Matthew 10:27 – 31

27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Jesus continues His preparation for the apostles before sending them out to heal and preach the Gospel.

Dark and light are used figuratively in this verse, dark meaning what Jesus tells them or has told them in private, and the light meaning they should teach it in public.

In those days in that area of the world the roofs were flat(Deuteronomy 22:8[8 “When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it. ]Matthew 24:17[ Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. ]Acts 10:9[The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. ]), they made an excellent place to speak publicly, similar to our speaking on a corner sidewalk in a downtown area of a busy city.

Jesus teaches us the rationale of who we should fear the most. A mortal individual can only have his earthly life taken by another man. Another mortal can not do anything worse to us than take our earthly life. While God can take our life but also sentence our soul to hell. If we lose our life it is much better to lose it while being faithful to God and be rewarded with eternal life than to lose it while being unfaithful and also be condemned to hell for eternity.

Jesus now speaks about how God cares for all of His creatures. The sparrow was among the least in value of the animal kingdom, in those days they were valued at the smallest of coins, not silver, or gold, but like the value of our copper coin, the penny. The sparrow was least in value, but God knows when each one dies.

Jesus has said that God keeps track of the sparrow, but He then refers to the value of a man, the least of man's body is the hair, there is no way that each of us can know how many hair follicles are on our bodies, but yet God counts and knows how many hair follicles we have. In other words figuratively each of our hairs is equal in value to a sparrow to God.

If God takes such notice of the earthly sparrow, which has no soul such as all animals do, when they die, they are ended, they do not go to heaven or hell after death. Then He has much more care and concern for the being which was created to be an eternal being, man.

If we are faithful and show our fear and respect to God by obeying His word, instead of man then we will be rewarded with eternal life.