Mat 10:5-6 | PNT | STEP | Go not into the way of the Gentiles . The Jews called all "Gentiles" who were not Jews. Samaritans . The inhabitants of Samaria, a district between Judea and Galilee; descendants of a remnant of the Ten Tribes, mixed with Gentiles colonized there. They accepted the five books of Moses, but worshipped on Mount Gerizim, instead of at Jerusalem. They and the Jews had been for ages bitter enemies.

Matthew 10:5-6

Go not into the way of the Gentiles. The Jews called all "Gentiles" who were not Jews.

Samaritans. The inhabitants of Samaria, a district between Judea and Galilee; descendants of a remnant of the Ten Tribes, mixed with Gentiles colonized there. They accepted the five books of Moses, but worshipped on Mount Gerizim, instead of at Jerusalem. They and the Jews had been for ages bitter enemies. The lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Compare this commission with the one given to the apostles after the death and resurrection of the Lord (Mt 10:5,6 28:19). In this commission the apostles are forbidden to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, and are confined to the house of Israel. In the other they are commanded to go into "all the world" (Mt 24:14) and to "preach the gospel to every creature" (Mr 16:15); to go "first to Jerusalem, and to Judea, and to Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth" (Ac 1:8). The first commission is Jewish; the second is world-wide. Yet both are given by the same Lord; why this wide difference? Because the new dispensation was not ushered in until after the resurrection. The Jewish law, national, exclusive, a wall of partition from Gentiles, was yet in force. Christ, "born under the law", and the apostles also were under it until it was removed. They could not keep it and yet become missionaries to the Gentiles. But when Christ died the old dispensation, the law, died with him. "The handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross" (Col 2:14). The old covenant passed away when the new came into force, sealed with the blood of Christ. After the death and resurrection of Christ, the law ceased to be binding upon the apostles. The distinctions of Jew and Gentile were destroyed. Hence, under the new covenant, the world-wide covenant, there was a new commission that would send the gospel to all the world. The old covenant was with the seed of Abraham; the new covenant embraced all nations. See Heb 8:13.