Matthew 10:26–40

"So have no fear of them." The first motive for not fearing is this: I have travelled the same path; do not be afraid. "Have no fear of them… for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known." He means: you will understand the reasons and motives of people's unbelief another day, if not now. Everyone who knows the truth and does not follow it must dislike those who do. As it was with Me, so will it be with you: but do not be alarmed. Be full of good courage, and persevere in the testimony.

And now He speaks the word which is to calm their fears: "Fear not." What meaning it has coming from such lips! Angels spoke the word "Fear not" long ago. They are only creatures sent with a message from the Throne. But the One who speaks here is the Creator Himself, made a little lower than the angels He had created… He tells them of the day when everything will be uncovered, and the secret things made known. This fact is to be before them, and before us, every day. Let us learn to look at all things in the light of the judgment seat! "Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God" (1 Corinthians 4:5). In view of this revelation of the secret things our Lord tells us to be bold and to declare the whole counsel of God.

Three great principles are here presented. First, the great general truth: man can keep nothing secret, though it may seem so. He can hide nothing. All must be in the light. God must have the upper hand, and light will win. Second, we must give an account of ourselves to God. Third, we are not to fear the secret schemes of men. We are to fear God, and bear witness according to the light given to us. To say that man can hide nothing is still not strong enough. There is nothing secret that will not be brought to light.

This is a very important principle. It upholds the authority of God as light. If anything could be kept back from that light, it would escape His power and judgment, and evil would go on independent of Him. It also upholds integrity of conscience.

They may well trust the strength of His own word: "have no fear of them." Their falsehood may seem to win for a time. But it will be fully exposed, to their own shame. Truth will win its complete victory in the end.

They themselves were to hold nothing back. They were to proclaim on the housetops all that they had been taught. God would bring everything into the light — their faithfulness to Him in this, as well as everything else. This answered the secret plotting of their enemies. It was also to mark the ways of the disciples themselves. God is light, and He sees in darkness as clearly as in light. He will bring everything out into the light. They were to do this now, in the way they lived.

All this is to keep the conscience in the light before God. Where there is anxiety about being exposed before other believers, shame before men still rules the heart and will. Self-love and reputation govern the mind. We are not in the light before God. Sin does not have its right character in our eyes. The reason is that self still has its power and place.

"So have no fear of them." The first reason not to fear is this: I have travelled the same path; do not be afraid… As it was with Me, so it will be with you. But do not be alarmed. Be full of good courage, and persevere in the testimony. "What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops" (v. 27). He encourages them to the greatest openness and boldness.

What the Lord spoke to them in darkness (that is, privately) they were to speak in the light, for it was the truth that men needed. In the same way, what we learn today in quiet communion with the Lord we are to declare with the boldness of honest faith. These things must not be just our opinions, but what the Lord speaks.

The Lord speaks of the disciples publishing on the housetop what He had told them privately. Matt. 10:27; Luke 12:3. You can often see this way of proclaiming in the East, when the public crier calls out from the housetop the news he has to make known.

They were His witnesses. What He told them in the darkness they were to preach in the light. What they heard whispered they must proclaim on the housetops (Matt. 10:27). The essence of Christ's gospel was its publicity, and also, as was later developed, its universality. Its ultimate scope was to all men and not to a few only.

They themselves were to hold nothing back. They were to proclaim on the housetops all that they had been taught. For everything should be brought into the light — their faithfulness to God in this respect, as well as all other things… God, who is light, and sees in darkness as in light, would bring all out into the light. But they were to do this in practice now.

Accordingly, Jehovah, in commissioning Jeremiah to be His prophet, said to him, "Whatever I command you, you shall speak" (Jer. 1:7). Also, the Lord, when sending out the twelve Apostles, said to them, "What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops" (Matt. 10:27; Luke 12:3). The Apostle Paul writes in one of his letters, "I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you" (1 Cor. 11:23).

