Matthew 10:16-25 - Persecution Of Disciples Predicted

¹⁶ "Listen! I am sending you out as sheep surrounded by wolves. So you must be sensible like serpents and guileless like doves. ¹⁷ Be on your guard against men, for they will turn you over to the courts and will flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness to them and the heathen. ¹⁹ But when they turn you over to the courts, you must not worry at all about how or what you ought to speak, for it will be given you at that hour what you ought to speak. ²⁰ For it is not you who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father that is speaking through you.

²¹ One brother will turn another over to death, and a father his child, and children will take a stand against their parents, and will have them put to death. ²² And you will be hated by all men, because you bear my name, but whoever bears up to the end will be saved. ²³ But whenever they persecute you in one town, flee to a different one. For I solemnly say to you, you will not cover all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man returns. ²⁴ No pupil is better than his teacher, and no slave is better than his master. ²⁵ The pupil should be satisfied to become like his teacher, and the slave should be satisfied to become like his master. If men have called the Head of the house Beelzebub, how much worse names will they heap upon the members of His family!

⁹ At that time they will turn you over to torture, and will murder you, and you will be hated by all the heathen, because you bear my name. ¹⁰ Then many will fall by the way, and will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ Many false prophets will appear and mislead many people; ¹² and because of the increasing crime wave, most people's love will grow cold. ¹³ But whoever bears up to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this good news of the kingdom must be preached all over the inhabited world, for a testimony to all the heathen, and then the end will come.

⁹ So you must be on the lookout for yourselves; they will turn you over to courts, and to synagogues where you will be beaten, and you must appear before governors and kings for my sake, to testify to them. ¹⁰ But before the end comes, the good news must be proclaimed to all the heathen. ¹¹ Now when they take you to court for trial, do not be worrying beforehand about what you should say, but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you that will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit. ¹² One brother will turn another over to death, and a father his child, and children will take a stand against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³ You will be hated by everybody, because you bear my name. But whoever bears up to the end will be saved.

¹² But before all this takes place, people will arrest you and persecute you, and turn you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. ¹³ It will furnish you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴ So you must purpose in your hearts not to prepare beforehand how to make your defense, ¹⁵ for I will give you such wisdom of speech as all your opponents combined will not be able to resist and refute. ¹⁶ Yes, you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷ and you will be continuously hated by everyone, because you bear my name. ¹⁸ And yet not a single hair on your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will win your souls.

¹ "I have told you these things to keep you from falling over stumbling blocks. ² Men will turn you out of their synagogues. Yes, indeed, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think that he is rendering a religious service to God. ³ They will do this, because they have never come to know God nor me. ⁴ But I have told you these things that when the time does come, you may remember that I told you. I did not tell you these things at the start, because I was with you.