I Pray All Is Well With Everyone… And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For All Your Brothers And Sisters In Spirit. We Know Everyone Is Not Full Of That Love For Everyone Else… And That’s A Fact; And It May Never Happen For Some Individuals… During This Lifetime. But It Can Be A Pleasant Exercise Tho… To Practice Seeing Beyond The Flesh Of Those We Encounter… While On This Earth.
And In Our Own Hearts And Minds – No Need To Broadcast It Or Place Judgment; But Using Our Wisdom And Discernment… Consider This Truth “Rightchere”: That The One Spirit Of The Living God That Animates The Substance Of Another Individual… Is The Very Same Spirit Of The Living God Within Each And Every One Of Us – Our “Mighty I AM Presence” – That Keeps Us Living.
And In Our Constant Acknowledgment And Appreciation Of That One Living God Within Ourselves And Everyone Else… We Soon Find It Effortless… Keeping Our Hearts And Minds… Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For All Our Brothers… And Sisters In Spirit. Amen… 🤗💜💜💜
Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life… 🙏🏾💞
And Y’all Be Love… 💗💗💗
These hard things Christ’s disciples must suffer:
1. From men (Matthew 10:17). “Beware of men; you will have need to stand upon your guard, even against those who are of the same nature with you”. Such is the depravity and degeneracy of that nature – man is a wolf to man; crafty and politic as men, but cruel and barbarous as beasts, and wholly divested of the thing called humanity.
Note. Persecuting rage and enmity turn men into brutes, into devils. Paul at Ephesus fought with beasts in the shape of men, (1 Corinthians 15:32). It is a sad pass that the world has come to, when the best friends it has, have need to beware of men. It aggravates the troubles of Christ’s suffering servants, that they arise from those who are bone of their bone, made of the same blood. Persecutors are, in this respect, worse than beasts, that they prey upon those of their own kind – Even savage bears agree among themselves. It is very grievous to have men rise up against us, (Psalms 124:1-8), from whom we might expect protection and sympathy; men, and no more, mere men; men, and not saints; natural men, (1 Corinthians 2:14); men of this world, (Psalms 17:14).
Saints are more than men, and are redeemed from among men, and therefore are hated by them. The nature of man, if it be not sanctified, is the worst nature in the world, next to that of devils. They are men, and therefore subordinate, dependent, dying creatures; they are men, but they are but men, (Psalms 9:20). And who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, (Isaiah 51:12). Beware of the men, so says Dr. Hammond; those you are acquainted with, the men of the Jewish Sanhedrim, which disallowed Christ, (1 Peter 2:4).
2. From professing men, men that have a form of godliness, and make a show of religion. They will scourge you in their synagogues, their places of meeting for the worship of God, and for the exercise of their church discipline, so that they looked upon the scourging of Christ’s ministers to be a branch of their religion. Paul was five times scourged in the synagogues, (2 Corinthians 11:24). The Jews, under colour of zeal for Moses, were the most bitter persecutors of Christ and Christianity, and placed those outrages to the score of their religion.
Note. Christ’s disciples have suffered much from conscientious persecutors, that scourge them in their synagogues, cast them out and kill them, and think they do God good service, (John 16:2), and say, Let the Lord be glorified, (Isaiah 66:5). But the synagogue will be so far from consecrating the persecution, that the persecution, doubtless, profanes and desecrates the synagogue.
3. From great men, and men in authority. The Jews did not only scourge them, which was the utmost their remaining power extended to, but when they could go no further themselves, they delivered them up to the Roman powers, as they did Christ, (John 18:30). You shall be brought before governors and kings, (Matthew 10:18), who, having more power, are in a capacity of doing the more mischief. Governors and kings receive their power from Christ, (Proverbs 8:15), and should be his servants, and his church’s protectors and nursing fathers, but they often use their power against him, and are rebels to Christ, and oppressors of his church. The kings of the earth set themselves against his kingdom, (Psalms 2:1-2; Acts 4:25-26).
Note. It has often been the lot of good men, to have great men for their enemies.
