THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW - Chapter 24 - Verse 10

Verse 10. Shall many be offended. See Barnes "Mt 5:29".

Many shall stumble, fall, apostatize, from a profession of religion. Many who professed to love me, shall then show that they had no real attachment to me; and in those trying times shall show that they knew nothing of genuine Christian love. See 1 Jo 2:19.

Shall betray one another. Those who thus apostatize from professed attachment to me shall betray others who really love me. This they would do to secure their own safety, by revealing the names, habitations, or places of concealment of others.

Shall hate one another. Not that real Christians would do this, but those who had professed to be such, would then show that they were not, and would hate one another. Luke adds, that they should be betrayed, "by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends." They would break over the most tender ties to surrender Christians to punishment. So great would be their hatred of Christianity, that it would overcome all the natural endearments of kindred and home. This, in the persecutions of Christians, has been often done; and nothing shows more fully the deep and deadly hatred of the human heart to the gospel.

{k} "offended" Mt 13:21