Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 10:28

"And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." — Matthew 10:28 (ASV)

Are not able to kill the soul — Here our Lord uses what we may call the popular dichotomy of man’s nature. The word “soul” includes everything that truly lives, thinks, and wills in a person, and is therefore equivalent to the soul and spirit of the more scientific trichotomy in St. Paul’s Epistles (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Fear him which is able... — Few words have given rise to more strangely contrasted interpretations than these. Many devout and thoughtful commentators, unwilling to admit that our Lord ever presented the Father to men as a destroyer, have urged that the meaning may be paraphrased this way: “Fear not men; but fear the Spirit of Evil, the great Adversary. If you yield to his temptations, he has power to lead you captive at his will and to destroy both your outward and your inward life, either in the Gehenna of torture or in that of hatred and remorse.”

Plausible as it seems, however, this interpretation is not, it is believed, the true one.

1. We are nowhere taught in Scripture to fear the devil, but rather to resist and defy him (Ephesians 6:11; James 4:7).
2. It is a sufficient answer to the feeling that prompted the other explanation to say that we are not told to think of God as willing to destroy in any case, but only as having the power to inflict that destruction where all offers of mercy and all calls to righteousness have been rejected.

In addition, it must be remembered that St. James uses almost identical language where there can be no shadow of a doubt as to the meaning: There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy (James 4:12).