And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones. Beautiful epithet! originally taken from Zechariah 13:7. The reference is to their lowliness in spirit, their littleness in the eyes of an undiscerning world, while high in Heaven's esteem.
A cup of cold water only (meaning, the smallest service), in the name of a disciple - or, as it is in Mark (Mark 9:41), because ye are Christ's х Christou (G5547) este (G2075)]: from love to Me, and to him from his connection with Me,
Verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. There is here a descending climax - "a prophet," "a righteous man," "a little one;" signifying that however low we come down in our services to those that are Christ's, all that is done for His sake, and that bears the stamp of love to His blessed name, shall be divinely appreciated and owned and rewarded.
Remarks:
(1) It is a manifest abuse of the directions here given for this first, hasty and temporary, mission (Matthew 10:5-15), to take them as a general Directory for the missionaries of Christ in all time and under all circumstances. The cessation of those miraculous credentials with which the Twelve were furnished for this present Mission, might surely convince Christian men that the directions for such a mission were not intended to be literally followed by the missionaries of the Cross in all time. Even our Lord Himself did not act on the strict letter of these directions, having for needful uses, as Luther (in Stier) quaintly says - "money, bag, and bread-baskets too." It is true that one or two servants of Christ, in the course of an age, are found, who, in a spirit of entire self-abnegation, consecrate themselves to works of Christian philanthropy without wealth or other ordinary resources, and yet not only obtain enough to maintain them in their work, but the means of extending it beyond all anticipation, and that for a long series of years, or even a life-time. But the interest and admiration which such cases draw forth throughout the Christian world shows them to be exceptional illustrations of answer to prayer, and childlike confidence in working the work of God, rather than the normal character of the work of His kingdom. At the same time, the servants of Christ will do well to imbibe the spirit of these first directions-in simplicity of purpose and superiority to fastidious concern about their personal comfort; in energy also, and alacrity in prosecuting their work: taking as their motto that golden maxim, "Freely ye have received, freely give;" yet "not casting their pearls before swine," but acting on the principle that the rejection of their message is an affront put upon their Master, rather than themselves.
(2) Though the vast change which the Gospel has produced upon Christendom is apt to make men think that our Lord's statements, here and elsewhere, of the universal hatred with which Christians would be regarded, have become inapplicable, we are never to forget that the hostility He speaks of is a hostility of unchangeable principles; and that although the unfaithfulness and timidity of Christians, on the one hand, may so compromise or keep in the background those principles which the world hates, or on the other hand, the world itself may from various causes be restrained from manifesting that hatred, yet, whenever and wherever the light and the darkness, Christ and Belial, are brought face to face in vivid juxtaposition, there will the eternal and irreconcileable opposition of the one to the other appear.
(3) How vastly greater would be the influence of Christians upon the world around them if they were more studious to combine the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove! We have Christians and Christian ministers who pride themselves upon their knowledge of the world, and the shrewdness with which they conduct themselves in it; while the simplicity of the dove is almost entirely in abeyance. Even the world can discern this, and, discerning it, despise those who to all appearance are no better than others, and yet pretend to be so. But on the other hand, there are Christians and Christian ministers who have the harmlessness of the dove, but being totally void of the wisdom of the serpent, carry no weight, and even expose themselves and their cause to the contempt of the world. O that the followers of the Lamb would lay this to heart!
(4) What weighty inducements to suffer unflinchingly for the Gospel's sake are here provided! Such as do so are no worse off than their Master, and may rest assured of His sympathy and support, in a furnace which in His own case was heated seven times. And what though their life should be taken from them for Jesus' sake? The power of their enemies ceases there; whereas He whose wrath they incur by selling their conscience to save life is able to cast both soul and body into hell-fire. (See the notes at Mark 9:43-48.) God's suffering children are unspeakably dear to Him; their every trial in His service is full before Him; and their courage in confessing the name of Jesus will be rewarded by the confession of their name amidst the solemnities and the splendours of the great day: whereas a faithless denial of Christ here will be followed by the indignant and open denial of such by the Judge from His great white throne.
(5) When Jesus here demands of His followers a love beyond all that is found in the tenderest relations of life, and pronounces all who withhold this to be unworthy of Him, He makes a claim which, on the part of any mere creature, would be wicked and intolerable, and in Him who honoured the Father as no other on earth ever did, is not to be imagined, if He had not been "the Fellow of the Lord of Hosts."
(6) It is an abuse of the duty of disinterestedness in religion to condemn all reference to our own future safety and blessedness as a motive of action. For what have we here, as the conclusion of this lofty Directory, but an encouragement to entertain His servants, and welcome His people, and do offices of kindness, however small, to the humblest of His disciples, by the emphatic assurance that not the lowest of such offices shall go unrewarded? And shall not Christians be stimulated to lay themselves thus out for Him to whom they owe their all?