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Matthew 10:24-26
Jesus teaches us in John 15:18-21, (NKJV) “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.” Jesus is our teacher. It is He who gives us our instructions as to how we should live our lives for bringing glory to God through the salvation that He provides for us through His crucifixion to death, burial, and resurrection.
As Jesus prepares His apostles for what is to come as they go out to share the gospel, He also wants them to know that there will be victories for Christ in their missions. He wants them to be aware that there will be excitement and great joy in the conversions of many people who will open their hearts to Him through the work that the apostles will do in the name of Jesus as they follow His will for their lives. He will give them great blessings through the power that He has given them to, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8). In this excitement and great joy will be the possibility and earthly tendency to be overtaken by one’s desires to believe that they themselves are doing these things on their own, without Jesus or through the power that He has given them. Jesus wants them to be aware that they will be tempted to believe that they can do greater things than He. Jesus wants His apostles to be aware that power was given to one before in reflecting the glory of God throughout all of heaven, and that one (Lucifer) fell to self-desire and believed that he could be greater than God. He was cast out of heaven for his sin against the One and only true God. Now he spends his time tempting others to fall to the same desires as he did, as his desires are now to prevent anyone from being the reflection of God’s glory as this very blessing was stripped from him for his sins; he wants no one to replace him. He is jealous and seeks vengeance on humanity for his own sin against God.
Jesus wants His apostles to be aware of this, so He warns them against the temptations that will come at them from Lucifer himself to make them fall. Lucifer/Satan, will even accuse them of being on his side through the earthly ways of sinful man. Jesus is the master of the house, and He warns in Matthew 10:24-25, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!” But Jesus also gives encouragement through believing in Him as He is more powerful than Satan and his evil ways of this world. Jesus declares in Matthew 10:26, “Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.” One day, all will be revealed; the deepest darkest secrets of the heart will become known and there will be nothing left that will not be known, as Jesus teaches His apostles in Matthew 10:26.
This is a command to not fall to the evil ways of the trickery of Satan.
This is a promise that Jesus is more powerful than Satan and that the evil ways of Satan will be revealed one day showing his trickery and guilt.
We too are living in this sinful world that is submitted to the evil trickery of Satan in his attempt to overthrow God and prevent us from being the reflection of God’s glory as this very blessing was taken from him because of his sin against God (Isaiah 14:12-15). Satan will do his best to prevent us from drawing close to God and fulfilling His promise and blessings for our lives, but Jesus is our master, not Satan, and Jesus is more powerful than Satan. He will not allow Satan to overcome our lives if we will put and keep our focus and faith on Him, Jesus, the Savior of the world (John 3:16-17).
Dear LORD,
You give us all gifts as we seek Your will for our lives. Please help us to keep our focus on You and the example of true life that You have given us in Christ Jesus that we would not fall to the evils of the devil, but would bring glory to You through our lives as we strive to be Your reflection in the world today – in Christ! In Jesus name I pray, amen.