Luke 6:23

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples during the Sermon on the Plain, immediately after listing the persecutions they will face for his name. He speaks to them at the moment of anticipated social rejection and public insult.

The words — The text commands charēte (do rejoice) and skirtāte (leap for joy) ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ (in that day). These imperatives frame the response to persecution as active, physical exuberance rather than quiet endurance.

The thread — The promise mirrors Matthew 5:12’s identical reward structure and historical parallel to persecuted prophets. It aligns with Acts 5:41, where believers rejoice in disgrace, and Revelation 21:7, which ties overcoming to divine inheritance.

Why it lands — The verse requires readers to treat present hostility as a continuity of historical pattern rather than a personal anomaly. It demands a deliberate shift in emotional response by fixing attention on a future heavenly recompense.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Cross-references

Acts 5:41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
Revelation 21:7 The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
Revelation 3:5 Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels.
Revelation 3:12 The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.
2 Chronicles 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
Acts 3:8 He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God.
Revelation 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.