Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 10:21

"And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child: and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death." — Matthew 10:21 (ASV)

And the brother shall deliver up the brother, etc. If there were no evidence that this had been done, it could scarcely be credible. The ties that bind brothers and sisters, and parents and children together are so strong, that it could scarcely be believed that division of belief on religious subjects would cause them to forget these tender relationships.

Yet history assures us that this has been done. If this is so, then how inexpressibly awful must be the malignity of the human heart by nature against religion! Nothing else but this dreadful opposition to God, and his gospel, ever has induced, or ever can induce people to violate the most tender relationships, and consign their best friends to torture, racks, and flames.

It adds to the horrors of this, that those who were put to death in persecution were tormented in the most awful ways that human ingenuity could devise. They were crucified; were thrown into boiling oil; were burned at the stake; were roasted slowly over coals; were compelled to drink melted lead; were torn in pieces by beasts of prey; were covered with pitch, and burned, to give light in the gardens of Nero.

Yet dreadful as this prediction was, it was fulfilled; and incredible as it seems, parents and children, and husbands and wives, were found wicked enough to deliver up each other to these cruel ways of death on account of their attachment to the gospel. Such is the opposition of the human heart to the gospel! That hostility that will overcome the strong ties of natural affection, and that will be satisfied with nothing else to show its power, can be no slight opposition to the gospel of God.