NOTES for Mat 10:23-31
Christ's words, foretelling imminent persecutions and encouraging believers, may at first glance call to mind the way adherents are "pumped up" in totalitarian sects: "We alone are right, and everyone else is foolish. Therefore they will beat us, but we will stand firm because we are right, and for this we will receive a reward. And we cannot be wrong, because that can never happen." Or something in the same spirit...
There is, however, one essential difference between what Jesus says and what people may say. It lies precisely in who is speaking, because only Christ's words are backed by genuine truth. Only God Himself can truly promise anything, because only His promises are unshakable.
Although our reward is invisible, our patience is all the more precious, for "if someone sees, why does he still hope?" (Rom 8:24). And if Christ says that nothing will happen to us apart from the will of our Father, then we can be sure it is so. For everyone understands, and many of us know from our own experience, that God truly cares for us: even if we are walking down the street and no brick falls on us, there is every reason to see in that a gift from God...