And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19. And I will give thee the keys Here Christ begins now to speak of the public office, that is, of the Apostleship, which he dignifies with a twofold title. First, he says that the ministers of the Gospel are porters, so to speak, of the kingdom of heaven, because they carry its keys; and, secondly, he adds, that they are invested with a power...
Christ asked not what the hostile scribes and Pharisees said of Him, but what common people believed. When ministers lose their public pulpit, they must labor harder in private conversation with their own household, for every season of diminished public work is opportunity for deeper family instruction.
AI summary
Commenting on Matthew 16:13-20
Then charged he his disciples,.... When Peter had so freely and fully confessed him to be the Messiah, and which was the sense of all the disciples; and when Christ had expressed his approbation of his confession, and had promised such great and excellent things upon it, he gave a strict charge unto his disciples, that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.