A CHRISTIAN LOOKS AT MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
The little band of helpers – (iv) The rule they live by
Reading: Matthew 10:8b-10 Click to view passage
“Freely you have received, freely give,”(v8b). You could say this is the rule that must undergird the whole of the helper’s life. Everything they have, their treasure, their talents and their time too.
This passage would have spoken so loudly to the Jews who first heard it. A Rabbi was forbidden to take money for teaching. The principle was simple, “God taught Moses gratis – do so thou.”
There is an emphasis here that the twelve are not to be dazzled by riches. They are not to set out to take “gold or silver” for their “purses.” The “purse” is literally the “girdle” which was the wide piece of material around the waist where they kept their money. The word “bag” could be the bag that wandering philosophers took around the crowd after teaching. There is to be “no extra tunic, or sandals or staff” which might sound surprising. The point for the Jew is that when they entered the Temple they took nothing with them, to show they had left everything behind. Jesus is saying to his helpers, treat the whole world as you would the Temple.
However, “A workman is worth his keep.”
Meditation: “Freely you have received, freely give.”
Prayer pointer: I must learn to treat the whole of my world as God’s Temple?
Matthew:62
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