Matthew 5:12

12 Rejoice and be glad, because your reward [is] great in heaven, for in the [same] way they persecuted the prophets before you.

Matthew 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 5:12

Rejoice and be exceeding glad
Because of the honour put upon them, the glory they bring to Christ and his cause, by cheerfully suffering for it; and because of the glory and happiness that shall follow upon their sufferings:

for great is your reward in heaven;
not of debt, but of grace; for there is no proportion or comparison between what the saints suffer for Christ, and the glory that shall be revealed in them by him; not in earth, but in heaven. Saints must not expect their reward here, but hereafter, when God himself will be their reward; he will be all in all; Christ and all his glory, glory and all the riches of it will be the reward of the inheritance, and which must needs be a "great" one. And the more to animate them to suffer with joyfulness, and to support them under all their reproaches and persecutions, it is added;

for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you;
as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and others; which shows, that what should befall them was no new and strange thing, but what had been the lot of the most eminent servants of God in former ages.

Matthew 5:12 In-Context

10 Blessed [are] those who are persecuted because of righteousness, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute [you] and say all kinds of evil things against you, lying on account of me.

12 Rejoice and be glad, because your reward [is] great in heaven, for in the [same] way they persecuted the prophets before you.

13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, by what will it be made salty? It is good for nothing any longer except to be thrown outside [and] trampled under foot by people.

14 You are the light of the world. A city located on top of a hill cannot be hidden,