Mat 10:39 To save your life is to lose it, and to lose your life for my sake is to save it.
Mat 10:40 "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives Him who sent me.
Mat 10:41 Every one who receives a prophet, because he is a prophet, will receive a prophet's reward, and every one who receives a righteous man, because he is a righteous man, will receive a righteous man's reward.
Mat 10:42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink because he is a disciple, I solemnly tell you that he will not lose his reward."
Introduction
Losing one’s life for the sake of Christ and His glorious Gospel is surely to find true LIFE.
We see that losing one’s life means a willing to deny self and pick up your cross and follow Jesus up “the Calvary Road”.This is true Christianity.
| Simon of Curaean bears Jesus Cross |
When we think of Stephen, the first martyr, the disciples and the Apostle Paul this is how they lived and died. Some say that the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down. The hundreds of thousands of Christian Martyrs who refused to deny the faith in our day are testimony to a laid down Life.
Elton Knauf and Teddy Hodgson were hacked to death with Machetes in the Congo in 1960. Are you willing to lay down your life for the cause of Christ.
Mat 10:39 To save your life is to lose it, and to lose your life for my sake is to save it.WNT
Mat 10:39 If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it. CEV
Notes
To save your life is to lose it, another of those pregnant sayings which our Lord so often reiterates (see Mat_16:25; Luk_17:33; Joh_12:25). The pith of such paradoxical maxims depends on the double sense attached to the word “life” - a lower and a higher, the natural and the spiritual, the temporal and eternal. An entire sacrifice of the lower, with all its relationships and interests - or, a willingness to make it which is the same thing - is indispensable to the preservation of the higher life; and he who cannot bring himself to surrender the one for the sake of the other shall eventually lose both. JFB’s Commentary
In the context of v.38 “anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”.
We see that losing one’s life means a willing to deny self and pick up your cross and follow Jesus up “the Calvary Road”. True Christianity is what Paul talks about in Romans 6
Rom 6:2 No, indeed; how shall we who have died to sin, live in it any longer?
Rom 6:3 And do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Rom 6:4 Well, then, we by our baptism were buried with Him in death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from among the dead by the Father's glorious power, we also should live an entirely new life.
Rom 6:5 For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection.
10:39 and to lose your life for my sake is to save it.WNT
But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it. CEV
That man that is willing to forego the present advantages of life, to suffer reproach and persecution, and lay down his life cheerfully for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, for the profession of his name, rather than drop, deny, conceal, or neglect any truth and ordinance of his, shall find his soul possessed of eternal life, as soon as separated from his body; and shall find his corporal life again, in the resurrection morn, to great advantage; and shall live with Christ in soul and body, in the utmost happiness, to all eternity.John Gill
Mat 10:40 "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives Him who sent me.
Notes
For the depths of devotion required in His disciples and the importance of taking up one’s cross and losing one’s life for Jesus’ Sake, the Master now turns to what will happen when people respond to the challenge. He has spoken of the reception His followers will receive when they go out with the Message of the Kingdom.
They should be under no illusions as to the difficulties of the task and the certainty that there will be people who oppose them bitterly.
Now he speaks of those who would receive His disciples, where the verb suggests “receive as a guest, welcome”.
To receive such a one who has been sent forth by the Lord Himself is to receive a great blessing as if they are receiving the Master Himself.
But not just the Master but the Heavenly Father as well
and whoever receives me receives Him who sent me.
Note here again the thought of Mission. Jesus had been sent.
The thought is that of the outworking of that ONE GREAT DIVINE PURPOSE in which the Father, Jesus who had been sent by the father, and the disciples who were being sent out by Jesus all had their Part. They were so closely connected that any honour paid to the disciples had to overflow to the Lord Jesus and the Father as well. Leon Morris p.269
Mat 10:41 Everyone who receives a prophet, because he is a prophet, will receive a prophet's reward, and every one who receives a righteous man, because he is a righteous man, will receive a righteous man's reward.
Notes
He that receiveth a prophet — one divinely commissioned to deliver a message from heaven. Predicting future events was not necessary part of a prophet’s office, especially as the word is used in the New Testament.
in the name of a prophet — for his office’s sake and love to his master. (See 2Ki_4:9 and see on 2Ki_4:10).
shall receive a prophet’s reward — What an encouragement to those who are not prophets! (See Joh_3:5-8).JFB
and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man — from sympathy with his character and esteem for himself as such
shall receive a righteous man’s reward — for he must himself have the seed of righteousness who has any real sympathy with it and complacency in him who possesses it.
Mat 10:42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink because he is a disciple, I solemnly tell you that he will not lose his reward."
Mat_10:42
These little ones - By “these little ones” are clearly meant his disciples.
