Mateo 5:12

12 Gozaos y alegraos; porque vuestra merced es grande en los cielos: que así persiguieron á los profetas que fueron antes de vosotros.

Mateo 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.

Mateo 5:12 In-Context

10 Bienaventurados los que padecen persecución por causa de la justicia: porque de ellos es el reino de los cielos.

11 Bienaventurados sois cuando os vituperaren y os persiguieren, y dijeren de vosotros todo mal por mi causa, mintiendo.

12 Gozaos y alegraos; porque vuestra merced es grande en los cielos: que así persiguieron á los profetas que fueron antes de vosotros.

13 Vosotros sois la sal de la tierra: y si la sal se desvaneciere ¿con qué será salada? no vale más para nada, sino para ser echada fuera y hollada de los hombres.

14 Vosotros sois la luz del mundo: una ciudad asentada sobre un monte no se puede esconder.