But brother shall deliver up brother to death, and father child; and children shall rise up against parents and shall put them to death;
Jesus has just promised His twelve disciples that the Spirit of their Father will speak in them when courts put them on trial. Now He warns that the betrayal will start at their own family table — so why does a message about the kingdom turn a brother into an executioner?
God formed these family ties at creation. This verse shows a hatred strong enough to break them.
Here we see clearly that this part of the chapter referred to the time when the Lord would be away. It would be the Spirit of their Father speaking in them. But the hatred of the human heart against the testimony of God would be shown by pushing men to break the ties that God had formed at the time of creation. The affections of the flesh, of the human heart, would be changed into positive hostility. The more intimate the relation, the more relentless its hatred. There are rights in these relationships; but now it would be the rights of hatred: brother would deliver brother to death.
People put up with almost anything. What they will not put up with is God revealed.
The revelation of God in the person of Christ, or in the preached word, awakens the enmity of the human heart. So long as God is not revealed, everything is tolerated; but when He is revealed, man's will rises up against His authority, and against the pressure which this revelation exerts on a conscience that is not at rest; and the closer the relations are, the greater is the hatred.
Betrayal like this does not create evil. It uncovers it.
"Brother will deliver brother over to death." It is Christ who brings out the true character of everyone. The tenderest ties of nature are set aside here in their hostility toward those true to Christ.
The wording is not new. The prophet Micah had already used it for the treachery he saw among his own people.
Then he describes in the most striking way the fearful breaking of all bonds and the treachery common among the Jews. "The son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house." It is a solemn thought that these are the words Jesus applies to the effect of His message of the kingdom. What an awful proof of man's evil! At the end, this state of things will bring God's final judgment on the Jews. Yet it is what the Lord tells the disciples to expect wherever this gospel is preached now.
One writer treats this passage as the key to the whole chapter, since it runs on to the coming of the Son of Man.
Our Lord now promises them the most bitter persecution: "You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes." These words are perhaps the most important in the whole chapter. They are a kind of key to the entire chapter.
On that reading, the verse has a particular future weight.
The same will no doubt be true in the tribulation period, and verse 21 will have special application to that time, when even close natural relationships will be ignored because of the intensity of hatred toward the name of Christ, the true Messiah — brothers betraying brothers, fathers their children, children their parents, to be put to death. How dreadfully abnormal! Yet this will be the exposure of what is the real character of the unbelieving heart of men.
Betrayal is not the whole picture. The Lord promises His servants power and care in the same breath.
The full character of their mission is gone into — persecution, death — but the Spirit of their Father speaking in them, and a care over them which counted the hairs of their head... The full power needed would be given every moment, but the testimony would draw out the passions of men in a way that would break through every natural tie. Relations of nature divinely formed would not resist the hatred of the human heart against the testimony of God.
- Testimony provokes. While God stays hidden, people tolerate anything. Once He is revealed in Christ or in the preached word, man's will rises against Him.
- Nearness sharpens it. The closer the relationship, the more relentless the hatred. The worst blows come from brother, parent, and child.
- Ties give way. God formed these bonds at creation, yet they do not hold against this hatred. Affection turns into open hostility.
- Micah supplies the words. The Lord takes the prophet's picture of family treachery and applies it to His own message of the kingdom.
- The end is in view. Commentators read the passage as running on to the coming of the Son of Man, with special force in the tribulation. Yet the same Lord who foretells the betrayal counts the hairs of their heads.
and ye shall be hated of all on account of my name. But he that has endured to [the] end, *he* shall be saved.
Jesus sends out His twelve closest followers to the towns of Israel. Before they go, He tells them what the message will cost them: hatred from everyone, betrayal by their own families, and a promise made not to those who start but to those who last.
The hatred falls on them because of the name they carry. One writer finds it strong enough to snap ties that God Himself formed.
The testimony would draw out the passions of men in a way that would break through every natural tie. Family ties that God Himself formed would not hold out against the hatred of the human heart toward the testimony of God. All men would hate them because of Christ's name. It is a strange feeling, and only the hatred of man's heart against God can explain it!
Closeness gives an enemy an advantage. Another writer points to what families know about each other.
At the same time He prepares them for the most heartless conduct toward them, even from relatives. A brother would know his brother's habits. A father would know all about his child, and the child would know all about the father. All of it would be turned against the servants of Christ.
The Greek word behind "endures" comes from a verb meaning "to sustain." It describes a patience that does not give way, and it has one perfect example.
hupomone (from hupomeno, "to sustain")… it is a "patient endurance" that does not give way under trial and suffering… Romans 15:5 traces it back to its divine source for us. Scripture never applies it to God directly, because nothing could ever test Him or press on Him. But the Lord Jesus, in the place He has taken as Man, is our perfect example in it, Hebrews 12:2-3. He "endured" the cross, and the hostility of sinners against Himself.
The words reach past the men standing in front of Him. One writer weighs how much of this chapter turns on them.
These words about enduring to the end, and about not finishing the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes, are perhaps the most important in the whole chapter. They are a key to the entire chapter.
What happened to that errand? It never ran its course.
The death of Christ cut the mission of the apostles short. They still carried it on for a while afterwards, but the destruction of Jerusalem ended it completely — for the time being, though not for ever. God then took up the calling of the Church. When the Lord has taken the Church out of the world to heaven, He will again raise up witnesses to the Messiah on earth, and the Jew will be converted.
