Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Raise the dead - This is wanting in the MSS. marked EKLMS of Griesbach, and in those marked BHV of Mathai, and in upwards of one hundred others. It is also wanting in the Syriac, (Vienna edition), latter Persic, Sahidic, Armenian, Sclavonic, and in one copy of the Itala; also in Athanasius, Basil, and Chrysostom. There is no evidence that the disciples raised any dead person previously to the resurrection of Christ. The words should certainly be omitted, unless we could suppose that the authority now given respected not only their present mission, but comprehended also their future conduct. But that our blessed Lord did not give this power to his disciples at this time, is, I think, pretty evident from Matthew 10:1, and from Luke 9:6, Luke 9:10; Luke 10:19, Luke 10:20, where, if any such power had been given, or exercised, it would doubtless have been mentioned. Wetstein has rejected it, and so did Griesbach in his first edition; but in the second (1796) he has left it in the text, with a note of doubtfulness.
Freely ye have received, freely give - A rule very necessary, and of great extent. A minister or laborer in the Gospel vineyard, though worthy of his comfortable support while in the work, should never preach for hire, or make a secular traffic of a spiritual work. What a scandal is it for a man to traffic with gifts which he pretends, at least, to have received from the Holy Ghost, of which he is not the master, but the dispenser. He who preaches to get a living, or to make a fortune, is guilty of the most infamous sacrilege.