Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

The laborer is worthy - See on Matthew 10:8, Matthew 10:12; (note).

Go not from house to house - See on Matthew 10:11; (note). It would be a great offense among the Hindoos if a guest, after being made welcome at a house, were to leave it and go to another.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

See the notes at Matthew 10:11. On this passage Dr. Thomson (“The Land and the Book,” vol. i. p. 534) remarks: “The reason (for the command, ‹Go not from house to house‘) is very obvious to one acquainted with Oriental customs. When a stranger arrives in a village or an encampment, the neighbors, one after another, must invite him to eat with them. There is a strict etiquette about it, involving much ostentation and hypocrisy, and a failure in the due observance of this system of hospitality is violently resented, and often leads to alienations and feuds among neighbors; it also consumes much time, causes unusual distraction of mind, leads to levity, and every way counteracts the success of a spiritual mission.”

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible

And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

See below for comment. The Lord expressly forbade these representatives of himself to shop around, as it were, for more convenient or comfortable accommodations.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And in the same house remain,.... Where the sons of peace are, and the peace rests, and into which you are invited, and kindly received and used:

eating and drinking such things as they give; or rather, "such things as are with them", as the Vulgate Latin renders it; or "of that which is theirs", as the Syriac version; all one, and with as much freedom, as if they were your own; the reason follows,

for the labourer is worthy of his hire; what you eat and drink is your due; what you ought to have; your diet is a debt, and not a gratuity; See Gill on Matthew 10:10.

go not from house to house; as if fickle and inconstant, as if not satisfied with your lodging and entertainment, and as seeking out for other and better, or as if burdensome where they were; See Gill on Matthew 10:11. The Jews have a proverb, expressing the inconvenience and expensiveness, and the danger of moving from place to place:

"he that goes, מבית לבית, "from house to house", (loses his) shirt, (i.e. comes to distress and poverty,) from place to place (his) life^F5Bereshit Rabba, sect. 39. fol. 34. 3. ;'

or he is in great danger of losing his life.

Geneva Study Bible

And in the same house ^c remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

(c) Take up your lodging in that house which you enter into first, that is, do not be concerned about comfortable lodging, as men do who plan to stay in a place a long time: for here that solemn preaching of the gospel, which was used afterward when the Churches were settled, is not instituted: but these are sent abroad to all the coasts of Judea to show them that the last jubilee is at hand.

Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament

In that same house (εν αυτηι τηι οικιαι — en autēi tēi oikiāi). Literally, in the house itself, not “in the same house” (εν τηι αυτηι οικιαι — en tēi autēi oikiāi), a different construction. A free rendering of the common Lukan idiom is, “in that very house.”

Eating (εστοντες — esthontes). An old poetic verb εστω — esthō for εστιω — esthiō that survives in late Greek.

Such things as they give (τα παρ αυτων — ta par' autōn). “The things from them.”

For the labourer is worthy of his hire (αχιος γαρ ο εργατης του μιστου αυτου — axios gar ho ergatēs tou misthou autou). In Matthew 10:10 we have της τροπης αυτου — tēs trophēs autou (his food). 1 Timothy 5:18 has this saying quoted as scripture. That is not impossible if Luke wrote by a.d. 62. Paul there however may quote only Deuteronomy 25:4 as scripture and get this quotation either from Luke 10:7 or from a proverbial saying of Jesus. It is certainly not a real objection against the Pauline authorship of First Timothy.

Go not from house to house (μη μεταβαινετε εχ οικιας εις οικιαν — mē metabainete ex oikias eis oikian). As a habit, μη — mē and the present imperative, and so avoid waste of time with such rounds of invitations as would come.

Vincent's Word Studies

The workman is worthy, etc

See on Matthew 10:10.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

Matthew 10:11.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

Ver. 7. See Matthew 10:11-15.

Sermon Bible Commentary

Luke 10:7

I. Two views may be taken of the minister of Christ as regards his personal condition in his work; and two totally different systems pursued, according as one or other of these views prevails. He may be regarded as a solitary being, who has abjured the world and its lies, and is simply and entirely bound to the office which he bears. He may be trained in strict self-denying discipline, and thus sent forth on his lonesome toil. It may be urged on the other side, that, fitted as the solitary minister may be, and has been proved, for certain portions of the work of the Church, he is by no means so fitted for her ordinary and normal requirements. The strength of a body of solitary men is rather theological and ecclesiastical than pastoral; and the ordinary work of the Church is undoubtedly pastoral. It is in the bosom of the family, in the unwitnessed growth of thoughts and habits of faith and purity and love; in the silent progress of enlightenment and confidence and kindly feeling, that the real advance of our holy religion is to be seen in the world.