The glory of Christianity is AN OPEN BIBLE. Freemasonry, by contrast, has secret signs, and the lodges write their ritual in a secret code. Our Lord tells us that every secret will be revealed. He instructed His disciples: "What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops." (Matt. 10:27)

They were to expect insults. They were not above their Master, whom their enemies had already called Beelzebub. Their part was to trust God, whatever the hidden plots of their enemies... They were not to fear. First, they should fear Him who could cast body and soul into hell far more than those who can only kill the body. But besides, without their Father — Him who guarded them as a Father — not a sparrow fell to the ground. They had more value in His eye than many sparrows.

The coin called the "assarion" had two values, and we must allow for local differences. But the "two farthings" would be worth about one penny of our money. Matthew stresses how small the coin was that bought two sparrows; Luke stresses how many birds you got for it.

The sparrow was so worthless that if a customer bought two farthings' worth, an extra bird would be thrown in! Then the disciples were reminded that they were of more value than many sparrows and that the very hairs of their head were all numbered.

We learn our Father's special, detailed care for His own children from this: the sparrow, a bird people despise as worth nothing, cannot fall to the ground "apart from your Father." He could have said, Without God. But He said, Your Father — and a father's love is concerned for his children.

God is so great that He can take notice of these little things. He is great in great things and great in little things. Such a small thing, and it seems so worthless — yet your Father notices it!

The God who rolled the mountains together, laid valleys, seas, and rivers in their places, and calls all the stars by name, so that not one fails — this is the God who loves me!... This same God spans the heavens and measures the sea in the hollow of His hand. Yet He describes Himself as the One who notices the falling sparrow and counts the hairs of His people's heads.

Although most people are unaware of it, God takes a deep interest in all His creatures... People, nations and cities all come under the watchful eye of God. He cares for His saints in a special way, but His goodness in providing for His creation and His rule over it are always plain to those who have eyes to see.

It is important to take everything from the Father's hand. It is just as important to look at the trials of others the same way — saying to a tested Christian, "If not a sparrow falls without the Father, how could you be in this trial without the Father?" What a difference it makes to look at things from the heavenly side.

Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father, and He assures us we are of value to Him. He makes no mistakes, and there is nothing that escapes His eye and hand.

They were to expect reproach; they were not above their Master... Their part was to trust God, whatever the hidden plots of their enemies... They were not to fear. First, they should fear Him who could cast body and soul into hell much more than those who can do nothing but kill the body. But besides, without their Father — Him who guarded them as a Father — not a sparrow fell to the ground. They had more value in His eye than many sparrows. Lastly, whoever confessed Jesus before men, Jesus would confess him before the angels of His Father. These are the three motives that He gives for firmness.

One of the features that sets God apart is this. He cares for great things and arranges them — the ordering of the solar system, the sequence of the seasons. He also provides for small things — marking the fall of the sparrow, or numbering the hairs of the heads of His saints. The great men of the earth are too small to look after small things — they are not big enough. How different our God is! He is great enough to sustain the universe. He is also great enough to come down in fullest sympathy to the wants and troubles of His lowliest creature.

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 will have it that His language was figurative, so be it. But it simply means that those details of your life that are too insignificant for your notice do not escape His.

Notice, in one place He says, "Fear him," and a little later He says, "Fear not." There is no contradiction. Oh, no! In the first, it is the holy fear of a child, afraid of doing what would pain or grieve the Lord. In the second, you have the sense of the care of God... He puts the care of God, in its exact detail, in a very touching way: "But even the hairs of your head are all numbered." That is the deeply blessed interest God has in us. His eye is upon us with all the tender affection of a Father's love... If you had this sense, you could leave everything with God.

God's rule now does not keep the righteous from suffering, and least of all from suffering for the name of Christ. But the Lord watches over him. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. It seems strange to us to hear, "Some of you they will put to death … But not a hair of your head will perish."

