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This is a tough text. If we read Matthew 10 to seminary grads, most would quit before they began. Clearly, the call to stand for love and truth is not easy. It will divide families, cause hardship even death. And it calls for wisdom...be shrewd enough to see what's really happening, and innocent enough to be blameless because you acted with wisdom and love.

This is a very different kind of calling than most of us imagine embracing. And I wonder what our churches would look like if this was what we embraced and pursued.

Interesting to me that the whole church quotes the last verse (if you give a cup of cold water...) but we pretty much never touch the rest of the chapter, except the first part about the names of the disciples (in Sunday School). But we cut out the guts, largely because deep down, I suspect, most of us are afraid of Jesus' teaching here.