Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 10:41

hen in two distinct forms the law is stated that to befriend the representative of Christ and God ensures the reward belonging to that representative. εἰς ὄνομα, having regard to the fact that he is a prophet or righteous man. The prophet is the principal object of thought, naturally, in connection with a mission to preach truth. But Christ knows (Matthew 7:15) that there are false prophets as well as true; therefore from vocation He falls back on personal character. Here as everywhere we see how jealously He made the ethical interest supreme. “See,” says Chrys., commenting on Matthew 10:8, “how He cares for their morals, not less than for the miracles, showing that the miracles without the morals are nought” (Hom. 32). So here He says in effect: let the prophet be of no account unless he be a just, good man. The fundamental matter is character, and the next best thing is sincere respect for it. To the latter Christ promises the reward of the former. ὁ δεχόμενος δίκαιον … μισθὸν δ. λήψετοι : a strong, bold statement made to promote friendly feeling towards the moral heroes of the world in the hearts of ordinary people; not the utterance of a didactic theologian scientifically measuring his words. Yet there is a great principle underlying, essentially the same as that involved in St. Paul's doctrine of justification by faith. The man who has goodness enough to reverence the ideal of goodness approximately or perfectly realised in another, though not in himself, shall, in the moral order of the world, be counted as a good man.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 10:41

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