II. Whenever this has been forgotten by the Church, consequences disastrous to religion have ensued. We cannot, therefore, too carefully recall to our minds the proper work and province of our most holy faith: that it is, not to propagate a system, not to disseminate a science, not to produce a uniformity of profession, but to change men's lives; to persuade men, by the agency of our exalted Saviour and Head, who is ever with us and helping us by His Spirit, of certain living facts which, if received by them, must bring about purity and holiness and love—the reception of which cannot co-exist with a double heart and a hypocritical life. And to such an end who are the labourers? Not, in the main, the lonely student, standing aloof from society, identified in interest with an artificial organisation with which society has no sympathy. The minister of Christ who is to work on society should be himself a part of society, should stand in, and be a leader of, the same conflict in which all Christian society is engaged; whose influence will be not only precept personally illustrated, not only example in his family, but also—which is a most important element in the matter—will be extended and continued by the fact that he himself mingles in among the laity, those who have been born and fostered under his roof, and in the light of his Christian character.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 260.

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References: Luke 10:9.—Clergyman's Magazine, vol. v., p. 225; F. Cooke, Church of England Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 15. Luke 9:13-16.—W. Wilson, Christ setting His Face to go to Jerusalem, p. 112. Luke 10:17-20. Homiletic Quarterly, vol. xiv., p. 241; W. Wilson, Christ setting His Face to go to Jerusalem, p. 393; R. C. Trench, Studies in the Gospels, p. 246; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 107.

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

Luke 10:7. Such things as they give:— As they have.

Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Here our Saviour gives his disciples sundry directions, how to manage themselves in this expedition for preaching the gospel.

He enjoins them, 1. To observe the rules of decency in going from place to place; having entered a house to continue there, not changing their lodging, and going from house to house, thereby avoiding all show of lightness and inconstancy, and testifying all gravity and stayedness in their behavior; this being a special means to win authority to their persons and ministry.

2. He gives them a power to work miracles for the confirming of the doctrine which they preached: Heal the sick that are therein. This was necessary, partly to procure reverence to their person, being poor and unlearned men; and partly to gain credit and authority to their doctrine: for the doctrine of faith in the Messiah, as now come and exhibited in the flesh, being a strange and new doctrine to the Jews, the truth and certainty of it was to be extraordinarily ratified and confirmed by working miracles; one sort of which was healing of diseases in an extraordinary manner.

Observe, 3. How Christ encouraged his disciples against the want of success: he bids them denounce the judgments of God by shaking off the dust of their feet; which action was emblematical, and signified that God in like manner would shake off them, and esteem them no better than the vilest dust.

Learn hence, that those which despise the message that the ministers of the gospel bring, shall hereafter find the dust of their feet, and the ashes of their graves to give a judicial testimony against them in the day of Christ. Wherever the word is preached, it is for a testimony, either a testimony for, or against a people. For, if the dust of a minister's feet bear witness against a people, their sermons much more.

Observe, lastly, the dreadful judgment denounced by our Saviour against the contemners of his disciples' doctrine: Verily it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary

7.] ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ οἰκ., but in the (that) house itself (see Luke 10:5, where it was last spoken of, the inhabitants having been since mentioned) remain. Beware of rendering it in the same house, q. d. ἐν δὲ τῇ αὐτῇ οἰκ.

τὰ παρʼ αὐτῶν, the things which come from them; which are theirs, and by them set before you: cf. Luke 10:8.

Heinrich Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

Luke 10:7. Comp. Luke 9:4; Matthew 10:11.

ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ οἰκίᾳ] not: in eadem autem domo (Vulgate, Luther, Bleek), but as it does not run ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ οἰκίᾳ: but in the house (in question) itself, which has inhabitants so worthy.

μένετε] the more specific explanation μὴ μεταβαίνετε κ. τ. λ. follows.

As to ἔσθοντες, as it is also to be read here, see on Luke 7:33.

τὰ παρʼ αὐτῶν] that which is theirs (comp. Mark 5:26). See Bernhardy, p. 255. Not different from this is τὰ παρατιθέμενα ὑμῖν, Luke 10:8. The messengers were to partake without hesitation of the provisions of the people, for, etc. This statement of the reason, however, should have prevented Baur from explaining it of the unhesitating partaking of heathen meats (according to 1 Corinthians 9:7 f., Luke 10:27), even apart from the fact that no mention is made of heathen houses at all. This is also in opposition to Köstlin, p. 234; Hilgenfeld, Evang. p. 183, and Weizsäcker, p. 163.

Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament

Luke 10:7. τὰ παρʼ αὐτῶν, such things as are in their house) with frugality and freedom (frankness): as you shall find them.— τοῦ μισθοῦ, of his hire) It was lawful for them to receive their food: they must not seek to get money, although they are not ordered altogether to refuse even that. But, on the other hand again, the hire is worthy of a labourer (one who earns it by work): there must be no idleness.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Ver. 7 See Poole on "Luke 10:5"

Alexander MacLaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture

не переходите из дома в дом Т.е. для проживания (см. пояснение к Мк. 6:10). В селении они должны были основать для себя пристанище и не тратить время, переходя с места на место или в поисках более удобного жилища.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

7.Go not from house to house—Spend not your time in convivial visits.

 

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

“And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.”

Once they have accepted hospitality they are to continue in that same house eating and drinking whatever they are given, accepting it as their hire as the Lord’s labourers, whether it be rich food or poor food. They are not to move from one house to another, enjoying widespread entertainment. For their task is too urgent. And it would be insulting to the host. All their efforts must be expended on their mission, not on seeking self-comfort.

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable

The Seventy, like the Twelve (cf. Luke 9:4), were normally to remain with their hosts and not move around in one neighborhood trying to improve their situation (cf. Matthew 10:11; Mark 6:10). This would result in their wasting time and possibly insulting their hosts. Going from house to house also implied engaging in a social round of activity and being entertained long after they had done their work. [Note: Morris, p182.] As servants of the Lord, they were to eat and drink what their hosts provided. They could expect sustenance and needed to be content with that even though it might not necessarily be what they would prefer. The principle of the worker being worthy of his wages goes back to creation ( Genesis 1:28-30). Jesus and the apostles reaffirmed it for the present inter-advent age (cf. Matthew 10:10; 1 Corinthians 9:3-18; 1 Timothy 5:18; 3 John 1:5-8).

Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Luke 10:7. In that house, i.e., in the house where they had been received.

Such things as they give. Lit. ‘the things from them,’ sharing what they have. There is not the slightest reference to eating heathen dishes (as in 1 Corinthians 10:27), for they were not sent among the heathen.

Go not from house to house, i.e., in search of ease and better entertainment, or for gossip’s sake.

The Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 10:7_{. : verbally distinct from , etc., but really meaning the same thing = “in that same house,” R. V[100]— , eating and drinking the meat and drink which belong to them, as if they were your own: libere et velut vestro jure, Grotius.— assigns the reason: your food is your hire; it belongs to you of right as wages for work done.}

_{[100] Revised Version.}

 

 

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

in. Greek. en. App-104.

they give = are with (Greek. para. App-104.)

them. not. Greek. me. App-105.

from = out of. Greek. ek. App-104. Not the sameword as in verses: Luke 10:21, Luke 10:30, Luke 10:42. Greek eis. App-104.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) And in the same house remain.—See Note on Matthew 10:11.

The labourer is worthy of his hire.—See Note on Matthew 10:10. The exact reproduction of the words by St. Paul in 1 Timothy 5:18, as a citation from “the Scripture,”’ is every way interesting. The Apostle could scarcely have failed to have become acquainted, during his long companionship with St. Luke, with the materials which the Evangelist was collecting for his great work. We can hardly doubt, accordingly, that he quotes this as one of the sayings of the Lord Jesus, as he quotes another in Acts 20:35, and clothes it with the same authority as the older Scripture. On this assumption, the Gospel of St. Luke must have been, in part, at least, written and recognised at the time when the Pastoral Epistles were written.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

in

9:4; Matthew 10:11; Mark 6:10; Acts 16:15,34,40

for

Deuteronomy 12:12,18,19; Matthew 10:10; 1 Corinthians 9:4-15; Galatians 6:6; Philippians 4:17,18; 1 Timothy 5:17,18; 2 Timothy 2:6; 3 John 1:5-8

Go

1 Timothy 5:13

Reciprocal: Numbers 18:31 - your reward;  Deuteronomy 18:8 - like portions;  Deuteronomy 24:14 - General;  2 Chronicles 2:10 - I will give;  Ezekiel 48:13 - five and twenty thousand in;  Matthew 20:8 - unto;  Luke 12:29 - seek;  1 Corinthians 9:14 - ordained;  1 Corinthians 10:27 - whatsoever;  1 Thessalonians 5:12 - labour

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

7.Eating and drinking those things which they shall give you This is another circumstance expressly mentioned by Luke. By these words Christ not only enjoins them to be satisfied with ordinary and plain food, but allows them to eat at another man’s table. Their plain and natural meaning is: “you will be at liberty to live at the expense of others, so long as you shall be on this journey; for it is proper that those for whose benefit you labor should supply you with food.” Some think that they were intended to remove scruples of conscience, that the disciples might not find fault with any kind of food. ⁽³⁵⁾ But nothing of this kind was intended, and it was not even his object to enjoin frugality, but merely to permit them to accept of a reward, by living, during this commission, at the expense of those by whom they were entertained.