And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
All Commentaries on Matthew 10:42 Go To Matthew 10
Jerome
AD 420
The Lord when He sends forth His disciples to preach, teaches them that dangers are not to be feared, that natural affection is to be postponed to religion -gold He had above taken from them, brass He had shaken out of their purses -hard then surely the condition of the preachers! Whence their living? Whence their food and necessaries? Therefore He tempers the rigour of His precepts bythe following promises, that in entertaining the Apostles each believer may consider that he entertains the Lord.
Otherwise; To this His exhortation to the disciple to entertain his teacher, there might a secret objection arise among the faithful; then shall we have to support the false prophets, or Judas, the traitor. To this end it is that the Lord instructs them in these words, that it is not the person but the office that they should look to: and that the entertainer loses not his reward, thoughhe whom he entertains be unworthy.
Mystically; He who receives a prophet as a prophet, and understands him speaking of things to come, he shall receive reward of that prophet. The Jews therefore, who understand the prophets carnally, do not receive the prophet's reward.
That none should say, I am poor and therefore cannot be hospitable, He takesaway even this plea by the instance of a cup of cold water, given with goodwill. He says “cold water,” because in “hot,” poverty and lack of fuel might be pleaded. And whosoever shall give to drink to one of the least of these a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shallnot lose his reward.