The children of God, if they were in the power of this truth, would also be far less restless and anxious in times of sickness. God may allow us to use remedies, but how often we use them in unbelief! We act as if our recovery depended only on human help and advice. Surely if a sparrow cannot fall on the ground without the permission of our Father, His children cannot. No, the very hairs of our heads are all numbered, and God is honoured by our perfect calm and confidence in the face of the greatest dangers.

A second reason not to fear is on other grounds: and what harm can they do? They cannot touch the soul; nor can they even touch the body unless your heavenly Father allows it. "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." They cannot injure you. There is nothing a believer has to dread, except grieving and sinning against God.

In Palestine sparrows are plentiful. Five of them were sold for two pennies. Yet the Lord said that not one of them fell 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 used here is the small form, a little bird — surely He will care for His own beloved ones.

This is where we learn our Father's special, detailed care for His own children. Men despise the sparrow as a worthless bird, yet it cannot fall to the ground "apart from your Father." He might have said, Without God. But He said, Your Father — and a father's love is concerned for his children.

"Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." We must listen to the Lord in John 17 to get some idea of what we are worth. God could have created a far better world than this one for each saint, better in man's eyes, and perhaps more glorious than this world was at creation. But what would all of that be next to what He has given us in Christ? And we have even more than this — yes, the love of Him who gave it all.

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 the most dependent man in the world, and at the same time the most independent. He depends on God, and not on circumstances.

We only have to do what we are told in His Word, and leave the consequences to Him. He is well able to take care of His own interests, and nothing left in His hands can go wrong. Our difficulty is that we get nervous about ourselves, and wonder what is going to happen to us... A sparrow cannot fall to the ground apart from our Father; and we are of more value than many sparrows. If He is determined to keep us here for Himself, an army of murderers could have no power against us. And if it were His blessed will that we should seal with our blood the testimony entrusted to us, what does it matter? "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's" (Rom. 14:8).

We have had the Father's care; now we come to the Son's confession, which is still to come. The Father's care we know on earth, whatever the trial may be. The Son's confession of us will be in heaven, when the whole scene of trial is over.

From verse 32 to the end of the chapter, we have the importance of the confession of Christ, and the effects of it in this world. We have had the Father's care; we have now the Son's confession by and by. The Father's care we know upon earth, whatever may be the trial. The Son's confession of us will be in heaven, when all the scene of trial is over.

Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord, such a person confesses Him before men. This confession of Him is ever to increase, not only with the lips but in the conduct and the life. So every true believer is a confessor of Jesus as Lord, and the Lord in His day will confess him before His Father.

Matthew 10:32 does not refer specially to the act of baptism. Our whole life should be a testimony for Christ. The Christian himself is "the epistle of Christ, known and read of all men."

The Lord sees the difficulties they will meet, and cheers them by saying, "If you confess Me before men, I will confess you before the angels of God." And notice how the Lord knows how to put His finger on the very point of the difficulty: "If you confess Me before men." It is not whether they could think of Him in their private rooms. Of course they could do that, if they cared for Him at all. But that is not it. Do they "confess Me before men?" Sadly, how often we cannot find courage to confess Christ openly "before men," when we can do it in private. But this is simply a test of how far the fear of man has more power over our souls than God.

Ungodliness betrays itself not only in the unwillingness of the heart to believe, but in the cowardice of the soul to confess the Lord (Rev. 21:8). So we see here that "many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue." Their moral reason was this: they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God... But we must not forget this: "with the heart one believes and is justified, with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Rom. 10:10). God makes much of confession of His Son.

To be valued so greatly by the Father surely calls for a fitting response on our part — that response of fearlessly confessing Christ before men. He is far more than worthy of this. But this too will bring a response from the Lord Jesus, in confessing before His Father the one who confessed Him before men. Wonderful honour indeed given to the wholehearted believer!

But they must confess Christ before men. Whoever confessed Him before men, He also would confess before His Father in heaven. But whoever denied Him, He also would deny before His Father — He could not now say their Father — in heaven. Grace never sets aside the holiness of God, but shapes us to meet its conditions. At the same time, God's holiness does not set aside grace, which always receives the one who repents. The chief of the apostles gives us the illustration of this.

