Matthew 10:16-25 - Persecution Of Disciples Predicted

¹⁶ "Here I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So you must be wise like serpents, and guileless like doves. ¹⁷ But be on your guard against men, for they will give you up to their courts, and have you flogged in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be brought before governors and kings on my account, to bear your testimony before them and the heathen. ¹⁹ But when they give you up, you must have no anxiety about how to speak or what to say, for you will be told at the very moment what you ought to say, ²⁰ for it is not you who will speak, it is the Spirit of your Father that will speak through you.

²¹ One brother will give up another to death, and a father his child, and children will turn against their parents, and have them put to death. ²² You will be hated by everybody on my account, but the man who holds out to the very end will be saved. ²³ But when they persecute you in one town, make your escape to another, for I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man arrives. ²⁴ A pupil is not better than his teacher, nor a slave better than his master. ²⁵ A pupil should be satisfied to come to be like his teacher, or a slave, to come to be like his master. If men have called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much worse names will they give to the members of his household!

⁹ Then they will hand you over to persecution and they will put you to death, and you will be hated by all the heathen because you bear my name. ¹⁰ Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ Many false prophets will appear, and many will be misled by them, ¹² and because of the increase of wickedness, most men's love will grow cold. ¹³ But he who holds out to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this good news of the kingdom will be preached all over the world, to testify to all the heathen, and then the end will come.

⁹ But you must be on your guard; they will hand you over to courts and you will be taken into synagogues and beaten, and you will be brought before governors and kings on my account, to testify to them. ¹⁰ For before the end the good news must be preached to all the heathen. ¹¹ When they are taking you off to trial do not worry beforehand about what you ought to say, but say whatever is given you when the time comes, for it is not you that will speak, but the holy Spirit. ¹² Brother will give up brother to be put to death, and the father his child, and children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³ You will be hated by everyone, because you bear my name. But he who holds out to the end will be saved.

¹² But before all this, men will arrest you and persecute you, and hand you over to synagogues and prisons and have you brought before kings and governors on my account. ¹³ It will all lead to your testifying. ¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare your defense, ¹⁵ for I will give you such wisdom of utterance as none of your opponents will be able to resist or dispute. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by your parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷ and you will be hated by everyone because you bear my name. ¹⁸ Yet not a hair of your head will perish! ¹⁹ It is by your endurance that you will win your souls.

¹ "I have told you this to keep you from faltering. ² They will exclude you from their synagogues; why, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing religious service to God. ³ They will do this because they do not know the Father or me. ⁴ But I have told you about these things in order that when the time comes for them to happen, you may remember that I told you of them. I did not tell you this at first because I was still staying with you.