FEAR GOD, NOT MEN

 

FEAR GOD NOT MEN

26“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

27What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

28And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

32So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

MATTHEW 10:26-33

COMMENTARY

After our Lord Jesus warned his disciples about the future persecutions they will suffer (Mt 10:16-23), here He also gave them a word of encouragement by telling them that they should not fear those who can kill the body, but not the soul, as GOD can punish the body and soul in Genna.

Here, Jesus speaks to them that there is nothing we can hide from GOD, but that instead, at the Day of Judgement, everything we do, even in secret, will be revealed before GOD, so that our sentence will be correct, and calls the attention to his disciples, how not even the animals we hunt, fall out of chance, or because we are good hunters, but that they fall with GOD’s permission, because nothing happens without our Father’s knowledge and permission, and that even the hairs of our bodies are known by GOD, in clear demonstration that not even something little or intricate, escapes the knowledge of the Creator.

With all these things, Lord JESUS, teaches us to trust in our Heavenly Father, who knows everything, and nothing is hidden from HIM.

We must walk in the knowledge that we are always under our Father’s careful watch, and nothing that is not supposed to happen to us, will happen, and even if something bad happens to us, which may seem like an accident, we should keep in mind that GOD allowed it for a reason, and we should trust always in HIM, because nobody can really hurt another human being, except GOD’s punishment.

As punishment, translated here as ‘Hell’, is not really the literal translation, but is γέεννα (Genna), a short reference to the word GIHENNA, or GIHENNON, the valley in Jerusalem where people disposed of their garbage, and had constant fires going on. The reference to being ‘killed’ is figurative, which refers to pay for evil which is intended to be eradicated from earth, not humans. To be destroy, here means our sinful nature.

Instead of fear, Lord JESUS encourages us to proclaim the gospel of repentance and forgiveness to all humanity, through every means possible, ‘loudly, from the roof tops’, and ends up his warning, by saying that anyone who denies Him, which does not mean, aa many think today, to be Arian, or being a Monophysite or an Apollinarian, or anything else that has existed in the history of Christianity, but to REJECT JESUS, as an enemy of humanity, to reject his divine mission, that He was sent by GOD to proclaim the gospel, to refuse to accept his authority.

Those, who are enemies of Christ, no the ones who submit to Him to the best understanding they possess about Him for different reasons, but those whom Paul refers in 1Corinthians 12:3, who ‘curse’ the Holy Name of the Son of GOD, they will also be denied by Jesus, the Day of Judgement, when we stand before GOD, and Jesus will intercede for all those who trusted in Him, as his divine message.

OFR.