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The Christian is Christ's witness. He has to testify for Christ of his Person, offices, and work. He has to testify for the salvation of the believer; to the condemnation of the rejecter. To the rejecter the testimony is unpalatable and rouses resentment. This is often fierce and deadly. To face this resentment requires courage. In the text the witness has the encouragement, viz. -

I. THAT THE POWER OF THE WICKED IS LIMITED.

1. They have the disposition to destroy.

(1) This was evident When they called the Master of the house Beelzebub. This was in the highest possible degree to call good evil.

(2) It was further evident when they crucified the Just One. In so far as they were able they murdered God.

(3) "The disciple is not above his Master." He has no reason to expect a different treatment from the wicked.

2. But their power reaches only to the body.

(1) So far as killing the body, they prevailed against Christ. So far they prevailed against his martyrs.

(2) "But they are not able to kill the soul." Unless the soul consents to its own injury, it cannot be harmed. The soul is killed only by being separated from God. No power can pluck us out of the hand of God.

(3) Note: The soul does not sleep when the body dies.

3. Therefore God only is to be feared.

(1) He can kill the body as certainly as the wicked can. He can, moreover, kill the soul as certainly as the wicked cannot. He can destroy both in Gehenna; and so destroy as to perpetuate punishment (see Psalm 90:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). "Men think that death is an end of their troubles, whereas it is only the beginning of them. It is the lot of the wicked that they live in death, and suffer as it were a continual death" (Philo).

(2) God is to be feared still by those who love him. It is not hell-fire we are to fear, but God. The love of God redeems from slavishness his fear.

(3) Those who fear God truly need not fear man. The fear of sinning arms us against the dread of sinners. Even the heathen could nobly set a tyrant at defiance, saying, "You may abuse the case of Anaxarchus; you cannot injure Anaxarchus himself." Seneca undertakes to make it out that you cannot hurt a wise and good man, because death itself is no real evil to him.

(4) It is enough that the disciple be as his Master. The honour of suffering with Christ is glorious (Matthew 5:10; Romans 8:17; Romans 13:5; 2 Corinthians 12:10; Philippians 1:29; James 1:12; 1 Peter 2:19, 20; 1 Peter 3:14; 1 Peter 4:14). Wakefield renders Juvenal thus: -

"If ever call'd
To give thy witness in a doubtful case,
Though Phalaris himself should bid thee lie,
On pain of torture in his flaming bull,
Disdain to barter innocence for life;
To which life owes its lustre and its worth."

II. THAT THE FAITHFUL ARE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE.

1. The providence of God is everywhere.

(1) It is behind all mechanical forces. Gravitation brings the sparrow to the ground; but it does not fall without our Father. The statement is not that the sparrow does not fall without his notice, but that it does not fall without him. Without the constant active presence of God in nature there would be no gravitating force.

(2) It is behind all living forces. If the sparrow descends to the ground for food, it is because God is there to provide the food, and also to give the creature the power of volition (cf. Matthew 6:26; Luke 12:6).

2. It is specially concerned for the servants of Christ.

(1) He who feeds his sparrows will not starve his saints. Man, in the estimation of his fellow, is of more value than many sparrows. But how enormous is the contrast between the farthing that will purchase two sparrows and the price paid by God for the redemption of one human soul!

(2) But amongst men the believer engages a peculiar loving care of God, and most of all when he is faithfully witnessing for Christ. "The very hairs of your heads are numbered" (cf. ver. 30; Luke 21:18).

(3) How different is this doctrine of Christ from that of Pope, who says -

"He sees with equal eyes, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall"! Or of Hume, who says, "In the sight of God every event is alike important; and the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster!

3. What, then, has the servant of Christ to fear? Nothing can harm us" - even the killing of the body - "if we be followers of that which is good."

III. THAT THE FAITHFUL SHALL BE EVERLASTINGLY REWARDED.

1. There is a coming day of revelation.

(1) "There is nothing covered that shall not" then "be revealed." In the day of judgment the malignity of the hypocrite who called the Master of the house Beelzebub will come out to the day (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

(2) So will the fidelity of Christ's slandered witnesses. Already, even in this world, those who once were counted the offscouring of all things are justified and revered. What an anticipation this of the honour of the saint before an assembled universe!

2. The day of revelation will be a day of retribution.

(1) The confessor will be confessed. The confession will be the prelude and passport to the bliss of heaven.

(2) The denier will be denied. The truth itself will condemn those who dishonour it. The denial of the wicked will be the prelude to his destruction in both soul and body in Gehenna.

3. Therefore let the witness for Christ be fearless.

(1) What Christ tells him in the darkness of parable, that let him speak in the light of clear testimony. What he hears in the ear of privacy he is to proclaim as from the house-top, publicly and openly. The trumpet should have a certain sound.

(2) What the apostles delivered they received. They received it in privacy, not for themselves, but as "stewards to dispense the mysteries of God" (Ephesians 3:1-12; Hebrews 2:3). "We preach not ourselves." - J.A.M.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.

WEB: "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord.