Matthew 10:8

Matthew 10:8

The opening of this commission, in a world eaten up by selfishness, proclaimed the advent of a new era, and was the sign of the establishment of the kingdom of God among men. From that time forth there would be a band of men upon earth consecrated to minister to its woes and needs.

I. These servants of the kingdom of heaven, of which we, too, are subjects and ministers, were sent forth to a practical conflict with the actual sufferings and maladies of mankind. The Lord does not content Himself with proclaiming truth to our spirits, leaving our bodies to be wasted with disease, and pinched by hunger, while our hearts are wrung with anguish. Every actual wrong and pain grieved and troubled Him, and He meant that His kingdom should do away with it all. He came to enter His protest against all which made earth's life so unlike heaven's, and to promise that the lost harmony, for which man was unconsciously pining, should be restored.

II. I gather a second broad fact about the ministry of this kingdom to the world from the language of the text. It rests man's duty to man on man's duty and relationship to God. "Freely ye have received, freely give." It is the only law which can girdle the earth with benignant ministers, and drop dews of blessing on each succeeding generation of mankind.

III. The ground of this duty the text declares, "Freely ye have received." Whatever you hold by this tenure you hold as trustees. The very word "freely" seems in fatal opposition to (1) that selfish sense cf possession which set up the "I" and the "my" as kings over all our communications; and only gives when the gift is likely to be humbly recognized, and to return, at any rate, a tribute of praise. (2) It equally, though not so palpably, condemns that giving by rule and measure which is the fashion nowadays. Such a method binds the very freeness of spirit which the Gospel enjoins and inspires.

IV. Consider that this principle alone (1) meets the need of humanity; (2) vindicates the method of the Divine government; (3) fulfils the purpose of the Lord.

J. Baldwin Brown, The Divine Lift in Man,p. 335.

Reference: Matthew 10:10. J. O. Wills, The Dundee Pulpit,p. 185.