Warnings and Encouragements
Taken from Matthew for Everyone Part 1
Description
Warnings and Encouragements
Matthew 10.24-31
Which command is repeated most often in the Bible?
You might imagine it’s something stern: Behave yourself! Smarten up! Say your prayers! Worship God more wholeheartedly! Give more money away!
You’d be wrong. It’s the command we find in verses 26, 28 and 31: Don’t be afraid.
You can see easily enough why Jesus needed to tell his disciples not to be afraid, at this point in his instructions to them. After all, he’s warned them that the authorities will be after them; that they will suffer physical and emotional violence; and, now, that people will start calling them the sort of names they have already begun to call him. Plenty to be afraid of there! And yet he says, Don’t be afraid...
Taken from Matthew for Everyone – by Tom Wright