But I say to you, my friends, Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do.
Jesus has just warned His disciples about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Now He turns to what will happen when that hostility reaches them. Before He tells them what to fear, He tells them who they are to Him.
The name He gives them changes how they would hear everything that followed.
The Lord did not only urge His disciples to have no fear of men. He also told them things that would prove a great encouragement to that end. In verse 4 He addressed them as, "My friends." They knew they were His disciples and His servants. This word must have put everything in a new and cheering light. In the strength of His friendship they, and we, can face the world's hostility.
The danger He prepares them for follows from the light they carry.
This would bring them into conflict with a world that hated the light. That world treated anyone who brought the light as an enemy, because the light exposed the world and showed the world to itself. So the Lord graciously meets this fear with encouragement — "I tell you, my friends" — and with strong, important truth, to set the matter straight in terms of wisdom and duty. They can kill the body. Humanly speaking they can, since the body is the place of adversity and of the devil's power here. But they can do no more.
"After that have nothing more that they can do" marks a fixed boundary. Men can reach the body; the rest belongs to Another.
Men may take the lives of others, or even take their own lives, but only One has the keys of hell and of death; only One can both kill and cast into hell; and He only can bring out of death those who have entered there.
Read against the whole chapter, this shifts what counts as loss.
What a comfort those words must have been to the martyrs of years gone by: "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do." This chapter weighs everything by the state of the soul before God, not by the body. So foes and fears are all pushed aside. It is not a question of bodies, or goods, but the soul in relation to God and eternity.
One root joins the hypocrisy Jesus had just exposed and the fear He now forbids.
The law showed God dealing with people on earth. Now God reveals wrath from heaven, and this wrath has eternal consequences… Then God will show that He is truly the One to fear. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees grew out of fear of man. They did not fear God. They wanted a good name with men, above all a religious reputation. Is that the true fear of God?… Redemption brings us to God. Christianity, at its heart, sets the soul in the presence of the unseen and eternal.
The worst men can do turns out to be the lesser danger.
Again, "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do, but fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell." Here death, taken by itself, is the lesser thing. Death is the wages of sin, but not the whole of those wages. What comes after — body and soul in hell — is the thing to fear.
Verses 6 and 7 seem at first to change the subject. They do not.
God has power to kill and to cast into hell. In other words, He has complete mastery over all His creatures. And yet that same One is full of love. He is not a tyrant. Great as He is, He takes notice of the price five sparrows fetch. And He numbers the very hairs of our head. And so the Lord says first of all, "Fear God," and then He says, "Fear not." For if we fear Him, we have nothing else to fear; He will care for us.
- Friends first. He calls them "My friends" before He tells them what to fear. In the strength of that friendship they can face the world's hostility.
- Friends of the light. Their danger comes from carrying light into a world that hates it and treats the light-bearer as an enemy.
- Friends safe. Men reach the body and stop there. Only One holds the keys of hell and of death.
- Friends fear rightly. The Pharisees' hypocrisy grew out of fear of man. Fearing God sets the soul in the presence of the unseen and eternal.
- Friends fear nothing else. The God who can cast into hell is the God who prices sparrows and numbers hairs — fear Him, and there is no one left to fear.
But I will shew you whom ye shall fear Fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell; yea, I say to you, Fear *him*.
Jesus has just warned His disciples about hypocrisy, and now He tells them whom to be afraid of. The verse names a power that does not stop at the grave — yet two verses later He says, "Fear not."
The Lord had just warned about the leaven of the Pharisees. One writer connects that warning to this one.
Closely linked with this warning is the fear of man, which is another form of opposition to the grace of God. It is often because of fear that we act like hypocrites. But the limit of man's persecution is the killing of the body. Believers have no right reason to fear men.
The cure is not to feel braver. It is to be more afraid of Someone else.
They who fear God much, fear men little.
The force of the verse lies in reach. Persecutors can go so far and no further.
They were not to fear opposition, and not to trust in themselves, but to fear God and trust His help... Everything would be revealed. God reaches the soul: man can only touch the body.
The phrase "after He has killed" places God's action past the point where human hostility runs out.
These words of the Lord clearly teach that man survives the death of the body, and that God is the judge of his destiny. Men may challenge His authority and please themselves in this life. But in the next life God will deal with them according to His own justice, and there will be no appeal from His verdict.
The verse itself does not name the One who holds this authority. One writer names Him, and says what that authority involves.
God, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell. That power involves raising the unbeliever's body and the judgment of the Great White Throne, which results in the torment of the lake of fire. It is God who is really to be feared.
