Mark 3:12

Therefore, the sinner is forbidden to preach the Lord, lest anyone follow the erring while they preach. For the devil is a deceitful teacher, who often mixes falsehoods with truths, so that he may conceal the testimony of deceit under the appearance of truth. Moreover, …

And he straitly charged them,.... Or vehemently rebuked them, as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it; or threatened them much and vehemently, as the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic.

21 And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself. In these verses, we have, I. The choice Christ made of the twelve apostles to be his constant followers and attendants, and to be sent abroad as there was occasion, to preach the gospel.

These verses show us our Lord again working a miracle. He heals a man in the synagogue, "who had a withered hand." Always about His Father's business — always doing good — doing it in the sight of enemies as well as of friends — such was the daily tenor of our Lord's earthly ministry. And He "left us an example that we should follow His steps." (1 Peter 2:21.) Blessed indeed are those Christians who strive, however feebly, to imitate their Master! Let us observe in these verses, how our Lord Jesus Christ was watched by His enemies .

These verses show us our Lord again working a miracle. He heals a man in the synagogue, "who had a withered hand." Always about His Father's business — always doing good — doing it in the sight of enemies as well as of friends — such was the daily tenor of our Lord's earthly ministry. And He "left us an example that we should follow His steps." (1 Peter 2:21.) Blessed indeed are those Christians who strive, however feebly, to imitate their Master! Let us observe in these verses, how our Lord Jesus Christ was watched by His enemies . We read that "they watched Him, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse Him." What a melancholy proof we have here of the wickedness of human nature! It was the Sabbath day, when these things happened. It was in the synagogue, where men were assembled to hear the word and worship God. Yet even on the day of God, and at the time of worshiping God, these wretched formalists were plotting mischief against our Lord. The very men who pretended to such strictness and, sanctity in little things, were full of malicious and angry thoughts in the midst of the congregation. (Prov. 5:14.) Christ's people must not expect to fare better than their Master. They are always watched by an ill-natured and spiteful world. Their conduct is scanned with a keen and jealous eye. Their ways are noted and diligently observed. They are marked men. They can do nothing without the world's noticing it. Their dress, their expenditure, their employment of time, their conduct in all the relations of life, are all rigidly and closely marked. Their adversaries wait for their halting, and if at any time they fall into an error, the ungodly rejoice. It is good for all Christians to keep this before their minds. Wherever we go, and whatever we do, let us remember that, like our Master, we are "watched."