Are there any of you who are hesitating between two opinions, and afraid to confess what you owe to the Lord? Oh, I once more urge you to be honest. Be open, be decided, confess Christ's name on earth, and He will not be ashamed to confess your name before the whole assembled universe.

From verse 32 to the end of the chapter, we have the importance of confessing Christ, and the effects of it in this world… We have had the Father's care. Now we have the Son's confession, later on. We know the Father's care on earth, whatever the trial may be. The Son's confession of us will be in heaven, when all the scene of trial is over.

It is not whether they could think of Him in private. Of course they could do that, if they cared for Him at all. But that is not the point. Do they "confess me before men?" How often we cannot find the courage to confess Christ openly "before men," when we can do it alone at home! This is a simple test of how far the fear of man has more power over our souls than God.

Ungodliness shows itself not only in a heart that refuses to believe, but in a soul too cowardly to confess the Lord (Revelation 21:8). We see it here: "many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue." And the reason is plain: they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

To deny Christ, we understand to mean not a sudden fall into temptation, like Peter, but a total and absolute denial. It shows that, whatever a person claimed before, there had never been any reality in the soul… So here Christ will deny those who deny Him. That is, He will reject them finally and completely.

Grace never sets aside the holiness of God; it brings us into line with what that holiness requires. And God's holiness does not set aside grace, which always receives the one who repents. The leading apostle gives us the illustration of this.

Men do not stop to consider the solemn horror and dishonesty of denying the Son of God the rights that are His alone. This is not only an insult to Him, but also to His Father. The name of His beloved Son is precious to Him beyond all we can imagine.

God would cease to be God, if He went along with the dishonour of His Son.

Whoever confessed Him before men, He would also confess before His Father in heaven. And whoever denied Him, He would also deny before His Father — He could not now say their Father — in heaven.

Dear friends, stand forward for Him. Do not be ashamed to own your relationship to Him, your dependence on Him… confess Him before men, and act for Him, and live for Him in a godless world. He is not ashamed to call you brothers. Will you be ashamed to confess Him as your Lord and Master in front of the whole world? … Make the plunge, and trust God for the outcome. I know it by experience, that an open bold confession of being Christ's is more than half the struggle over.

Then He warns them that their testimony may have a very painful result — homes thrown into confusion, family members set against one another. Do not be surprised... We know that the Lord can give us peace at all times and in every way. But here He is speaking about His testimony going out through His disciples into a world that hates Him. So the two are bound to collide. He does not want confusion. It is the natural effect when the knowledge of Christ enters a house where some of its members reject Him.

The prophet Micah describes the moral corruption of his day. He says that all trust between friends, and even between husband and wife, had completely vanished... The gospel of Matthew shows the same state of things, but this time it follows the presentation of Christ... When Christ is set before people, they either receive Him or reject Him. So He brings not peace but a sword. It draws out of those who refuse Him all the enmity and all the hidden corruption of the human heart, both against Christ and against His followers... Sons have betrayed their fathers, and parents their children, and in this way the Lord's words have often been fulfilled in the history of the Church — that a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

The closest relationships made no difference, and neither did sex, age, or youth. Grace works freely, according to the sovereign will of God. In the same way man's hatred spares no one, and it shows up in the most unlikely places... So it is solemn to find that the evil had already come before the days the prophet spoke of. The presence of Divine love in the person of Jesus provokes it.

If man had been what he ought to be, the result would have been peace. But man saw no beauty in Christ to desire Him, and the effect was hatred — not peace, but a sword. The nearer the relation, the deeper the grievance... Yet the division that grace brings has this strange mark. The one in a family who turns to Christ usually becomes, at once, the slave of the rest. Such cases turn nature itself upside down. How often a husband or parent loses his authority!