The word translated "hell" in this verse is Gehenna, and it carries a history.
Gehenna is the Greek form of two Hebrew words meaning "valley of Hinnom." It was the place near Jerusalem where the Jews made their children pass through fire to pagan gods, and it was defiled afterwards. A fire burned there all the time, which made it a fitting picture of the place of eternal punishment.
Note the order: killing comes first, then the casting in.
Death then is not the end of the body. It can be cast into Gehenna after death. Matthew 5:22 calls it the Gehenna of fire, and it is the lake of fire of Revelation 20. God has not done this yet. Yet many of those whose portion will be in that lake have been dead for centuries. The body decays and turns to dust, but God will find that no obstacle to dealing with it in this way.
Some have argued that God has the power but will never use it. That reading empties the warning of its point.
But surely the Lord gives no empty warning here... and we know that threat will be carried out. If He never wills to do this, men need no more fear it than if He had not power. And how strange for the Lord to claim for Him a power that no one can deny, and yet which He will never use!
The repetition — "yes, I tell you, fear Him" — is the Lord pressing the point home. One writer is honest about where this motive ranks.
It is not the highest motive, but it is an imperative and most solemn and urgent appeal.
Right after this warning, Jesus speaks of birds sold for pennies and of counted hairs. The two halves belong together.
God has power to kill and to cast into hell. In other words, He has complete mastery over all His creatures. And yet that same One is full of love. He is not a tyrant. Great as He is, He takes notice of the price five sparrows fetch... And so the Lord says first, "Fear God," and then He says, "Fear not." For if we fear Him, we have nothing else to fear. He will care for us.
- Root — Fear of man is often what makes people act like hypocrites. The two warnings belong together.
- Reach — Men can kill the body and go no further. God's authority reaches past death to judgment, so He is the One to fear.
- Word — "Hell" here is Gehenna. It was a defiled valley outside Jerusalem where a fire burned all the time — a picture of eternal punishment.
- Real — A power God claims but would never use would be no reason for fear. He will carry the warning out.
- Result — Fear Him, and you have nothing left to fear. The God who can cast into hell is the God who counts sparrows and numbers your hairs.
Are not five sparrows sold for two assaria? and one of them is not forgotten before God.
Jesus has just warned His disciples about whom to fear. Now He points at a bird sold for small change — the cheapest thing in the market, and proof that God forgets no one.
The warning about fear comes first. One writer shows what the Lord adds straight after it, and why.
God works not only in light, as we have seen, but by love (5–7), and the confidence He invites us to have in Himself... Then at once the Lord brings in the love of the Father. He does this to guard against the misuse of that first truth. It is always true, and true for a believer, but it is, so to speak, the lower end of the truth.
Matthew records the same words with different numbers. A note on the coin explains what each Gospel is stressing.
The "assarion" had two values, and we must allow for local differences. But the "two farthings" would equal about one penny of our money. Matthew stresses how small the coin was that bought two sparrows. Luke stresses how many birds that money bought.
The fifth bird cost nothing at all. One writer draws out what that says about the price of a single sparrow:
The sparrow was so worthless that if a customer bought two farthings' worth, the seller threw in an extra bird! Then the Lord reminded the disciples that they were of more value than many sparrows, and that the very hairs of their head were all numbered. How wonderful that God can care for such details, yet this is the glory of God, that it is so!
Two Psalms picture this same bird, and the picture is a lonely one. A dictionary entry gathers what Scripture says about it.
The Psalms speak of it as a lonely bird on the housetop, and as a bird that finds a home in the courts of God's house (Psalm 84:3; Psalm 102:7). In Palestine sparrows are plentiful, and five were sold for two farthings. Yet the Lord said not one falls without His Father's knowledge, and He added, "You are of more value than many sparrows." If God cares for the birds — and the word here is the diminutive, the little bird — He will surely care for His own beloved ones.
The argument runs upward. It moves from the thing men value least to the people God sends out to speak for Him.
What infinite care of God, that can descend to the least thing, that man despises most! How much more, then, His care for those who are His witnesses!... Nothing strengthens a witness for the truth more than knowing God's love. Nothing strengthens him more than knowing that the least person or thing belonging to him is of interest to God.
This is not a soft sentiment. It stands against people who mean real harm, and it limits what they can do.
You do not need to be afraid of man; he cannot touch you except by divine permission... Man may rage against us, but he cannot touch us; it is impossible without God's permission. I have seen men out shooting. I have watched them aim at birds, and I have said to myself, "You may be skilful shots, but you cannot hit one bird without divine permission." That is what this teaches us.
