MATTHEW 10:9 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,”
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts. The economic provisions for the mission: no financial preparation. The disciples are to travel with radical dependency on the provision of those they serve. The prohibition on gold, silver, and copper is the prohibition on the financial security that would make the mission independent of the hospitality of those who receive it. The economic dependency of the missionary creates the social bond between the missionary and the community that receives them — the disciple who must depend on the household's hospitality is also the disciple whose message must engage the household's life.
Church Fathers on Matthew 10:9
The Lord having forbidden to make merchandize of spiritual things, proceeds to pull up the root of all evil, saying, 'Possess neither gold, nor silver.'
For if they preach without receiving reward for it, the possession of gold and silver and wealth was unnecessary. For had they had such, they would have been thought to be preaching, not for the sake of men’s salvation, but their own gain.
Whence He adds, 'Neither money in your purses.' For there are two kinds of things necessary; one is the means of buying necessaries, which is signified by the money in their purses; the other the necessaries themselves, which are signified by the scrip.
Read all 16 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!