Matthew 10:22

Ye shall be hated of all men— They who believed the testimony of the apostles, as multitudes did, could not but ardently love them, astheir fathers in Christ. See Galatians 4:15. This, therefore, is plainly one of those many scriptures, in which the universal term all is to be taken with great restrictions. Compare John 12:32.Philippians 2:21. There is a peculiar emphasis in the words for my name's sake in this place. The apostles and first Christians set themselves in opposition both to the Jewish and Pagan religions, declaring the nullity of the former, and urging the renunciation of the latter in all its forms, as matter of indispensable necessity. On the most tremendous penalties, they required every man, without exception, to believe in Christ, and to submit implicitly to his authority; a demand most galling to the pride of their princes, priests, and philosophers. Moreover, having a lively sense of the importance of the things which they preached, they urged them not in a coldand indifferent manner, but with the utmost fervency. Need it be matter of wonder then, that in every country such a furious storm of persecution arose against them, and the religion which they taught, and that they were treated as the filth and off-scourings of the earth? Our Saviour adds, But he that endureth, &c.; he who perseveres, who bears constantly, and with invincible patience, these persecutions. The original word υπομεινας denotes both patience and constancy. Jesus gave this encouragement to his disciples likewise, when he spoke to them of the sufferings that they were to meet with about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. See ch. Matthew 24:13. We may therefore believe that he had those sufferings also now in view.