem plainly to have propounded this to themselves, that retaining indeed the law of Moses, they would hold it under as much difference from the Mosaic text of the Jews as ever they could, so that they kept something to the sense. “R. Eliezer Ben R. Simeon said, ‘I said to the scribes of the Samaritans, Ye have falsified your law without any manner of profit accruing to you thereby. For ye have written in your law, near the oaken groves of Moreh, which is Sychem;’ ” etc….Let the Samaritan text at Deu 11:30 be looked upon.
III. However they pretended to study the religion of Moses, yet, in truth, there was little or no difference between them and idolaters, when they knew not what they worshipped; which our Saviour objects against them, Joh 4:22; and had not only revolved as apostates from the true religion of Moses, but set themselves against it with the greatest hatred. Hence the Jewish nation held them for heathens, or for a people more execrable than the heathens themselves. A certain Rabbin thus reproaches their idolatry: “R. Ismael Ben R. Josi went to Neapolis [that is, Sychem]: the Samaritans came to him, to whom he spake thus; ‘I see that you adore not this mountain, but the idols which are under it: for it is written, Jacob hid the strange gods under the wood, which is near Sychem.’ ”
It is disputed whether a Cuthite ought to be reckoned for a heathen, which is asserted by Rabbi, denied by Simeon; but the conclusion, indeed, is sufficiently for the affirmative.
IV. The metropolis of the Samaritans laboured under a second apostasy, being brought to it by the deceit and witchcraft of Simon Magus, after the receiving of the gospel from the mouth of our Saviour himself. Compare Act 8:9 with Joh 4:41.
From all these particulars, and with good reason for the thing itself, and to preserve the privileges of the Jews safe, and that they might not otherwise prove an offence to that nation, the Samaritans are made parallel to the heathen, and as distant as they from partaking of the gospel.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mat 10:5. The way of the Gentiles would lead northward, they were to go toward Jerusalem, as we infer from the rest of the verse.
Go ye not. This prohibition was removed after the resurrection (Act 1:8). To have taken the way of the Gentiles at this time would have closed the way to the hearts of the Jews, who must form the basis of the Christian Church.
And into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not. Samaria lay between Galilee, where they were, and Judea, whither they probably went. They were not forbidden to pass through that region, but only to stay there. The Samaritans were half-heathen, the descendants of Gentiles who had been partially instructed in the Jewish religion (comp. 2Ki 17:27-41) when they first occupied the territory of the ten tribes. With them the Jews had no dealings in the time of our Lord (Joh 4:9), treating them as heretics. They received the law of Moses, once had a temple on Mount Gerezim; and they expected the Messiah, and our Lord had already avowed Himself the Christ and gained converts among them (Joh 4:9-42). But the harvest He there promised was to be reaped after His death (Act 8:5) not through this sending forth of laborers. They received the gospel after the Jews and before the Gentiles. The utterance of this prohibition hints that the Apostles had some idea of the wider extension of the gospel.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

This was only a temporary prohiition whilst Christ was here upon earth, the Jews being Christ’s own people, of whom he came, and to whom he was promised; the gospel is first preached to them; but afterwards the apostles had a command to teach all nations; and after Christ ascension, Samaria received the gospel by the preaching of Philip.
From the character which Christ gives of the Jews, calling them lost sheep, we learn, 1. That the condition of a people, before brought home to Christ by the ministers of the gospel, is a lost condition; sinners are as lost sheep, wandering and going astray from God, till the ministry of the word finds them.
2. That the great work and office of the ministers of the gospel is to call home, and to bring in, lost sheep unto Jesus Christ the great Shepherd. Go, says he, to the lost sheep, &c.
