<p>23:10&nbsp;<em>Neither be called</em>- The Lord has warned His people not to call their spiritual leaders by titles such as father or master, and now He addresses those who would become leaders, the nervous and wavering disciples, and urges them not to allow others to call them by these titles. Again, He foresaw how those weak men would soon be in a position where others would wish to give them these titles, and in so doing we have a window upon His hopefulness and vision, at a time when the material in His hands seemed so weak and immature.</p>
<p><em>Masters</em>- The root word is used about leaders in the church: &quot;Them which&nbsp;<em>have the rule over</em>&nbsp;you&quot; (Heb. 13:7,17,24); &quot;He&nbsp;<em>that is chief</em>&quot; amongst the believers should be as the servant (Lk. 22:26); Paul was &quot;the<em> chief</em>&nbsp;speaker&quot; (Acts 14:17), Barnabas and Silas were &quot;<em>chief men</em>&nbsp;amongst the brethren&quot; (Acts 15:22). So the Lord is not teaching that there are not to be leaders; it is practically impossible in any case to have any community wherein all are identical and without leadership. But the Lord's point is that those in such positions should not be named as such, and should stop others calling them by such names. All in the community of faith should perceive Christ as the one ultimate Lord and Master, and in the light of that deep sense, all should see themselves as brethren on the same ultimate level with each other. One of the key factors in the apostasy of the early church was a failure to give due weight to the Lord's teaching here.</p>
<p><em>For one is your master, the Christ</em>- Perhaps this was added by Matthew in brackets, as it were, seeing that the Lord never baldly calls Himself &quot;the Christ&quot; in so many words.</p>