§ 8. Jesus' Ministry in Galilee Continued

The Lord here teaches that His teaching is the standard of fellowship. If we teach the Lord's teachings, we find a reception with those who want to learn from the Lord. As the apostles noted, it isn't about the people who speak this word, but about the God whose word it is.

2 Corinthians 3:5

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God….

In the same way, Paul could rejoice when people in Thessalonica received the message he preached on the basis that it was God's message.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

And John points out the opposite is also true: Sometimes we are not received, and it is because we are speaking the truth.

1 John 4:5–6

They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Matthew here asserts the unity of the Father and the Son. Whatever we may do to the Son, we are also doing to the Father. John, too, expands on the concept of treating both the Father and the Son by the same action.

1 John 2:23

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

1 John 4:15

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

John also highlights an important aspect: Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to believing in Jesus.

1 John 5:10

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

There are at least two accounts that come to mind of some who in time past received prophets because they were prophets. God certainly did bless them, although they were tested.

1 Kings 17:13–16

And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.

2 Kings 4:8–10, 16–17

One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way. Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.”

And he said, “At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your servant.” But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her.

Cold water was not considered the nicest thing one could provide a guest (as it is in a Texas summer!), but rather the very least one could offer. The Lord's point is that any amount of good anyone does on the basis that they're doing it for one of God's children will be noticed in heaven.