Mark, Christ calls the Israelites sheep, though they were not obedient to the voice of their Shepherd, because they were God’s chosen people; and he calls them the lost sheep, because they were both lost in themselves, and also in great danger of being eventually and finally lost, by the ignorance and wickedness of their spiritual guides.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 10:5-6. These twelve Jesus sent forth Namely, to preach the gospel and to work miracles; exercising therein his supreme authority over his Church. And commanded, Go not into the way of the Gentiles That is, into their country. Their commission was thus confined now, because the calling of the Gentiles was deferred till after the more plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of pentecost. And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not In travelling through Palestine the apostles would often have occasion to go into Samaria; but they were not to enter the cities thereof with a design to preach. It is true, in the beginning of his ministry, our Lord himself preached to the Samaritans with great success, Joh 4:41-42; and therefore, had he sent his apostles among them, numbers, in all probability, would have been induced to believe; but the inveterate enmity which the Jews bore to the Samaritans made the conversion of the latter improper at this time, as it would have laid a great stumbling-block in the way of the conversion of the Jews: as preaching now to the Gentiles would also have done. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel He calls the Jews lost sheep, because, as he had told his disciples, Mat 9:36, they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd, and so were in danger of perishing. See Isaiah 49.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mat 10:5-42. The Charge to the Twelve.The section forms the second of five passages into which Mt. col lected the sayings of Jesus. The Markan account (Mat 6:7-11) is followed by Luk 9:1-5, but Luk 10:2-6 (the Seventy) is from Q; Mat 10:5-16 combines the two sources. The mission is limited to Jews, hardly, in view of Mat 10:6, Mat 10:23, to the Jews of Galilee. Luke 10 omits the limitation; he wrote mainly for Gentiles. Indeed, when Mt. wrote, the limitation was obsolete. Yet it shows that Jesus came to realise the Jewish hope, and though Gentiles are not wholly barred from the Kingdom (Mat 8:11 f.), they enter only as an appendage. Not yet is humanity welcomed without distinction. The Apostles preach the imminence of the Kingdom rather than repentance (Mar 6:12, but cf. Mar 1:15); Mt. (Mat 10:8) expands the phrase heal the sick, and en joins gratuitous service. Get you no gold, etc. (Mat 10:9), means either Do not acquire (a repetition of the sense of Mat 10:8) or, better, Do not procure as provision before starting, though Jesus would not expect them to make money by announcing the Kingdom. The staff and sandals permitted in Mk. are forbidden here. The Fathers got over the contradiction by making the forbidden stick an ordinary one, the permitted one an apostolic wand of office. All these injunctions, encouraging the trust enjoined in Mat 6:25-33, powerfully influenced the first mediaeval friars, especially Francis of Assisi.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 5
That is, they were not to go out of Palestine, but to confine their labors to the Jews.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

3. Jesus’ charge concerning His apostles’ mission 10:5-42
Matthew proceeded to record Jesus’ second major discourse in his Gospel: the Mission Discourse. It contains the instructions Jesus gave the 12 Apostles before He sent them out to proclaim the nearness of the messianic kingdom. Kingsbury saw the theme of this speech as "the mission of the disciples to Israel" and outlined it as follows: (I) On Being Sent to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel (Mat 10:5-15); (II) On Responding to Persecution (Mat 10:16-23); and (III) On Bearing Witness Fearlessly (Mat 10:34-42). [Note: Kingsbury, Matthew as . . ., p. 112.] Whereas there is much instruction on serving Jesus here, there is also quite a bit of emphasis on persecution.
"Before Jesus sent His ambassadors out to minister, He preached an ’ordination sermon’ to encourage and prepare them. In this sermon, the King had something to say to all of His servants-past, present, and future. Unless we recognize this fact, the message of this chapter will seem hopelessly confused." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:36.]
"It is evidential of its authenticity, and deserves special notice, that this Discourse, while so un-Jewish in spirit, is more than any other, even more than that on the Mount, Jewish in its forms of thought and modes of expression." [Note: Edersheim, 1:641. See ibid., 1:641-53, for many parallels.]
This observation suggests that this mission was uniquely Jewish. Yet, as in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke beyond His immediate audience with later disciples also in mind. This seems clear as we compare this instruction with later teaching on the conduct of Christ’s disciples in the present age.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The scope of their mission 10:5-8
Jesus first explained the sphere and nature of the apostles’ temporary ministry to Israel.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The apostles were to limit their ministry to the Jews living in Galilee. They were not to go north or east into Gentile territory or south where the Samaritans predominated. The Samaritans were only partially Jewish racially. They were the descendants of the poorest of the Jews, whom the Assyrians left in the Promised Land when they took the Northern Kingdom into captivity, and the Gentiles whom the Assyrians imported. Religiously they only accepted the Pentateuch as authoritative. This is Matthew’s only reference to the Samaritans.
The apostles were to go specifically to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, a term that described all the Jews (Isa 53:6; Jer 50:6; Ezekiel 34). The designation highlights the needy character of the Jews. Jesus sent them to the Jews exclusively to do three things. They would announce the appearance of a Jewish Messiah, announce a Jewish kingdom, and provide signs to Jews who required them as proof of divine authorization. Jesus did not need the additional opposition that would come from Gentiles and Samaritans. He would have to deal with enough of that from the Jews. His kingdom would be a universal one, but at this stage of His ministry Jesus wanted to offer it to the Jews first. We have already noted that Jesus had restricted His ministry primarily but not exclusively to Jews (Mat 8:1-13). He was the King of the Jews.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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