Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 10:13 - 10:15

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 10:13 - 10:15


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Reception and rejection;

v. 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.

v. 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.

v. 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.

If, after your salutation, the house be worthy of the honor that a servant of the Lord remain there, then your peace, which implies the blessing of the Lord, shall come and rest upon that house. But after all the pains you have taken, your judgment and the information of others may still be at fault; yet your greeting of peace will not have been spoken in vain, rather it shall be returned to you, to bless the speaker coming with the Lord's good will. The unkind treatment, however, shall in no case provoke you. Nevertheless, the mode of action in such a case, when both the house selected for a center of work and the entire community concur in rejecting the Lord's apostles is prescribed. He speaks with great emotion, as the form of the sentence shows. There is an absolute cutting-off reserved for people guilty of such rejection. The symbolical act of shaking off the dust from the feet or shoes to signify utter rejection of the unclean, to be done, not in the spirit of irritation nor of vindictiveness, but in the sorrow which undoubtedly filled the Lord's heart at the thought of such blindness. The vengeance upon such a city will be taken over by the Lord Himself. Even Sodom and Gomorrah, types and examples of the punitive justice of God, would not be so utterly rejected at the final judgment as will be the inhabitants of a city or village that refuse admittance to the servants of Christ and deliberately cast away the offered grace of the Redeemer. So highly Christ values the good tidings, the Gospel-message He commissioned the twelve to preach. Unbelief is the sin of sins.