Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Mark 13:12 - 13:13
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Dissension within families:
v. 12. Now the brother shall betray the brother to death and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
v. 13. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
There is no hatred so unrelenting and implacable as that caused by enmity against Christ. It destroys the firmest friendships, it severs the ties of the closest blood-relationship. Brothers, fathers, children will not only stand by unmoved and see their nearest of kin suffer for the sake of their religious, Christian conviction, but they will become inhuman enough to cause these sufferings, to deliver them into the hands of the authorities and cause them to be put to death. History has scores of examples, from the time of the apostles down through the time of the Inquisition, to the present day. It is an ineradicable characteristic of the world and its children that they hate the truth of the Gospel, even at such times when they speak of toleration and of the value of the Christian spirit for the community. But mark two factors that make such persecutions not only endurable, but under circumstances welcome: They come upon the believers for the sake of the Lord's name, and it is an honor to suffer for Him, on His account; they have a glorious promise: He that endures, patiently suffers, to the end, the same shall be saved. A reward of mercy will come upon him from the boundless treasure of his Lord, salvation will be given him with endless rejoicing in heaven.