NOTES for Mat 10:37-42; Mat 11:1
“And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water...” Only a cup of cold water... These are very important words. Goodness has no measure. “For God does not give the Spirit by measure” (John 3:34). It can be painful for us to see how immeasurably smaller the good we do is than the ardor of our heart, than our thirst to embrace the whole world with our love and make everyone happy. It seems that, if we suffer from this too much, our suffering is supplied by pride—the same pride that has driven some people to terrible crimes in a similar situation. And here before us is only a cup of cold water... To give—or, more precisely, to give water to the thirsty whenever they ask to drink—may be no less precious to God than all the apologetic theological treatises written over the past two thousand years taken together. For goodness has no measure. Only evil has a measure.