Matthew 10:16-25 - Persecution Of Disciples Predicted

¹⁶ "Behold, it is I who am sending you forth like sheep among wolves. Be then as serpents and as guileless as doves. ¹⁷ "But beware of men! For they will give you up to the Sanhedrin, and flog you in their synagogues. ¹⁸ "And you will be taken before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ "But whenever they apprehend you, do not be anxious about how you shall speak or what you shall say; for it will be given you in that very hour what to say. ²⁰ "For it will not be you who is speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

²¹ "And brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against their parents and put them to death. ²² "You will be hated by all men because of my name; and he who endures to the end shall be saved. ²³ "But when they persecute you in one city, flee to the next. In solemn truth I tell you that you shall not have completed the cities of Israel, before the Son of man comes. ²⁴ "A pupil is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his masters. ²⁵ "It is enough for the pupil to fare like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more, the members of his household.

⁹ Then they will deliver you up to suffer affliction, and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. ¹⁰ And then many will stumble and fall, and will betray one another, and hate one another. ¹¹ Many false prophets will rise up and mislead many; ¹² and because of the increase of iniquity the love of the majority will grow cold; ¹³ but he who endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed throughout the whole inhabited earth, for a testimony to the Gentiles, and then will come the end.

⁹ "You yourselves must be on your guard. They will hand you over to the courts, and you will be flogged on the synagogues; and you will stand before rulers and kings for my sake, to witness to them for me. ¹⁰ But the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations. ¹¹ When, however, they are leading you all to trial, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but whatever is given you in that hour, that say, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. ¹² "And brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against their parents, and have them put to death. ¹³ You will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he that endures to the end shall be saved.

¹² "But before all these things happen, they will apprehend you and persecute you and deliver you to the synagogues and to prisons, and bring you before kings and governors for the sake of my name. ¹³ "It shall turn out for a testimony to you. ¹⁴ "So settle it in your hearts not to prepare a defense beforehand, ¹⁵ "for I will give you utterance and a wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to answer or withstand. ¹⁶ "You will be betrayed even by parents or brothers and kinsfolk, and friends. ¹⁷ "Some of you they will put to death. And you shall be hated by all men for the sake of my name. ¹⁸ "And not a hair on your head shall perish. ¹⁹ "In your patience you shall purchase your souls.

¹ "I have told you all this so that you may not stumble. ² "They will excommunicate you from their synagogues; indeed the time is coming when any one who kills you will suppose that he is doing God's service. ³ "And they will do these things because they have not known my Father, nor me. ⁴ "But I have told you these things, that when the time comes you may remember that I told you about them, myself. I did not, however, speak of these things at first, because I was with you.