Matthew 10:19-24
 
Mat 10:19 (KJB)
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
 
Whenever there were times of persecution and trial of the believers, they were always taken in haste. The authorities would come to their homes or places of work and just take them to jail or another place where they would be placed on trial for their faith. Jesus is telling the disciples that they should not concern themselves about what kind of defense they should mount or if they should have a defense at all. The Apostle Paul used all those trials as an opportunity to further the Gospel. Jesus is promising them that they need not worry what they should speak because what they need to speak will be given them at the very moment they need an answer. The disciples will be delivering a divine message and it would not be about them but about the Gospel message they are proclaiming.
 
Mat 10:20 (KJB)
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
 
The Holy Spirit who indwells every Christian will be with them at the time of their trials and He will be the one who will tell them what they should say. In all situations, the Holy Spirit will guide the believers. How many times do we read of martyrs who went to the stake singing and that is because the Holy Spirit has given them the joy of the Lord at the moment of their home going. (Neh 8:10 KJV) Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Just as the joy of the Lord was the strength of believers in the days of Nehemiah, the joy of the Lord is placed into every believer. (Gal 5:22 KJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and so is gentleness which means that an even tempered answer can be given by a Christian in any situation, good or bad and the Holy Spirit will guide that answer.
 
Mat 10:21 (KJB)
And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
 
The Lord Jesus is warning the disciples that the persecution will become so bad that it will even cause tremendous fear within families and that will cause family members to betray family members. This will no doubt be unbelieving members of a family betraying believing members of a family. This way of betrayal has happened repeatedly down through the ages under oppressive regimes. Do you remember the case of the blind man in John 9 when the parents of the man was questioned by the Pharisees? They would not even so much as defend their son instead they told the Pharisees to talk to their son. They were fearful they would be excommunicated from the temple and Jewish community. (John 9:21-22 KJV) But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. {22} These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. At the present there is a worldwide persecution of Christianity and not only in countries with dictatorships but also in so called “free” countries.” It will eventually get so bad that there will be betrayals of family members by other members of the same family.
 
Mat 10:22 (KJB)
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
 
Hated - Abhorred or detested
 
The words “be hated” in the Greek are in the present tense which means that that this general hatred of Christians is always present on earth. You can be of any religion in this world and talk about “Mother Earth,” migration of the soul, becoming god, witchcraft, etc., and that will find favor with the unsaved but the minute you mention the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in another way than a swear word, you will be ostracized and hated and persecuted. This world hates the Lord Jesus Christ because He represents the fact that there is coming a day of reckoning for the sins of man. World religions like New Age, Islam, Buddhism, etc. do not have a way of dealing with sins so they ignore it and teach deceptions like reincarnation, so a person feels good about dying and then coming back for a second chance to make it better. The reality is that true Christians will be hated by all the unbelievers in the world and that means both the non-religious unbelievers and the religious unbelievers. You may be tolerated by friends until the moment you mention the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or the Bible or Judgment Day, and then you will be out.
 
In the second half of this verse, Jesus gives a recognizable characteristic of a true Christian. When the persecution is turned up and they refuse to recant or betray true Christianity and Christians, this is evidence that a person is truly saved. A person enduring to the end is not a method of salvation but the fact that a Christian endures to the end is evidence that they have been truly saved. Look at how many martyrs went to the stake and stayed faithful unto the end of their life. When Hugh Latimer was martyred in 1555 with Nicholas Ridley, while on the stake he said to Ridley, “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” He did not ask for mercy nor did he recant but prayed that their martyrdom would light a candle that would never be put out. This is what is meant by enduring to the end.
 
Mat 10:23 (KJB)
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
 
Persecute - Pursue
 
If there was one event that was present in the Apostle Paul’s life, it was the fact that he was pursued by the Judaizers. The Judaizers which followed Paul from city to city had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and seek him out and to cancel out his teachings by implementing their requirements to keep the law for salvation. What Paul did in the temple had satisfied the Jewish believers but the unbelievers were not satisfied. The result was that these false teachers had seen Paul in the temple and then started to incite the mob and after the mob had become stirred up, they grabbed Paul right out of the temple. These Jews from Asia knew that Paul had escaped from their towns but knew they had him in a perfect place, where he could be tried before the Sanhedrin. (Acts 21) Jesus is telling them they need to be urgent about their mission and that if they suffer persecution in a city, then they were to leave that city and flee to another city and there conduct ministry.
 
The second part of this verse may have a dual understanding. Jesus is telling the disciples that if they continue ministering the Gospel in Israel and keep fleeing the persecution in the cities of Israel, they will not completely evangelize the nation of Israel till the Son of Man comes through General Titus in 70 A.D. and destroy the nation because of their unbelief and opposition to the Gospel. The second meaning may be focusing on the last day when the body of Christ continues to evangelize the world and will seem that they still have much more to do but in God’s plan, they will have finished reaching all the Elect that have been named before the foundation of the world. (Mat 24:44 KJV) Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. It may be related to the fact that Christians may think they still have work to do but it will have been finished and because of that, they did not expect the Lord to be back until they finished what they believed had to be done. In other words, God’s timing and the timing of the believers are different.
 
Mat 10:24 (KJB)
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
 
The disciples needed to know that if the people were going to persecute the Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord and Master, they will also persecute the disciples, or the followers. Some of the disciples may have followed Jesus with the notion that they were in for some high position in a kingdom. They did not count on the fact that there would suffering involved. Someday that kingdom would come to earth in its fullness but for now, they must realize that they will be persecuted and face opposition just as Jesus did. It is also a warning to all believers down through the ages that persecution will come in many forms and we are to expect it. Peter learned that rather well. (1 Pet 4:1 KJV) Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
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