4. From all men, (Matthew 10:22). You shall be hated of all men, of all wicked men, and these are the generality of men, for the whole world lies in wickedness. So few are there that love, and own, and countenance Christ’s righteous cause, that we may say, the friends of it are hated of all men, they are all gone astray, and, therefore, eat up my people, (Psalms 14:3). As far as the apostasy from God goes, so far the enmity against the saints goes, sometimes it appears more general than at other times, but there is something of this poison lurking in the hearts of all the children of disobedience. The world hates you, for it wonders after the beast, (Revelation 13:3). Every man is a liar, and therefore, a hater of truth.
5. From those of their own kindred. The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, (Matthew 10:21). A man shall be, upon this account, at variance with his own father; nay, and those of the weaker and tenderer sex too, shall become persecutors and persecuted. The persecuting daughter will be against the believing mother, where natural affection and filial duty, one would think, should prevent or soon extinguish the quarrel; and then, no marvel if the daughter-in-law be against the mother-in-law; where, too often, the coldness of love seeks occasion of contention, (Matthew 10:35). In general, a man’s foes shall be they of his own household, (Matthew 10:36). They who should be his friends will be incensed against him for embracing Christianity, and especially for adhering to it when it comes to be persecuted, and will join with his persecutors against him.
Note. The strongest bonds of relative love and duty have often been broken through, by an enmity against Christ and his doctrine. Such has been the power of prejudice against the true religion, and zeal for a false one, that all other regards, the most natural and sacred, the most engaging and endearing, have been sacrificed to these Molochs. They who rage against the Lord and his anointed ones, break even these bonds in sunder, and cast away even these cords from them, (Psalms 2:2-3). Christ’s spouse suffers hard things from the anger of her own mother’s children, (Song of Solomon 1:6). Sufferings from such are more grievous; nothing cuts more than this, It was you, a man, mine equal, (Psalms 55:12-13); and the enmity of such is commonly most implacable; a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, (Proverbs 18:19). The martyrologies, both ancient and modern, are full of instances of this.
Upon the whole matter, it appears, that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution; and through many tribulations, we must expect to enter into the kingdom of God.
With these predictions of trouble, we have here prescriptions of counsels and comforts for a time of trial. He sends them out exposed to danger indeed, and expecting it, but well-armed with instructions and encouragements, sufficient to bear them up and bear them out in all these trials. Let us gather up what he says.
By way of counsel and direction in several things:
1. Be ye wise as serpents, (Matthew 10:16). “You may be so”, (so some take it, only as a permission); “you may be as wary as you please, provided you be harmless as doves.” But it is rather to be taken as a precept, recommending to us that wisdom of the prudent, which is to understand his way as useful at all times, but especially in suffering times. “Therefore, because you are exposed, as sheep among wolves, be you wise as serpents; not wise as foxes, whose cunning is to deceive others, but as serpents, whose policy is only to defend themselves, and to shift for their own safety.” The disciples of Christ are hated and persecuted as serpents, and their ruin is sought, and, therefore, they need the serpent’s wisdom.
Note. It is the will of Christ that his people and ministers, being so much exposed to troubles in this world, as they usually are, should not needlessly expose themselves, but use all fair and lawful means for their own preservation. Christ gave us an example of this wisdom, (Matthew 21:24-25; 22:17-19; and John 7:6-7); besides the many escapes he made out of the hands of his enemies, till his hour was come. See an instance of Paul’s wisdom, (Acts 23:6-7).
In the cause of Christ, we must sit loose to life and all its comforts, but must not be prodigal of them. It is the wisdom of the serpent to secure his head, that it may not be broken, to stop his ear to the voice of the charmer, (Psalms 58:4-5), and to take shelter in the clefts of the rocks; and herein we may be wise as serpents. We must be wise, not to pull trouble upon our own heads, wise to keep silence in an evil time, and not to give offence, if we can help it.
