Luke 10:11 Meaning and Explanation
“Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Even where the message is refused, the nearness of God's kingdom remains the last word.
The Context of Luke 10:11
Jesus is sending out seventy disciples ahead of Him, two by two, into the towns He plans to visit. He is giving them instructions for towns that welcome them and towns that turn them away. Shaking dust from the feet was a known sign of leaving a place to its own choice.
What Does Luke 10:11 Mean?
Jesus prepares His messengers for rejection. When a town will not receive them, they are to wipe even its dust from their feet, a vivid act that says: we leave you to your decision, we carry nothing of this refusal with us. It is a solemn gesture, but notice what it does not change. The very last thing the disciples are to say is not a threat about themselves but a truth about God: 'the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.' The door was opened. The King drew near. That remained true whether the town opened to Him or not.
This is the heart of the matter. The kingdom came near in the person of Jesus, walking into ordinary towns through ordinary messengers. People could refuse it, and many did, yet the nearness was real and the offer was genuine. The same Jesus still comes near, and the invitation still stands. Even our refusals cannot undo the astonishing fact that God has drawn close to us in His Son.
Luke 10:11 in the Original Language
eggizo (ἐγγίζω), 'come nigh' -- to draw near, to come close at hand, almost within reach.
Where Luke 10:11 Echoes in Scripture
Jesus told the disciples to shake the dust from their feet against a rejecting place (Luke 9:5), and Paul and Barnabas did exactly this at Antioch when their message was refused (Acts 13:51).
How to Apply Luke 10:11 Today
Not everyone we love will welcome the good news, and Jesus prepares us for that without bitterness. Yet the truth we carry does not depend on its reception: God has come near in Christ, and that nearness is offered to all. We can hold both the sorrow of rejection and the steady fact that the King is still close at hand.