Cost: Faith Was Never Meant to Stay Private
Read: Matthew 10:16–39
Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat what following Him will cost. He sends His disciples out like “sheep in the midst of wolves” (v. 16) and tells them plainly where opposition will come from. They were to expect opposition from religious leaders, governments, the wider public, and, most painfully, their own families. He doesn’t soften this later in the chapter. He sharpens it: genuine allegiance to Jesus creates fault lines, because truth eventually forces loyalties to the surface.
None of this was theoretical for the men He said it to. Church history tells us that of the Twelve, only John died of old age — in exile. The rest gave their lives for what they believed. Jesus wasn’t dramatising a threat for effect. He was preparing men He loved for exactly what they’d face.
And yet, three times in this passage, Jesus says the same steadying words “do not be afraid,” each time for a different reason. The truth will eventually be set right, so you don’t have to win every argument today. God is bigger than any human threat, so recalibrate what you fear. And you are genuinely precious to your Father, more valuable than the sparrows He already keeps track of.
Then comes the hardest line in the chapter: whoever does not take up their cross is not worthy of Him, and whoever tries to save their life will lose it (vv. 38–39). The cross meant execution to its first hearers, not decoration or a piece of jewelry. You see, following Jesus was never meant to be a private arrangement that we keep to ourselves — and if we spend our lives guarding comfort above loyalty to Christ, we may discover too late we never really had the life we were protecting.