All the Synoptic Gospels mention the instruction Jesus gives His disciples when He sends them out to preach. In Matthew it turns out to be the most...
All the Synoptic Gospels mention the instruction Jesus gives His disciples when He sends them out to preach. In Matthew it turns out to be the most detailed and vivid; in Mark, as in Luke, we see more of a retelling of the Savior's words than the words themselves as they sounded. Of course, with regard to the Gospel of Matthew, one can also speak of editing, but here the color of Jesus' Jewish speech is nevertheless better preserved.
Thus, in Matthew Jesus tells the disciples to take "neither sandals nor staff" for the road, whereas according to Mark He tells them, on the contrary, to take only a staff for the road and to wear simple sandals. This difference obviously presupposes Mark's interpretation of the Savior's words. By forbidding the disciples to take a travel bag, sandals, and staff, Jesus is allegorically comparing their mission to standing before God in the Temple court: when entering the Temple court, one had to leave the travel bag and staff at the entrance, along with the sandals.
Jesus calls His disciples to remain constantly in the same inward standing before God in which a person should be near the altar during sacrifice. This inward standing before God was the main meaning of their ministry. Only in such a state could they fulfill the chief task entrusted to them: to reveal to the world the breath and power of the Kingdom. It is no accident that the Savior endows the apostles with power to do the same things He Himself does.
Only in this way could people be made to understand, or at least to feel from their own experience, what the Kingdom is. Words alone about the Kingdom, which, as Jesus Himself says, "has drawn near," were not enough here. Theological arguments do not work in such cases; witness is needed. And the possibility for Jesus' disciples to manifest the same power of the Kingdom that their Teacher manifests became the witness that the Kingdom really had "drawn near."
If it were otherwise, no one except Jesus Himself could have manifested its power, and no one else could have performed either miracles or healings. The Kingdom would have remained the possession of the One who brought it into the world, and of no one else. Meanwhile, in practice it turned out that the most ordinary people could share in it, provided, of course, that they were ready to entrust themselves to the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. Such witness spoke better than any arguments, because it was truly living and effective.
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2:21 Meantime I do not make void - In seeking to be justified by my own works. The grace of God - The free love of God in Christ Jesus. But they do, who seek justification by the law. For if righteousness is by the law - If men might be justified by their obedience to the law, moral or ceremonial. Then Christ died in vain - Without any necessity for it, since men might have been saved without his death; might by their own obedience have been both discharged from condemnation, and entitled to eternal life.
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3:1 O thoughtless Galatians - He breaks in upon them with a beautiful abruptness. Who hath bewitched you - Thus to contradict both your own reason and experience. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been as evidently set forth - By our preaching, as if he had been crucified among you.
3:2 This only would I learn of you - That is, this one argument might convince you. Did ye receive the witness and the fruit of the Spirit by performing the works of the law, or by hearing of and receiving faith?
3:3 Are ye so thoughtless - As not to consider what you have yourselves experienced? Having begun in the Spirit - Having set out under the light and power of the Spirit by faith, do ye now, when ye ought to be more spiritual, and more acquainted with the power of faith, expect to be made perfect by the flesh? Do you think to complete either your justification or sanctification, by giving up that faith, and depending on the law, which is a gross and carnal thing when opposed to the gospel?
3:4 Have ye suffered - Both from the zealous Jews and from the heathens. So many things - For adhering to the gospel. In vain - So as to lose all the blessings which ye might have obtained, by enduring to the end. If it be yet in vain - As if he had said, I hope better things, even that ye will endure to the end.
3:5 And, at the present time, Doth he that ministereth the gift of the Spirit to you, and worketh miracles among you, do it by the works of the law - That is, in confirmation of his preaching justification by works, or of his preaching justification by faith?
3:6 Doubtless in confirmation of that grand doctrine, that we are justified by faith, even as Abraham was. The Apostle, both in this and in the epistle to the Romans, makes great use of the instance of Abraham: the rather, because from Abraham the Jews drew their great argument, as they do this day, both for their own continuance in Judaism, and for denying the gentiles to be the church of God. Gen 15:6
3:7 Know then that they who are partakers of his faith, these, and these only, are the sons of Abraham, and therefore heirs of the promises made to him.