<p>6:7 <i>And the word of God increased-</i> Again, God's word is put for the preaching of it (:4); such is the imperative within His word to preach it. The apostles had given a conscious focus upon preaching God's word and giving this work utter supremacy over welfare and administrative issues (see on :2). Now this was rewarded. &quot;Increased&quot; is an allusion to the parables of the mustard seed and the sower, where the sown seed of the word 'increases' (Mt. 13:32; Mk. 4:8). This begs the question as to how that seed would grow further after this initial good response.</p><p><i>And the number of the disciples</i>- These regular updates about numbers suggest that some kind of record was kept of the numbers baptized.</p><p><i>Multiplied greatly in Jerusalem</i>- The large number of converts in Jerusalem laid the basis for the Jerusalem ecclesia, although they kept meeting in the temple initially. Nearly all these converts, being from Jerusalem, would have seen and heard the Lord preaching previously- and rejected Him. We must ever remember that those who hear our message and apparently reject it may very well respond later.</p><p><i>And a great many of the priests</i>- This was a wonderful fruit to the Lord's endless efforts for these types. In the last six months, the Scribes and Pharisees repeatedly tried to trick the Lord. But He took the time to answer their questions, seeking to lead them to understanding and repentance- and His denunciations of them were probably softly and imploringly spoken, still seeking for the inevitability of future judgment to lead them to repentance. As the Son of God, walking freely in His Father&rsquo;s house, Jesus didn&rsquo;t have to pay the temple tax (Mt. 17:26,27). He could have insisted that He didn&rsquo;t need to pay it, He could have stood up for what was right and true. But doing this can often be selfish, a defence of self rather than a seeking for the Father&rsquo;s glory. And so He told Peter that &ldquo;lest we should offend them&rdquo;, He would pay it. He was so hopeful for their salvation one day that He was worried about offending these wretched men, who weren&rsquo;t fit to breathe the same air that He did. We would have given up with them; but He worried about offending what potential faith they might have. Even at the end of His ministry, He still sought to convert them. He reasoned with them, using carefully prepared Old Testament allusions in the hope they would understand them, when we would almost certainly either have given up, or would just be gritting our teeth, trying to be patient with them because we didn&rsquo;t want to sin&hellip;but He was full of a genuine, unpretended desire for their salvation. And earlier in His ministry, He had told the cured leper to tell no other man but go and offer for his cleansing, in order to make a witness to the priests. All three synoptics record this, as if it made a special impression on everyone (Mt. 8:4; Mk. 1:44; Lk. 5:14). It could be that the Lord is using an idiom when He told the leper to tell nobody: &lsquo;Go and make a witness <i>first and foremost</i> to the priests as opposed to anybody else&rsquo;. Such was His zeal for their salvation. And the fact that &ldquo;a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith&rdquo; shows how this apparently hope-against-hope desire of the Lord for the conversion of His enemies somehow came true.</p><p>The Lord's example is to be ours; He spoke of not making the Orthodox Jews stumble by not paying the tribute; yet He goes on to say that one must beware lest we make the little ones who believe, to stumble (Mt. 17:27; 18:6). Is it not that He saw in Orthodox Jewry the beginnings of faith&hellip;a faith which was to come to fruition when a great company of priests were later obedient to the faith in Him? None of us would have had that sensitivity, that hopefulness, that seeking spirit. It is truly a challenge to us.</p><p><i>Were obedient to the faith</i>- This is ambiguous- it could mean obedience as response to faith, in which case it may refer to baptism; or it could mean obedience to the set of propositions which define the one faith. Because doctrine and practice are linked, the Gospel is something to which man must be obedient- it isn't merely a set of academic propositions. It results in &quot;the obedience of faith&rdquo; (Rom. 1:5; 16:26). Probably the greatest temptation for all of us, in all stages of our spiritual career, is to be like Israel of old: to <i>know</i> the Faith, on an abstract, surface level, but not to really <i>believe</i> it in our hearts, and therefore not to act in the way God intends. Paul was aware of this difference; he spoke of us as those who believe <i>and</i> know the Truth (1 Tim. 4:3).</p>