Matthew 10:16-25 - Persecution Of Disciples Predicted

¹⁶ I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise like serpents and guileless like doves. ¹⁷ Beware of men, they will hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be haled before governors and kings for my sake ??it will be a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ Now, when they bring you up for trial, do not trouble yourselves about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will come to you at the moment, ²⁰ for you are not the speakers, it is the Spirit of your Father that is speaking through you.

²¹ Brother will betray brother to death, the father will betray his child, children will rise against their parents and put them to death, ²² and you will be hated by all men on account of my name; but he will be saved who holds out to the very end. ²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; truly I tell you, you will not have covered the towns of Israel before the Son of man arrives. ²⁴ A scholar is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord; ²⁵ enough for the scholar to fare like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If men have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they miscall his servants!

⁹ Then men will hand you over to suffer affliction, and they will kill you; you will be hated by all the Gentiles on account of my name. ¹⁰ And many will be repelled then, they will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ Many false prophets will rise and mislead many. ¹² And in most of you love will grow cold by the increase of iniquity; ¹³ but he will be saved who holds out to the very end. ¹⁴ This gospel of the Reign shall be preached all over the wide world as a testimony to all the Gentiles, and then the end will come.

⁹ Look to yourselves. Men will hand you over to Sanhedrins and you will be flogged in synagogues and brought before governors and kings for my sake, to testify to them. ¹⁰ (Ere the end, the gospel must be preached to all nations.) ¹¹ Now when they carry you off to trial, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; say whatever comes to your lips at the moment, for he who speaks is not you but the holy Spirit. ¹² Brother will betray brother to death, the father will betray his child, children will rise against their parents and kill them, ¹³ and you will be hated by all men on account of my name; but he will be saved who holds out to the very end.

¹² But before all that, men will lay hands on you and persecute you, handing you over to synagogues and prisons; you will be dragged before kings and governors for the sake of my name. ¹³ That will turn out an opportunity for you to bear witness. ¹⁴ So resolve to yourselves that you will not rehearse your defence beforehand, ¹⁵ for I will give you words and wisdom that not one of your opponents will be able to meet or refute. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed by your very parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you will be put to death. ¹⁷ You will be hated by all on account of my name; ¹⁸ but not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Hold out stedfast and you win your souls.

¹ I have told you all this, to keep you from being repelled. ² They will excommunicate you; indeed the time is coming when anyone who kills you will imagine he is performing a service to God. ³ This they will do to you, because they have not known the Father nor me. ⁴ I have told you all this, so that when the time for it arrives, you may remember what I said to you. I did not tell you about this at the beginning, because I was with you then;