They are called “little ones” to denote their want of wealth, rank, learning, and whatever the world calls “great.” They were “little” in the estimation of the world and in their own estimation. They were “learners,” not yet “teachers;” and they made no pretensions to what attracts the admiration of mankind.
A cup of cold” water “only - Few would refuse a cup of cold water to any man, if thirsty and weary, and yet not all people would give it to such a one “because he was a Christian,” or to express attachment to the Lord Jesus. In bestowing it on a man “because he was a Christian,” he would show love to the Saviour himself; in the other case he would give it from mere sympathy or kindness, evincing no regard for the Christian, the Christian’s Master, or his cause. In one case he would show that he loved the cause of religion; in the other case, he would not.
Remarks On Matthew 10 by Barnes
1. From the narrative in this chapter, in connection with that in Luke, we are permitted to see the Saviour’s habits in regard to prayer. An important event was before him; an event on which, humanly speaking, depended the whole success of his religion - the choice of those who should be his messengers to mankind. He felt its importance; and even the Son of God sought the place of prayer, and during the nightwatches asked the direction of his Father. His example shows that we, in great and trying circumstances, should seek particularly the direction of God.
2. We see the benevolence of the gospel, Mat_10:7-8. The apostles were to confer the highest favors on mankind without reward. Like air, and sunbeams, and water - gifts of God - they are without price. The poor are welcome; the rich, unaided by their wealth, are welcome also; the wide world may freely come and partake the rich blessings or the gospel of peace.
3. Ministers of the gospel, and all the followers of Jesus, should depend on the providence of God for support and the supply of their wants, Mat_10:9-10. He sent his apostles into a cold, unfriendly world, and he took care of them. So none that trust Him shall lack. The righteous shall not be forsaken. The God who has in His hand all the pearls of the ocean, the gold in the heart of the earth, and the cattle on a thousand hills, and that feeds the raven when it cries, will hear the cries of His children and supply their needs.
4. We see the duty of treating kindly the messengers of salvation, Mat_10:11-13. Christ expected that in every city and town they would find some who would welcome them. He promised the reward of a prophet to those who should receive a prophet, and assured those of his favor who had nothing better to bestow than even a cup of cold water. The ministers of religion are sent to benefit the world. It is but right that in that world they should be kindly received, and that their wants should be supplied.
5. The guilt of rejecting the gospel, Mat_10:14-15. It is not a small matter to reject an offer of heaven. A palace, a throne, a rich earthly inheritance, might be rejected, and, compared with rejecting the gospel, it would be a trifle. But life eternal is not like thrones, and gold, and palaces. This lost, all is lost. The gospel rejected, all is gone. Nor hope nor happiness awaits him that hath spurned this offer. God requires everyone to believe the gospel; and woe, woe, a greater woe than befell guilty Sodom and Gomorrah, to him who rejects it.
6. Judgment will certainly overtake the guilty, Mat_10:15. It fell upon Sodom, and it will fall on all transgressors. None shall escape. Damnation may slumber long over the wicked, and they may long mock the God of truth, but in due time their feet will slide, and the whole creation shall not be able to save them from woe. How dangerous, how awful is the condition of an impenitent sinner!
7. We are to take proper care of our lives, Mat_10:23. The apostles were to flee from danger, when they could do it without denying their Lord. So are we. He that throws away his life when it might have been, and ought to have been preserved, is a self-murderer. He that exposes himself when duty does not require it, and whose life pays the forfeit, goes before God “rushing unbidden into his Maker’s presence,” nor can he be held guiltless.
8. We are to persevere “in our duty” through all trials, Mat_10:23. Neither the world, nor pain, nor poverty, nor persecution. nor death is to appal us. He that endures to the end shall be saved. We have but one thing to do - to do the will of God, to “be Christians everywhere,” and to leave the event with him.
9. God exercises a particular providence, Mat_10:29-30. He watches the falling sparrow, numbers the hairs of the head, and for the same reason he presides over all other things. The Lord reigneth, says the Psalmist, let the earth rejoice, Psa_97:1.
10. The duty of making a profession of religion, Mat_10:32-33. It must be done in a proper way, or Christ will disown us in the day of judgment. It is impossible to neglect it, and have evidence of piety. If ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us.
11. Religion is easy, and easily tested, Mat_10:40-42. What more easy than to give a cup of water to a stranger, and what more easy than to know from what motive we do it! Yet how many are there who, while they would do the thing, would yet “lose eternal life” rather than do it with a view of honoring Christ or showing attachment to him! How dreadful is the opposition of the human heart to religion! How amazing that man will not do the slightest act to secure an interest in the kingdom of God!
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