NOTES for Mat 10:1-7

These are verses that are usually read with very little attention: a list of names—what could be more boring! Who remembers the names of all twelve Apostles? Twelve seconds; the clock is ticking. Hard to remember? Perhaps that is not so terrible. The main thing is that the Lord remembers them. But it matters that the Evangelist considered it necessary to name each one. He could simply have said that there were twelve of them—and that would have been all. 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 dear in God's sight precisely because that person is who he or she is. He does not love “everyone in general”; He does not choose “someone,” but particular people.