James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 10:12 - 10:12

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James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 10:12 - 10:12


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THE SALUTATION OF PEACE

‘And when ye come into an house, salute it.’

Mat_10:12

In the only Service of our Prayer Book which is provided for private ministration,—if we except Private Baptism, and the communion for the Sick,—the command expressly runs, ‘When any person is sick, notice shall be given thereof to the Minister of the Parish, who coming into the sick person’s house, shall say, Peace be to this house, and to all that dwell in it.’ The Minister is to say it with a humble consciousness and assurance that God’s peace is committed to him. Not that he should feel it only, but that he should impart it. He goes as one who is a medium, who carries an inestimable treasure, which he is authorised and bound to communicate.

Now my message to you is ‘peace.’ Let me unfold to you what that peace means.

I. Peace with God.—the peace which a man feels when his sins are forgiven, and he knows that God is no longer his enemy, but his Friend.

II. Peace through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the peace which has no fear in it. It is the peace which is above all joy and passeth all understanding. It is the peace which every one wants, and which the believer has. It is the peace which gives a man strength to live, and confidence to die.

III. Peace within,—between a man and himself. His conscience, being sprinkled, is at peace; and the past does not now awake up to torment him; and the man is one,—which he was not before,—but now, with one desire, the whole man is seeking one object,—his heart is single, and singleness of heart is peace.

IV. Peace with the whole world.—The peace with God made a peace within; and the peace within, makes peace without. He is too humble to quarrel; and too little in his own eyes to see wrong in other men. He contemplates God, till he grows like Him; as God is, so is he in this world,—and ‘God is love.’

It is a ‘peace’ unqualified and universal, for all men, in all things, under all circumstances, and for all time. ‘Peace be to this house.’

—
The Rev. James Vaughan.