Matthäus 5:12

12 Seid fröhlich und getrost; es wird euch im Himmel wohl belohnt werden. Denn also haben sie verfolgt die Propheten, die vor euch gewesen sind.

Matthäus 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.

Matthäus 5:12 In-Context

10 Selig sind, die um Gerechtigkeit willen verfolgt werden; denn das Himmelreich ist ihr.

11 Selig seid ihr, wenn euch die Menschen um meinetwillen schmähen und verfolgen und reden allerlei Übles gegen euch, so sie daran lügen.

12 Seid fröhlich und getrost; es wird euch im Himmel wohl belohnt werden. Denn also haben sie verfolgt die Propheten, die vor euch gewesen sind.

13 Ihr seid das Salz der Erde. Wo nun das Salz dumm wird, womit soll man's salzen? Es ist hinfort zu nichts nütze, denn das man es hinausschütte und lasse es die Leute zertreten.

14 Ihr seid das Licht der Welt. Es kann die Stadt, die auf einem Berge liegt, nicht verborgen sein.