11 And you too. Some people will not like you following me, and they will say bad things about you, and they will make trouble for you. Sometimes people will tell lies about you. But don’t worry. Be really happy when they do that.
11 Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous–with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of your outward conditions) are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely on My account.
If you only want to look after your own life here on earth, you will lose it. You will not live with me for ever. But if you are ready to give up your life here, then you will find real life, and you will live with me for ever.” (We have not yet translated 10:40-42. You can read some of those messages in Mark 8:34-35; 9:37, 41.)
You have to watch out. You see, you follow me, but some people don’t like me, so they will not like you. They will grab you and take you to their leaders, and they will punish you. And people will beat you up in their meeting houses. They will take you to court, so that you will stand up in front of big leaders and big government bosses. Then you can tell everyone about me.
But other people see them believing that word, and those other people make trouble for them, so they stop taking notice of God’s word. They soon turn their back and walk away from it.
If you only want to look after your own life here on earth, you will lose it. You will not live for ever with me. But if you are ready to give up your life here, and live my way, and tell other people the good news about me, then you will find real life, and you will live with me for ever.
It is like God says in his book, “Some people find out that we belong to God, and they kill us. They reckon we are weak like sheep and they can kill us whenever they want to.”
They see that we work for Jesus Christ, and lots of people think we are fools. But you mob reckon you are different from us. You reckon you are really smart because you know Jesus Christ. Yes, everyone thinks we are weak, but you reckon you are strong. You reckon everyone has to respect you, but you don’t care if they respect us or not.
You see, God lets you believe in Jesus Christ. But not only that, sometimes people make trouble for you because you believe in Jesus. God lets that happen too.
People rubbished him, but he didn’t rubbish them back. They hit him with whips, but he didn’t talk to them in a bad way. No, he trusted God. God is the one that judges fairly.
Maybe people are making fun of you because you follow Jesus. But don’t worry, it shows that God is happy with you, and that God’s spirit is with you. His spirit is great and has a lot of power.