I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 10-12.

    Jesus’ sent the twelve apostles out to preach His message on their own. This was a sort of “student teacher” training for when He would alter give them the Great Commission. He sent them only to the Jews, expressly telling them not to go to the Gentiles, or even the Samaritans. He was sending them to those who believed in God and understood God’s commands. He did not send them to those who did not believe at all (the Gentiles), nor did He send them to those who believed in God, but did not understand His commands (the Samaritans). Later, when Jesus gave the Great Commission He removed this limitation. Here He instructed them to go out in faith that God would lead them to people who would provide for their needs. It occurs to me that I have often interpreted the application of Jesus’ instructions to His apostles too narrowly. They were being sent and they were not to worry about how they would pay their way. They were to go in faith that God would provide for their needs.
    As part of the instructions which Jesus gives here He tells us not to be afraid of confrontation, indeed we are to expect it. Jesus gives us some useful instructions on our behavior in these confrontations. The first part is that we are to be “as shrewd as snakes”. That means we are to use our wits, and to avoid falling into logic traps which those we are debating may try to set for us. However, we are also to be “harmless as doves.” Which means we should not let ourselves give into anger, nor should we attempt to humiliate or belittle those with whom we are debating. Finally, when we are brought before authorities to be held accountable for our beliefs, we should not worry about what to say. We do not need to rehearse our lines and/or stick to a script. Instead we should trust that the Holy Spirit will direct our words. This does not mean that we should not prepare ourselves and make sure we know our stuff, just that we should not worry, nor focus on getting the words “just right”. We are to stand up for what we believe in, even if that means we might lose friends, even if our families might ostracize us for it. Being willing to face confrontation does not mean that we have a free pass to be rude, or mean.

    We can learn a lot about how the Church is supposed to work from reading Jesus’ response to John the Baptist’s disciples. When they asked Him if He was the Messiah, Jesus did not ask them to believe based on what He said about Himself. He told them to look at what He was doing and decide for themselves. Let us look at what He told them to look for. First, the physical needs of people were being met, where a disability was keeping them from bettering themselves it was addressed. Jesus provided healthcare for those in need and the Church should do the same today. Jesus was able to provide miraculous healing and I believe that the Church should as well. However, where it does not, it should aid those in need to obtain healing from those who use more mundane techniques. Once physical healing had been provided, mental healing was provided as well. The poor were provided the training they needed to better themselves and just as our first choice in the physical realm was transformation, so is that our first choice in training. When we preach our primary focus should be on the transformation which God offers, but we need to follow that up with training in the habits necessary to succeed.