Peace on earth waits until He appears in glory. Meanwhile the ground of that peace has been laid in divine righteousness. In the richest way the same ground has been laid for peace in heaven, and for peace where we needed it most — by the blood of the Cross.

There must be a decision as regards Christ. If one loves father or mother, son or daughter more than Him, he is not worthy of Him. He cannot take a secondary place to any natural relationship. For any mere man to demand this would be wickedness. But this Man is the eternal God. He is worthy of unconditional worship, and every creature owes Him absolute obedience.

Many tensions arise when one member of a family turns to the Lord and the others oppose him. He meets a lack of understanding, sometimes open acts of hostility, and in some countries even persecution. How thankful we should be if God has granted us the grace of a close family, where each member loves the Lord and seeks to serve Him!

The Lord has warned us in advance about the effect of His coming and testimony — not its purpose. That effect would be strife, dividing even the nearest and most precious natural relationships (Matt. 10:34-37).

When Christ is presented to people, they either receive Him or reject Him. So He brings not peace but a sword. It draws out from those who refuse Him all the enmity, all the hidden corruption of the human heart — both against Christ and against His followers.

Here the Lord says, "And a person's enemies will be those of his own household" — words not repeated in the other gospels. The word here is oikiakos, which comes from oikia. It is used again, in line with the meaning of oikia, in verse 25 of the same chapter in Matthew: "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master." If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of His household (oikiakos)?

The cup of the Lord was full of bitterness. He endured not only the hostility of sinners against Himself, but also the mistaken and evil judgments of His own relatives. He walked that path first, ahead of all others — the path where, as He warned His disciples, a person would find enemies inside his own household.

The Lord is alluding to the prophecy of Micah, who describes in similar terms the worst evil of the last days (Micah 7:6). It is solemn to find, then, that the evil had already come before the days the prophet spoke of arrive. And the presence of divine love in the person of Jesus provokes it. This could not be if men were not thoroughly bad; but Jesus is the Truth, and therefore brings everything to a head.

Peace on earth was not the word now, but hostility in the closest relationships. Owning the Lord is intolerable to man. The closer the relationship, the greater the hostility.

There is this peculiar feature in the division that grace brings in. The one who is converted in a family generally becomes, at once, the servant of the rest. Such cases even turn nature upside down. How often a husband or parent loses his authority in this way!

The powerful ties of family relationship will not be enough to hold people together when Christ becomes the object of anyone in the family. A person's enemies will be those of his own household. And this becomes the test of being wholly for Him.

What is happier than a Christian home, where Christ is owned as Lord? It is a little foretaste of that heavenly home. There nothing can intrude to spoil our eternal peace, because nothing can interfere with Christ's absolute control. Contrast this with the divided house, where the world is allowed in.

Now this becomes one of our severest trials — the effect that the testimony of God has upon families. People speak of households being broken up and relatives divided. The Lord already uses the same words and strengthens us for it.

There must be a decision as regards Christ. If one loves father or mother, son or daughter more than Him, he is not worthy of Him. He cannot take a secondary place to any natural relationship. For any mere man to demand this would be wickedness. But this Man is the eternal God. He is worthy of unconditional worship, and entitled to the absolute obedience of every creature.

No human tie should have a superior claim to that of the Lord Jesus. And in the words quoted, He had in view a case where family authority sought to override His word as Master. Even a government does not let a parent's claims or a child's duties release a subject from loyalty to the Crown. It does not shield a criminal from justice either. Must the Lord of all ask less than this from the subjects of His kingdom?

There is no hardness in the Christian or in Christ. When it is the service of God and faithfulness, we must not regard father or mother. The Lord sent His mother away whenever she came to Him during His service. It is not the destruction of natural affection, but the superiority of Christ — God coming in — or else it is idolatry.

