Matthew 10:7

10:5-15 The Gentiles must not have the gospel brought them, till the Jews have refused it. This restraint on the apostles was only in their first mission. Wherever they went they must proclaim, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. They preached, to establish the faith; the kingdom, to animate the hope; of heaven, to inspire the love of heavenly things, and the contempt of earthly; which is at hand, that men may prepare for it without delay. Christ gave power to work miracles for the confirming of their doctrine. This is not necessary now that the kingdom of God is come. It showed that the intent of the doctrine they preached, was to heal sick souls, and to raise those that were dead in sin. In proclaiming the gospel of free grace for the healing and saving of men's souls, we must above all avoid the appearance of the spirit of an hireling. They are directed what to do in strange towns and cities. The servant of Christ is the ambassador of peace to whatever place he is sent. His message is even to the vilest sinners, yet it behoves him to find out the best persons in every place. It becomes us to pray heartily for all, and to conduct ourselves courteously to all. They are directed how to act as to those that refused them. The whole counsel of God must be declared, and those who will not attend to the gracious message, must be shown that their state is dangerous.

Matthew 10:7-8 . And as ye go, preach — Κηρυσσετε , proclaim, namely, with ardour and zeal, as becomes my heralds. The word is derived from κηρυξ , a herald. “Probably,” says Doddridge, “they were to make this proclamation with a loud voice, as they passed through the streets of the towns they went to, as Jonah delivered his message to Nineveh.” The kingdom of heaven is at hand — Ηγγικεν , hath approached. Publish everywhere the glad tidings of the approach of the Messiah’s kingdom, promised by the prophets. Properly speaking, the kingdom of heaven, or gospel kingdom, did not begin till the Jewish dispensation was abolished, and therefore the apostles, in our Lord’s time, and even our Lord himself, preached the approach only, and not the actual existence of that kingdom. But though the apostles were directed to preach the approach of this kingdom, they did not yet fully understand its nature, that it was not to be a temporal, but a spiritual kingdom, consisting in the dominion of truth and grace, of righteousness, peace, and joy within men. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, &c. — Perform all these miraculous cures in confirmation of your mission, to prove to men the certain truth and unspeakable importance of your message.

Freely ye have received — All things; in particular the power of working miracles: freely give — Exert that power wherever you come, and that in a manner honourable to yourselves and me: scorn the thought of making any gain of those for whom these works of mercy and power are performed. That this clause relates to the miraculous cures which the apostles were empowered to perform, and not to the stated offices of the apostolical function, is evident from Luke 10:7 , where our Lord, in giving a like commission to the seventy, bid them eat and drink what was set before them, “because the labourer was worthy of his hire.” Nay, in this very charge, no sooner did he order the apostles to give freely, than he forbade them to provide gold, &c., because the labourer, says he, is worthy of his meat, plainly insinuating that while they were preaching the gospel, they had a right to a maintenance from those who enjoyed the benefit of their labours, and should in the course of the divine providence be supplied with all things necessary.

Matthew 10:7 . πορευόμενοι κηρύσσετε , as ye go, keep preaching; participle and finite verb, both present. Preaching first in the Master’s thoughts, if not in the evangelist’s ( Matthew 10:1 ).— ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τ . ο .: the theme is, of course, the kingdom longed for by all, constantly on the lips of Jesus. The message is: It has come nigh to you and is here. Very general, but much more, it may be taken for granted, was said. The apprentice apostles could as yet make no intelligent theoretic statement concerning the Kingdom , but they could tell not a little about the King , the Master who sent them, the chief object of interest doubtless for all receptive souls. It was a house mission (not in synagogue) on which they were sent ( Matthew 10:12 ). They were to live as guests in selected dwellings, two in one, and two in another, for a time, and their preaching would take the form of familiar conversation on what they had seen and heard Jesus do and say. They would talk by the hour, healing acts would be very occasional, one or two in a village.

(7) Preach — i.e., “proclaim—act as heralds,” as elsewhere. The repetition of the self-same words as had described first the Baptist’s teaching and then our Lord’s, seems to suggest that this was actually a formula of proclamation. The two envoys of the King were to enter into town or village, and there, standing in the gate, to announce that His kingdom had come near, and then, when this had drawn crowds to listen, to call men to the repentance without which they could not enter it.

Matthew 10:7 . Πορευόμενοι , as ye go ) Answering to πορεύεσθε ( go ye ), in Matthew 10:6 .— κηρύσσετε , preach ye ) Here were the disciples going forth like students in theology, who practise the rudiments of the ministry and perform the functions of curates, and afterwards return to receive further instruction.[455]— ἤγγικεν , is at hand ) This was to be the burden and sum of their discourses;[456] cf. Mark 6:12 . [455] They themselves, in fact, were as yet destitute of perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ, who not until afterwards instructed them more distinctly concerning His passion, death, and resurrection. In the meantime, their preaching, confirmed as it was by very many miracles, prepared the minds of men, so as that they subsequently, without difficulty, yielded themselves up to obey Him, on His advent among them, of whom the hope had been presented to them by this preparatory announcement. Comp. Matthew 10:23 .— Harm. , p. 293. [456] Which exhorted to repentance.—V. g.

Verse 7. - Parallel passages: Luke 9:2 (the twelve); 10:9 (the seventy; observe that the substance of the proclamation was to be the same). And as ye go . For your journey is not to one place, but many. Preach . Aloud and publicly. Saying , The kingdom of heaven is at hand . That which men had so long been desiring ( vide Matthew 3:2 ; Matthew 4:17 ) was now near. But had it not come ( Matthew 12:28 ; Matthew 11:12 )? Not in full realization. But its near realization was then a possibility, and was only not brought about because, as a nation, they rejected him who introduced it. Matthew 10:7