Heads Up

Jesus said, “If you…who are evil, know how to give good gifts…how much more will the heavenly Father give…to those who ask him!”

If God is good, why does He allow suffering? And if He is all-powerful, why does He not put an end to sinful actions and natural catastrophes? If God is all-good and if He created only good things, then where did evil come from? How can evil come from what is perfectly good? Thinking Christians…

The first thing these verses say Matthew 10.17-42 is that we can expect opposition. As far as the disciples were concerned, they could expect that in time they would be “hand[ed] … over to the local councils and flogged … in their synagogues.” This is what happened to Peter and other apostles in Acts 5.40…

Comparing the first three Gospels raises questions sometimes, but sometimes the comparisons are helpful, as is the case here in Matthew. In Mark’s and Luke’s accounts, Jesus’ instructions to the Twelve end with the material Matthew reported in the first half of chapter 8. Instead of stopping at this point, however, as Mark and Luke…

Matthew 10 teaches what the first preachers of the Gospel were to expect as they copied Jesus, going out among all the towns and villages preaching the Good News and healing the people’s diseases. Our first reaction is to suppose that they should have been well received. Who is more welcome than bearers of good…

There are those who believe and teach that an earthly messianic kingdom was offered to the Jews first and that only after it was rejected was it offered to others. But that is not the way we should read Matthew. Matthew knows nothing of two Gospels. There is only one Gospel of God’s rule in…