Luke 10:9 "And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
This came up on my HolyBible app as the verse for the day. Sometimes just taking one verse and reading it doesn't give you the whole picture. So in this situation in the Holy Bible's New Testament, in the book of Luke chapter 10 is that Jesus is sending out 70 people to go spread the gospel. He's telling them to go into the cities and if they are accepted, eat whatever they are given and heal the sick there. He's saying that the kingdom of God is near to cities and towns that accept the people of God. This message also comes with a warning though. Any city that doesn't accept the gospel and casts out the 70, then they are to wipe even the dust of that city from their feet (Luke 10:11). He then says it will be worse in that city than it was for Sodom.
If you have never read the bible, the reason you don't want to be like Sodom is that the wickedness of its inhabitants brought down upon it fire from heaven, by which it was destroyed (Deuteronomy 29:23; 32:32; Isaiah 1:9 Isaiah 1:10; 3:9; 13:19; Jeremiah 23:14; Ezekiel 16:46-5; Zephaniah 2:9; Matthew 10:15; Romans 9:29; 2 Pet 2:6, etc. So in this text, turning away the gospel is as bad as all that brought God's wrath on Sodom. This situation is made even worse by the fact that the whole point of the gospel and the 70 was to bring the knowledge of Christ and even healing to the people.
Application - The most simple thing is don't be like Sodom and definitely don't be even worse that Sodom. Some scholars believe that Sodom's biggest issue was "pride" others contend that there was a lot of sexual deviance. While both of those things are things we fight against spiritually and on a physical level, just the rejection of the 70 is the reason Jesus asks them to leave the city.
It makes me wonder if the effort to present the gospel to someone that is rejecting it is something we need to avoid after a certain point or if persistence on a personal level sometimes wins people over. I am not offering an answer here, but in this instance, the 70 were on a mission. Perhaps there wasn't time to try and convince wicked cities to repent when so much of the world had never heard the Word Of God. Or perhaps, sometimes in our own lives, we spend days, months, or even years trying to make ears that have been shut hear truth. I think the issue is probably something better handled on an individual basis, we have to remember the audience is the 70. Jesus isn't necessarily applying this to us and our relationships in this context.
Not many of us will go city to city to present the gospel but we may inadvertently or purposely reach millions via the internet or radio or whatever, but in your circles, I think it's wise to be prayerful about how you spend your time and with whom. Why is this person that hates your guts or hates God getting all your time? Why are you still sitting in the Mc Donalds drive through when that person at the window has already thrown mustard in your eyes 4 times (kidding). There may be someone who needs to hear the gospel and is happy to receive it.
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