There is only one case in which the Lord shows the necessity of forsaking father and mother, and that is when the child is commanded to forsake Christ. In every other case it is sin against Him. He is the One who said long ago, "Honor your father and your mother," and who also said through the apostle, "Children, obey your parents." When father or mother, or wife, or life itself, comes into competition with Christ, then all must be "hated"; the disciple must bear the cross and follow Him.

Luke 14:26 — It is the first of our Gospels, notice, that softens the language here ("hate"). The Greek word for "hate" means to renounce the claims or influence of the person or thing concerned. Compare Matthew 10:37, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me."

The world is against Him. He puts forth no power to subdue it, and no power even to shelter His people from the vengeful hatred He predicts. Yet He claims from all who will be His disciples the most complete devotion a man could show. He is to be dearer than the dearest, nearer than those bound to us by the closest ties. And under that constraint they are to follow Him as the perfect, supreme example of everything highest a person can reach: to be "worthy of Him" is to be their whole ambition!

The first hints our Lord gave His disciples about bearing the cross were in no way vague or ambiguous. This saying is not a mere isolated statement either — from verse 16 of the chapter to the end, the whole passage runs on the persecution that would fall on His faithful witnesses. He, the Lord of the harvest, was sending out His labourers into the harvest. He warns them ahead of time of the enormous opposition they would meet. It would come from those who oppose every new thing out of sheer stubbornness. It would come from the powers that be — governors and kings. Hardest of all to bear, it would come from their nearest relatives: fathers, mothers and children.

There is no service to Christ which is without a cross… He said this to the twelve in particular, as servants of God. Yet in principle it is true of every disciple's service.

It seems to me that Scripture ties the cross above all to shame and disgrace. The cross itself was a cruel and shameful heathen way of putting a man to death. Even the heathen kept it for the very worst. It seemed to say: here is a wretch whose feelings count for nothing. His sufferings can be dragged out to frighten others away from doing what he has done.

As the other Gospels show, the Lord had used expressions like "taking his cross" and "bearing his cross" as pictures of one truth: His disciple must be ready to come under the death sentence of the world.

Christ did not say, "And whoever does not bear My cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." That would mean perfection of reproach, and would imply perfection of walk. But every believer, in his own measure, suffers reproach. It is the same character as Christ's, and so it is called a cross; but it is his cross, not Christ's. Every disciple bears his cross. But God forbid that he should glory in it. He glories only "in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14).

People use the word for every kind of trial and suffering, without distinction. Unbelievers use it, and others use it about unbelievers. Yet using the language of Scripture, it is clear that no unbeliever bears a cross. The world loves its own; it does not hate them (John 15:19)… It is the reproach of Christ. Only one thing earns the name cross: the suffering or reproach that flows from man's unjust judgment on what is like Christ in us.

For any mere man to demand this would be wickedness. But this Man is the eternal God, worthy of unconditional worship, and entitled to the absolute obedience of every creature… Christ has willingly accepted the cross of mankind's rejection for our sake. Every disciple of His is therefore to take his own cross. That is, he chooses to identify himself with the rejected Christ of God, and to follow Him in this path of rejection. He expects no recognition from the world, but reproach instead.

This worthiness does not refer to standing before God. Forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God rest on grace alone, never on merit of any kind (Eph. 2:8). The point is not relationship but discipleship… To dodge the cross is to forfeit the title of a worthy witness for the Lord Jesus in the world.

If the Lord was going to make those who followed Him take up the cross, He had to bear it Himself. He went ahead of His sheep in this path of self-denial and devotedness, to prepare the way. He went alone.

Of all His wonderful words in the Gospels, this is the only one I know of that comes back, with slight changes, no less than six times. Read these passages: Matthew 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33... So He pressed this truth home four times: when He sent out His twelve disciples; just before His transfiguration; when giving a prophetic talk not long before the end of His ministry; and within a few days of His death.

The Lord boldly meets the case. I have come to bring in My principle, and it sets child against parent... He shows that His coming would bring the opposite to a path of ease in this world. Yes, we must make up our minds to suffer trial, rejection and scorn.

