7. And He called the
twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by
two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.
8. He commanded them to take
nothing for the journey except a staff — no bag,
no bread, no copper in their money belts —
9. but to wear sandals, and not
to put on two tunics.
10. Also He said to them,
“In whatever place you enter a house, stay there
till you depart from that place.
11. And whoever will not receive
you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake
off the dust under your feet as a testimony against
them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of
judgment than for that city!”
12. So they went out and
preached that people should repent.
13. And they cast out many
demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and
healed them.
30. Then the apostles gathered
to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had
done and what they had taught.
31. And He said to them,
“Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and
rest a while.” For there were many coming and
going, and they did not even have time to
eat.
Sometimes it’s
necessary to just get away from activity, even good
things, for a while in order to rest. When it comes to
temptations, fatigue can weaken our ability to think
clearly and resist. The computer lends itself to
sitting long periods into the night or through the
day. Perhaps you have just accomplished some useful
task on your computer and you are congratulating
yourself. Watch out for temptation. Listen to the
quiet voice within telling you to shut it down and
rest.
One other observation from verse
31. Note that He didn’t tell them to separate
from each other. They were to come away and rest
together. Pornography is the temptation of the
isolated individual. As part of rest, think about
joining with other people in some healthy form of
recreation. In the same way it is hard to smoke in the
shower, you can’t view porn in the company of
good people.