2. Be ye harmless as doves. “Be mild, and meek, and dispassionate, not only do nobody any hurt, but bear nobody any ill will, be without gall, as doves are; this must always go along with the former.” They are sent forth among wolves, therefore must be as wise as serpents, but they are sent forth as sheep, therefore must be harmless as doves. We must be wise, not to wrong ourselves, but rather so than wrong anyone else, must use the harmlessness of the dove to bear twenty injuries, rather than the subtlety of the serpent to offer or to return one.
Note. It must be the continual care of all Christ’s disciples, to be innocent and inoffensive in word and deed, especially in consideration of the enemies they are in the midst of. We have need of a dove-like spirit, when we are beset with birds of prey, that we may neither provoke them nor be provoked by them. David coveted the wings of a dove, on which to fly away and be at rest, rather than the wings of a hawk. The Spirit descended on Christ as a dove, and all believers partake of the Spirit of Christ, a dove-like spirit, made for love, not for war.
3. Beware of men, (Matthew 10:17). “Be always upon your guard, and avoid dangerous company; take heed what you say and do, and presume not too far upon any man’s fidelity. Be jealous of the most plausible pretensions, trust not in a friend, no, not in the wife of thy bosom”, (Micah 7:5).
Note. It becomes those who are gracious to be cautious, for we are taught to cease from man. Such a wretched world do we live in, that we know not whom to trust. Ever since our Master was betrayed with a kiss, by one of his own disciples, we have need to beware of men, of false brethren.
4. Take no thought how or what you shall speak, (Matthew 10:19). “When you are brought before magistrates, conduct yourselves decently, but afflict not yourselves with care how you shall come off. A prudent thought there must be, but not an anxious, perplexing, disquieting thought; let this care be cast upon God, as well as that – what you shall eat and what you shall drink. Do not study to make fine speeches … to ingratiate yourselves; affect not quaint expressions, flourishes of wit, and laboured periods, which only serve to gild a bad cause – the gold of a good one needs it not. It argues a diffidence of your cause, to be solicitous in this matter, as if it were not sufficient to speak for itself. You know upon what grounds you go, and then … suitable expressions will readily occur.”
Never any spoke better before governors and kings than those three champions, who took no thought before, what they should speak: O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter, (Daniel 3:16). See also, Psalms 119:46.
Note. The disciples of Christ must be more thoughtful how to do well, than how to speak well; how to keep their integrity, than how to vindicate it. … Our lives, not boasting words, form the best apology.
5. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another, (Matthew 10:23). “Thus, reject them who reject you and your doctrine, and try whether others will not receive you and it. Thus shift for your own safety.”
Note. In case of imminent peril, the disciples of Christ may and must secure themselves by flight, when God, in his providence, opens to them a door of escape. He that flies may fight again. It is no inglorious thing for Christ’s soldiers to quit their ground, provided they do not quit their colours. They may go out of the way of danger, though they must not go out of the way of duty. Observe Christ’s care of his disciples, in providing places of retreat and shelter for them, ordering it so, that persecution rages not in all places at the same time. But when one city is made too hot for them, another is reserved for a cooler shade, and a little sanctuary, a favour to be used and not to be slighted, yet always with this proviso, that no sinful, unlawful means be used to make the escape, for then, it is not a door of God’s opening. We have many examples to this rule in the history both of Christ and his apostles, in the application of all which to particular cases wisdom and integrity are profitable to direct.
6. Fear them not, (Matthew 10:26), because they can but kill the body, (Matthew 10:28).
Note. it is the duty and interest of Christ’s disciples, not to fear the greatest of their adversaries. They who truly fear God, need not fear man, and they who are afraid of the least sin, need not be afraid of the greatest trouble. The fear of man brings a snare, a perplexing snare, that disturbs our peace, an entangling snare, by which we are drawn into sin, and, therefore, it must be carefully watched, and striven, and prayed against.
Be the times never so difficult, enemies never so outrageous, and events never so threatening, yet need we not fear, yet will we not fear, though the earth be removed, while we have so good a God, so good a cause, and so good a hope through grace.”
Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible, Matthew 10:17-26, by Matthew Henry, 1706