Commentators differ on what "the end" marks. One writer places these words with a believing group in Israel in a future day, and reads the promise as rescue in a coming judgment.
Then follows a text which has troubled the peace of many a Christian, but which really belongs to the faithful few in Israel in a future day — "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." It refers to salvation when the Lord appears in judgment. Many will fall away under the delusions of that time. But when the Son of Man appears, His judgment will separate: of two in a field, one may be taken in judgment and the other spared, or "saved," to pass into eternal life on the earth under Him in the thousand years of His reign.
Another writer leaves the timing open, and puts the weight on continuing.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved. It does not matter what the end may be — a martyr's death, or the coming of Christ to the earth. As ever, the test of reality is continuance. There may indeed be failure, and even the love of many growing cold, but those that are real will endure. Peter broke down, but his faith did not fail; he continued to the end.
The Lord spoke this to disciples He was sending to Israel. Does that leave nothing here for us?
All these words had a special meaning for the Jewish disciples our Lord sent out. They also hold precious comfort and teaching for every true believer living today. It would be very one-sided to pass over these words of our Lord and treat them as holding no truth for us.
- Cause — The hatred is "for my name's sake." It aims at Christ through those who carry His name, and it breaks even family ties.
- Gift — Endurance is not raw willpower. The word means holding up under pressure. Scripture traces it back to a divine source, and Christ at the cross is the pattern.
- Reach — The promise outruns the first disciples. Christ's death, and then the fall of Jerusalem, cut their errand short. So the words still look forward.
- Result — Several writers read "saved" here as rescue when the Lord appears, not as eternal life made conditional. The verse has troubled many Christians without cause.
- Test — Continuing proves what was real. Peter broke down, yet his faith did not fail, and he kept going to the end.
But when they persecute you in this city, flee to the other; for verily I say to you, Ye shall not have completed the cities of Israel until the Son of man be come.
Jesus sends the twelve to Israel's towns and tells them to move on when a town turns hostile. Then He adds a promise that has puzzled readers ever since: their work will still be unfinished when the Son of Man comes.
One writer traces this mission from its narrow start to its sudden break.
It is plain that the Lord, in this chapter, sends the twelve on a mission that is specifically Jewish. "Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Then He warns them of the persecutions and betrayals they were to expect. He tells them to flee from one town to another: "For truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through (or finished) all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes." That is, their mission would be broken off before it was complete — broken off by the coming of their Master... So the original Jewish mission was interrupted, and what has been well named "the Gentile parenthesis" came in. When that is over, the Lord will, I have no doubt, raise up servants at a future day to take up the word and work now left aside. Before they have finished announcing the coming kingdom through all the towns of Israel, the Son of Man will come.
Kelly's "or finished" points to a job left half-done, not just a journey left half-travelled.
The plainest reason for looking beyond the twelve is the record itself.
This had no fulfilment in His lifetime. While He was here with them, the disciples were not persecuted in any town in the way that chapter describes. Yet they were part of the remnant of their own day. Seen in that light, He could rightly speak to them as representatives of His servants among the Jews in the future.
One writer answers that the work only paused.
The explanation is that this testimony to the nearness of the kingdom has been suspended, and will be resumed at the time of the end. The disciples stand as representative men. What He said applied to them at that moment, and it will apply to others in a similar position at the end of the age. The kingdom was rejected when it was presented at that moment in Christ in person, and so the testimony was withdrawn. It will be resumed when the gathering out of the church is complete, and it will barely reach its finish when the Son of Man comes to receive and establish the kingdom, as Daniel 7 had predicted.
Read this way, the verse fixes the timing of a future testimony.
Preachers will bring this message to the towns of Judah, and they will be in the middle of their work when the King comes... These are the ones who stand for the testimony of Jesus in the middle of suffering beyond anything known before.
One writer uses this command to settle a practical question: may a servant of God flee danger?
Everyone knows that it is easy to be a martyr in theory, and that those who are martyrs in theory are seldom so in practice... Faith never teaches anyone to court danger and difficulty, but to walk the path of Christ in peace and thankfulness... I dare say some of us have been struck by this: the Lord told them to flee to another town when they were persecuted in one. That is not courting martyrdom at all, but the very opposite.
Another writer sees Paul acting on the same principle when a riot drove him out of Thessalonica:
Paul's service in Thessalonica was cut short by this riot, for he served in the spirit of the Lord's instruction recorded in Matthew 10:23. So they moved on to Berea.
Assigning the verse to a future day does not empty it for readers now.
These words had a special meaning for the Jewish disciples our Lord sent out. They also hold precious comfort and instruction for every true believer living today. Every word which our God and Father has been pleased to give us has a meaning for us.
- Sent — the twelve go only to Israel's towns with a message about the kingdom, and He warns them of persecution before they set out.
- Unfinished — "gone through" also carries the sense of finished; the errand will still be incomplete when the King arrives.
- Suspended — nothing in the Lord's lifetime matched the warning. His rejection cut the testimony short; it did not end it.
- Resumed — later servants will take up the same work, and the disciples stand as their representatives.
- Interrupted again — the coming of the Son of Man, not failure or success, will stop the preaching. Until then, "flee to the next town" is the Lord's own permission to escape danger instead of chasing it.