The same care reaches into ordinary life, not just moments of danger. One writer takes this verse as ground for bringing small matters to God in prayer:
The believer is privileged to have communion with God about the whole of his private and personal affairs... "Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).
- Cheapest. Two small coins bought five sparrows, with one thrown in free. Luke points at how many birds so little money could buy.
- Counted. God's care reaches down to the least thing that men despise most. The same care numbers the hairs on a disciple's head.
- Remembered. Not one of the five is forgotten. The little bird of the Psalms, alone on a roof, is the very creature God keeps in mind.
- Guarded. No bird falls without God's permission. No enemy can touch His own without it either.
- Fearless. Warning and comfort belong together: fear God, and then fear nothing else — He works in light, and He works by love.
But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore, ye are better than many sparrows.
Jesus has just warned His friends to fear God, not the people who can kill the body. Then He points to sparrows sold for pennies and to hairs no one bothers to count — so how can "fear" and "fear not" stand together?
One writer reads verses 4-7 as one argument. It warns the heart and calms it at the same time.
Here the heart is taught not only to fear God, but also to trust Him — it is not only warned, but also calmed. "Fear," and "fear not," may seem a contradiction to flesh and blood; but to faith it is no contradiction. The man who fears God most will fear circumstances least. The man of faith is, at once, the most dependent and the most independent man in the world. He is dependent on God and independent of circumstances. … The One with power to cast into hell is the only One he must fear. And that same One has taken the trouble to count the hairs of his head. He has surely not done so in order to let him perish, in this life or the next.
Another writer looks at the two commands a few lines apart:
Notice that in verse five it is, "Fear him," and in verse seven it is, "Fear not." There is no contradiction. In verse five it is the holy fear of a child, in case he should do something that would pain or grieve the Lord. And then in verse seven, it is that you have the sense of the care of God.
Hair is the one thing nobody keeps track of.
What a Father is ours, dear friends! And what a love is constantly at work on our behalf! A love that gave the greatest gift — the only Son — and takes notice of the smallest thing belonging to us. For what is smaller, or seems less important, than a hair of our head? Or what mother, even the most loving mother of all, has ever bothered to count the hairs of her child's head? Our Divine Father has done so.
One writer answers those who call this just a figure of speech:
And no detail of your life is too small for His notice. When He told His disciples that the hairs of their heads were numbered, He meant it. And if you insist that His language was figurative, so be it. It simply means this: the details of your life that are too small for you to notice do not escape His notice.
Jesus is speaking to men who will testify for Him. One writer shows that the smallness of the sparrow carries the comfort.
What infinite care of God, that can come down to the least thing, the thing man despises most! How much more, then, His care for those who are His witnesses! … Nothing strengthens a witness for the truth more than knowing God's love. Nothing strengthens him more than knowing that the least person or thing belonging to him is of interest to God.
God's eye is on the falling sparrow. So no hostile hand has the last word about you.
You do not need to be afraid of man; he cannot touch you except by divine permission. … Man may rage against us, but he cannot touch us; it is impossible without God's permission. I have seen men out shooting. I have watched them aim at birds, and I have said to myself, "You may be skilful shots, but you cannot hit one bird without divine permission."
The same writer applies this to times of sickness:
God may allow us the use of means. But how often we turn to them in unbelief, as if our recovery depended on human help and advice alone! If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Father's permission, neither can His children. No — the very hairs of our heads are all numbered. We honour God by staying perfectly calm and confident in the face of the greatest dangers.
The promise is not that no disciple will die. Many did.
They had cast Him out, and what could His disciples expect but similar treatment? It has not been your lot or mine to have it, but many of His beloved saints have. And what a comfort those words must have been to the martyrs of years gone by: "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do." This whole chapter measures importance by the state of the soul before God, not by the body. So enemies and fears are all pushed aside.
- Counted, not costed. Five sparrows sell for two coins, and not one is forgotten. God's notice runs all the way down to the cheapest bird.
- Counted hairs. No mother ever counted her child's hairs. God has. Details too small for you are not too small for Him.
- Counted means guarded. No sparrow falls without permission. No shot, no illness, no enemy reaches His children outside His will.
- Counted means fearless. Fear God most, and you fear circumstances least — most dependent on God, most independent of circumstances.
- Counted, even in death. This care is not escape from martyrdom. The chapter weighs the soul before God, not the safety of the body.