Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 10:23 - 10:25
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Advice and comfort during persecutions:
v. 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.
v. 24. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
v. 25. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord.
If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household! There is a far cry from shunning martyrdom to abandoning prudence and inviting the enemies to wreak their vengeance. Self-appointed martyrs often seek self-glory. Where flight during persecution is possible without a denial of truth, without abandoning a flock of souls to the wolf, it should be chosen. It will be in the interest of the cause, if the work is stopped by persecution in one city, to flee to another, where the reception is likely to be different and the cause of Christ thus furthered. Christ here makes a solemn declaration. The "coming of the Son of Man" is a term referring to the founding and propagating of the kingdom of Christ after His glorification, beginning with the Pentecostal miracle. Ye shall not have finished or completed the cities, there will be abundant room for your labors till the time of My entering into glory and the beginning of My work as the almighty Head of My Church, according to My divinity and humanity. The time is short and the work is great. Energy and courage are sorely needed. In the form of a proverb, Jesus adds another comforting admonition. They should not expect to be better off than their Lord and Master, the Head of the Christian household. To endure the same persecutions, to suffer the same injuries, to be heaped with the same maledictions, is their natural as well as their honorable lot. The enemies had gone so far as to apply the epithet Beelzebub, lord of idolatry, prince of devils, to Christ. It would be presumption for His followers to expect less. "When a person accepts the Word of God, the Gospel, let him think nothing else than that he in that hour comes into peril with reference to all his goods, his house, home, farms, and meadows, his wife, children, father, and mother, also his own life. When danger and misfortune then strike him, it will be so much easier for him, since he thinks: I knew very well before that it would happen thus."