Matthew 10:11-23

“Whatever village or town you enter, search for an honorable man who will let you into his home until you leave for the next town. Once you enter a house, speak to the family there and say, ‘God’s blessing of peace be upon this house!’ And if those living there welcome you, let your peace come upon the house. But if you are rejected, that blessing of peace will come back upon you. And if anyone doesn’t listen to you and rejects your message, when you leave that house or town, shake the dust off your feet. Mark my words, on the day of judgment the wicked people who lived in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah will have a lesser degree of judgment than the city that rejects you, for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah did not have the opportunity that was given to them! Now, remember, it is I who sends you out, even though you feel vulnerable as lambs going into a pack of wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes yet as harmless as doves.” “Be on your guard! For there will be those who will betray you before their religious councils and brutally beat you with whips in their public gatherings. And because you follow me, they will take you to stand trial in front of rulers and even kings as an opportunity to testify of me before them and the unbelievers. So when they arrest you, don’t worry about how to speak or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will give you at that very moment the words to speak. It won’t be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. “A brother will betray his brother unto death—even a father his child! Children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death. Expect to be hated by all because of my name, but be faithful to the end and you will experience life and deliverance. And when they persecute you in one town, flee to another. But I promise you this: you will not deliver all the cities and towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.