Mat 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
Mat 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

Alternative: Then they will give you up to be pressured and killed and you shall be hated by all foreigners for my names sake. And then many will be tripped up and shall give up one another and hate one another.

In these verses, Christ continues his portrait of the world and its purpose. In the previous verses, Christ said that this world must always have wars and natural disasters but that these are but birth pains. This raises the question: what is being born?

I find myself thinking back to one of Christ's first parables, that of the sower and the seeds, where the sower spreads the seeds and they take root. As those seeds spring up, they find a hostile environment. That is what Christ's talks about here. He tells us what happens to his followers. Society persecutes them, pressures them, and hates them. Many of those who start out in Christ's name fall away, turning on each other. These are the seeds springing up and failing to grow.

Christ is saying that the stuggle isn't easy and wasn't meant to be easy. Life is not intended to be easy.

As early as Mat 10:22 Christ said that everyone will hate his followers. And in Mat 13:21 he said that others will pressure and seek to trip them up.




"Deliver" and "betray" are both from paradidômi, which means literally "to give from" and is used to mean "to hand over," "to transmit," "to grant," "to bestow," "to deliver up," and "to surrender."

"Afflicted" is from thlipsis, which means "pressure," "crushing," and "oppression."

"Hate" and "hated" are both from miseô, which means "to hate."

"Offended" is from skandalizô, which means "to cause to stumble," "to give offense," and "to scandalize."