they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”
This word refers to the special protection and signs that the Lord gave to His servants for the initial confirmation of the Gospel. It does not teach testing God or entering danger in a reckless way. The full teaching of Holy Scripture rejects testing the Lord. Yet when God’s servants encountered dangers on the path of their ministry, the Lord could preserve them miraculously, just as Paul was not harmed by a snake bite in Malta (Acts 28:3–6). Laying hands on the sick shows the continuation of Christ’s compassionate power in the apostles’ ministry. All this bears witness that the Gospel was not only a proclamation in words, but the message of salvation confirmed by the authority of the risen Lord.