NOTES for Mat 10:1-7

These are the verses we usually read very carelessly: a list of names—what could be more boring! Quick now, who remembers the names of all twelve apostles? Twelve seconds; your time starts now! Hard to remember? That is probably not a disaster. What matters is that the Lord remembers them. But it is important that the Evangelist considered it necessary to name each one. He could simply have said that there were twelve of them, and left it at that. He could. But then these people would have been completely faceless. By calling each one by name, the Evangelist tells us that every person is important and precious in God's eyes precisely because he is who he is. He does not love “everyone in general”; He does not choose “someone,” but particular people.