The word translated "life" here is usually translated "soul." It refers to that "soul life" which marks man in his natural fallen condition. The soul is not the same as the spirit. The spirit is the higher part of a person, able to put him in intelligent touch with God. The soul is the seat of our natural desires and longings. So "soul life" is the life of enjoying all the things that naturally appeal to us.

In the world to come, the finding and losing of the soul in this present world are turned around. There the finding becomes losing, and the losing becomes finding. The man who makes himself the object of his life loses himself and is cast away. The man who sacrifices self and its interests for Christ's sake is really keeping everything safe for the world to come... And you do not have to lay down your life as a martyr for this to apply. Can only those who die a martyr's death live for ever?

The Lord goes on to declare the reward, connecting it with the conditions He has already laid down. "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life" — not simply as having done this, but — "for My sake, will find it." This is not a rule of harsh self-denial, or anything like that. It is His love ruling in the face of a hostile world.

So if the cross had to be His portion, His followers must accept the cross too. For Him the cross meant atonement for sin, as well as rejection and shame. We share the rejection and shame only. But nature shrinks from this, and even resents it. Its motto (suggested by Satan) is "Spare yourself"; God's motto is "Deny yourself." Someone has truly said that Peter "at the last denied the Lord because he had not denied himself."

One who found his life — that is, chose a life of ease and comfort on earth — would only lose it. A man cannot keep what he tries so hard to hold. But suppose someone loses his life for Christ's sake, and makes Christ his object. It might cost him life's natural pleasures and aims. Yet he would find his life after all: a satisfying life of lasting value and blessing, with eternal good in view.

Whoever received this testimony, in the person of the disciples, received Christ, and, in Christ, Him who sent Him. So God was acknowledged in the person of His witnesses on earth, and He would give a reward to whoever received them, a reward matching the testimony they carried. Whoever acknowledged the testimony of the rejected Lord in this way — even if only by giving a cup of cold water — would not lose his reward. In a world set against Him, whoever believes God's testimony and welcomes the man who carries it confesses God as well as His servant. The rejection of Christ made Him a test, a touchstone.

It is like the Lord's own words, "Whoever receives you receives me" (Matt. 10:40). The power given on earth represents the authority that stands behind it.

"Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." (Luke 11:23.) Here there is no room for indifference or neutrality... In all these passages there is not the slightest hint of neutrality... We must be either against the Lord or for Him. We must receive Him or reject Him. We must be either gathering with Him or scattering.

To reject a servant whom the Lord has truly sent out, who is doing His will and standing for Him, is to reject the Lord Himself... In exactly the same way the Lord Jesus identified Himself with His disciples... Blessed is the servant who, by grace, is so hidden behind his Lord that he is taken up with the Lord's aims and interests, and thinks only of HIS honour and HIS claims. Such a servant will understand, as Samuel did, that when people refuse his message they are rejecting God's word and not his own.

Even believers are sometimes very unwise in the way they criticize the message, or the man himself, when the Lord has sent him to press the truth of His word on consciences and hearts. It is not right to flatter a man because he is the Lord's servant. But it is also very wrong to treat him with disrespect, for in this we show our disrespect for the Lord.

Did Judas betray the Lord? That sealed his own doom, but it did not touch the authority or the grace of Christ, or of God Himself. If they received someone Christ had sent, whatever his end turned out to be, they received the Son, and so the Father. They did not share in the guilt or danger of the punishment of a servant who dishonoured his Master to his own ruin.

What wonderful dignity there is in verse 40, and how wonderful the Lord's rewards are! They are rewards of grace, but they are not held out as motives. The motive should be the glory of God and love for Christ.

It is very sweet that the disciples are called "little ones." There is a step-by-step order in verses 40-42: first, Himself; then a prophet — one who reaches the conscience and brings the soul into the presence of God; then the righteous man; and last, the one who gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones... Where love to Christ moves the heart to show even the least possible kindness, the Lord will not forget it.