9:1-9 Christ sent his twelve disciples abroad, who by this time were able to teach others what they had received from the Lord. They must not be anxious to commend themselves to people's esteem by outward appearance. They must go as they were. The Lord Jesus is the fountain of power and authority, to whom all creatures must, in one way or another, be subject; and if he goes with the word of his ministers in power, to deliver sinners from Satan's bondage, they may be sure that he will care for their wants. When truth and love thus go together, and yet the message of God is rejected and despised, it leaves men without excuse, and turns to a testimony against them. Herod's guilty conscience was ready to conclude that John was risen from the dead. He desired to see Jesus; and why did he not go and see him? Probably, because he thought it below him, or because he wished not to have any more reprovers of sin. Delaying it now, his heart was hardened, and when he did see Jesus, he was as much prejudiced against him as others, Lu 23:11.

Verse 4. - And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. On entering any new place they were to select, after due and careful inquiry (Matthew 10:11), a family likely and able to assist them in their evangelistic work. This "house" they were to endeavour to make the centre of their efforts in that locality. This rule we find continued in the early years of Christianity. In the history of the first Churches, certain "houses" in the different cities were evidently the centres of the mission work there. We gather this from such expressions in St. Paul's letters as "the Church which is in his house" (comp., too, Acts 16:40, where the house of Lydia was evidently the head-quarters of all missionary work in Philippi and its neighbourhood).

And whatsoever house ye enter into,.... In any town, or city, they should come to in their journey through Judea, and should enter into for the sake of lodging, during their stay:

there abide; do not shift quarters, or move from house to house:

and thence depart; the house you come into first, go out of last, when ye leave the town or city. The Vulgate Latin and Persic versions read, and thence do not depart: and so Beza says it is read in a certain copy, but then the sense is the same, as the Ethiopic version renders it, "do not go out from thence, until ye depart"; that is, do not leave the house, till you depart out of the town or city; agreeably to which is the Arabic version, "remain in it until the time of your going out"; See Gill on Matthew 10:11.

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